Pyney’s 🥧 Reviews
Heinamman’s Country Bakery
(Charleville QLD)
June, 2026
Our stay at Charlotte Plains was absolutely wonderful and it was sad to say goodbye to our traveling companions. They headed east, and we made our way further north to my birth town Charleville.
Charleville is situated on the Warrego River, roughly 750 km west of Brisbane. Known as the hub of South West Queensland, it is famous for its stargazing at the Cosmos Centre, the Charleville Bilby Experience, and its classified World War II history. It’s also extremely well known for its 🥧’s and the bakery behind those 🥧’s is Heinemann’s Country Bakery located in the centre of town.
This bakery was also where I had my first 🥧 experience back in 1982 and where I found my love for 🇦🇺’s famous delicacy. The best part about this story is the bakery is still owned and operated by the Heinamman family. Laurie or better know as “Chinga” started the then named “Continental Bakery” in the early 1980s with his wife Donna. They closed that bakery in the early 1990’s and then eventually reopened a new bakery right around the corner in around 1997.
There son David completed his apprenticeship in the early 2000’s and these days Chinga and Donna have retired handing the baking baton to David and his wife Yuliia. The bakery now employees over 26 staff and is open seven days a week with their products wholsaled all around the area. The products in the cabinets looked absolutely spectacular, but I have my eyes on the 🥧’s and it was time to get started and choose a 🥧 to review.
There is a fantastic selection of 🥧’s here on the menu that will suit just about everyone. My choice was simple, I wanted to try the same flavoured 🥧 I tried 44 years ago as a little boy. I was assured the recipe hadn’t changed since then and i was super excited to get started.
🥧 THE REVIEW 🥧
1. Value for Money – $7.20 was very reasonably priced and pretty much the normal price for 🥧’s I have sampled on this current western QLD tour. It was a decent size 🥧 in depth and diameter and totally full, which was a bonus. 8.5/10
2. Meat/Fill Ratio – Zero complaints about the fill ratio, this 🥧 it was totally full and jammed packed. Easy score to adjudicate 10/10
3. Flavour – The flavor was really nice and from memory it hadn’t changed one bit since my first 🥧 experience here back in the early 1980’s. The slow cooked diced beef was beautiful and the dark grazy sauce was the perfect combination. The beef was grounded down, but the chunks were clearly evident. Nothing fancy or flash just a really good chunky flavoured 🥧. 8/10
4. Pastry – The top of the 🥧 had a really nice color to it, the shape was also pretty good and shrinkage was at a minimum. There was nice thin layers of pastry on the top bake, but it was still ever so lightly underdone. The bottom bake was more than acceptable, it was baked right through and maybe just a little thick, but this would be nitpicking. Overall, the pastry had nice flavour and texture, and in my opinion only a few minor improvements are needed. 8/10
5. Serving Temperature – Perfect serving temp 10/10
Overall Rating
🥧🥧 44.5/50 🥧🥧
As the 5 score categories show, this was a very consistent 🥧 and a product i would easily have again. For a little country town that pumps out a huge volume of 🥧’s to get the consistency right is very hard. David and his team have done a wonderful job with this product. From the price, to the fill ratio, the flavour, the pastry and the temperature everything was there abouts. The flavour was just as good, as what I can remember all those years ago. Chunky steak is still up there with one of my favourite flavours and this product didn’t disappoint. Well done team terrific job.
To David and Yuliia a very special thank you for having me in and taking the time out of your extremely busy schedule to see me. As mentioned earlier, this was a very special review for me and bought back so many childhood memories. This incredible 🥧 journey started many many years ago with Chinga and Donna and now this journey continues stronger than ever with David and Yuliia. This is one very busy bakery and David and Yuliia are doing a unbelievable job. The logistics and cost of getting staff, stock and other essential items to these remote country town bakeries is very difficult. These country areas have done it very tough but yet these owners roll up their leaves up and provide awesome products for locals and passing tourists. The Heinamman name is iconic in this country town and it was a pleasure sharing there journey.
Charleville is a fantastic country town and a must visit. Yes this was my birth place and I might be a little biased, but the place offers so much to see do. The locals are super friendly and inviting and the small businesses of Charleville would 100% appreciate your support. We stayed at the CMCA RV PARK Bush camp close to town and it was fabulous. Extremely well priced and the caretakers were lovely people.
As always thanks for the ongoing support and keep supporting 🇦🇺 bakeries and don’t forget to invite all your friends to the page.
