It was the first bakery he ever saw for sale, and he's been working two shifts a day there for most of his life since.

One of the bakers working alongside Mr McIntyre has been with the business just as long. Others have been at the Eaglehawk Bakery 20 years.

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One baker served Mr McIntyre and his wife the morning they came to check out the business.

"We parked our car over there... a little yellow Corolla," he says, gesturing beyond one of the Eaglehawk Bakery's windows.

"Walked across the road and went to the bakery - the hot bake, then - and bought a loaf of bread."

The couple bought the bakery in 1984, and within about a year they bought a block of land.

The McIntyres built a shop that looked as though it might always have been part of Eaglehawk's High Street. It has been their primary place of business for 30 years.

The building wasn't the only perfect fit.

"Moving from Charlton to here was just like we didn't even really move," Mr McIntyre says.

"It's a country type of atmosphere out here, same as it was in Charlton."

It's a great community, Eaglehawk.

"You wouldn't get a better one," Mr McIntyre says.

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Some of the people he recognises coming through the bakery's doors have been customers for years.

"You might never know what their name is, but I just recognise them from back then and they're still coming in now. That's enjoyable," Mr McIntyre said.

Then there are the regulars - mostly pensioners - who can usually be found seated in the Mulga Bill room, enjoying their days and bantering with the staff.

Mr McIntyre muses, more than once, on the tables and chairs packed away in a room that would usually be nearing capacity.

Customers are still supporting the bakery, but it's all takeaway, in line with restrictions.

Mr McIntyre says business has taken a knock through COVID-19.

But he says: "We'll get by and we'll come out the other end alright, I think."

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One of the things he's noticed since the pandemic is a shift in his customers' buying habits.

"It's funny, when COVID hit they really went back 20 years, I reckon," Mr McIntyre says.

"They wanted the old-fashioned things. Swiss roll lamingtons, block bread, apple pies, and all that sort of stuff."

Instead of gourmet pies, people have been hankering for the plain ones.

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Mr McIntyre has been a baker more than 40 years.

He studied at William Angliss and started an apprenticeship in Charlton.

He credits a job slicing bread for a local bakery in Charlton in the mornings before school with getting his foot in the door.

Some things have changed, but Mr McIntyre's routine is largely the same. He starts work when most are sleeping, finishes his first shift as people get to business, and clocks on for a second time when the end of the working day is in sight for many.

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