The Nimbin Bakery changed hands last Friday for the first time in 13 years as Darren Butcher passed the keys to Tiara and Clinton McKenna.

The Butchers don't need any introduction in the Lismore LGA and especially Nimbin, as they are fifth generation with Darren's great grandfather Charles Stewart starting a large dairy farm. Darren grew up on a dairy farm after his parents bought his grandparents' farm on Angus Road when he was six years old but never went into the industry himself.

A member of the Butcher family has been in the baking business in Nimbin since 1973 with only one five-year gap starting with Bill before Steven (Darren's brother) started his apprenticeship and then opened a second bakery, Nimbin Hot Bread Kitchen which was sold to Darren's brother-in-law, closed down for three months until Darren took it over in March 2011.

The new owners are Tammy, Tiarra and Clinton.

(Clinton, Tiarra and Tammy behind the counter of their new business. Photo: Darren Butcher)

Tammy is a born & bred Nimbinite, attending Nimbin Central School," Darren told the Lismore App, "She has most recently been working in North Queensland and is returning to Nimbin to help her daughter and son-in-law with the business and be closer to her mother Merle McWhirter. She is excited to be back in Nimbin."

"Tiarra also attended school in the Nimbin district for a period. She worked for me for a few years previously at the bakery but left in 2020 not long after marrying Clinton to pursue a career in caring for disadvantaged children. Clinton worked for Woolworths for many years ending up in the bakery section."

"Both were looking for a career change and an opportunity to work for themselves, so the Nimbin Bakery seemed just the perfect opportunity to pursue. Tiarra loves the customer interaction, making coffee and nice food and Clinton is looking forward to further enhancing his baking skills with the existing bakers."

For Darren, it's not easy to let go after 13 years of building a business that serves the Nimbin community.

"It's been extremely hard but as it got closer I'm happy to let go, my time is done. The chook is cooked."

To understand that, you need to appreciate the life of a baker. Darren would get up between 11pm and 4am depending on what was on and what staff were available to start his day and often would not get back to his Goonellabah home until mid-afternoon before doing it all again.

"I was always an early riser, but as my age gets greater, it's become harder to do. So, as my doctor said, you've got to train yourself to sleep more than four and a half hours. I said I'll try."

That has been Darren's longest continuous sleep pattern for the last 13 years then you can throw in a few power naps of an afternoon.

Darren is staying on for a couple of weeks to ensure a smooth transition for Tiara, Clinton and Tani and to help them succeed but then what?

"No plans," Darren says with a smile, "Maybe it's a bit of a break and then just something something casual for a little bit."

When asked about his proudest moments in the last 13 years as owner of the Nimbin Bakery, Darren talked about the 2017 floods and the 2019 bushfires.

"2017 was a fair flood as well, a lot of the businesses were inundated. So, we did a lot of community work plus we supplied a lot of businesses after that."

"Most importantly, I've always made sure that Nimbin was always looked after because if the roads get cut off I would always make sure there was a supply. Except in '22 when I got caught in here (Lismore) because all forecasts said that I should have been able to get to Nimbin. I spent the time helping everyone else because my business was ok."

(Darren doing what he has done for the last 13 years, baking delicious products for the Nimbin community)

"This is a good story because one of my bakers lived at Tuntable Creek near one of the big landslips. I was stuck in here and the community was out of supplies big time. As the roads were cut, he actually walked around the landslip to get on the other side and walked to town, a 10km trip. He said I'll go down and start the ovens up because we had ingredients there and he went down and baked."

"And then the fires were a big thing. The bushfires in '19 because Nimbin was hit pretty hard. So again, I based myself out there and we were sending stacks of food to the RFS volunteers before they set up the emergency centre. A lot of my customers and good friends were in the RFS, so I just made sure that they were all fed and watered. My staff volunteered their time as well."

As Darren Butcher's life takes a turn in the road another begins for Tammy, Tiarra and Clinton. Get into the bakery, make them welcome and help them be another success story.