In 2006 Jim Arrowsmith and Pete Tonge, both from Chorley in Lancashire, were backpacking around Australia, but couldn’t find a decent pork pie, ‘for love nor money’ so decided to make them themselves, and so the business was born.
Jim was fresh from university but also had some pig farming experience, Pete was a British Trained chef, disillusioned with the chef trade, but with a real love of food. They thought they had all the experience to make a real go of it.
They built their first factory on a pig farm named Pacdon Park in Bunnaloo, rural NSW. Converting a derelict dairy shed into a commercial kitchen, tiling for a month, building their own stainless steel benches and pork pie machine. Located 50km from the nearest town, backpackers became their budding workforce, and that’s where the third leg of tripod joined the team. Jane, now Jim’s wife, grew up a stone’s throw from the boys in Lancashire, England, but a chance meeting brought her into the mix.
These days Pacdon Park has relocated to the banks of the Mighty Murray River near the twin towns of Echuca (Victoria) Moama (NSW). Our ethos is still the same as when we started, to ‘make what we miss’. We use the finest local Australian ingredients, Free Range Pork and time and tested traditional recipes to produce magnificent British Foods.
We now sell across Australia, from our wee Factory door in Moama, to cafes, supermarkets and quality butchers from Hobart to Cairns.
