In Australia and New Zealand, a meat pie is a hand-sized pie containing diced or minced meat and gravy, sometimes with onion, mushrooms, or cheese and is often consumed as a takeaway food snack.
This variant of the standard meat pie is considered iconic. It was described by New South Wales Premier Bob Carr in 2003 as Australia's "national dish". New Zealanders regard the meat pie as a part of New Zealand cuisine, and it forms part of the New Zealand national identity.
Commercial production
According to a 2003 study, the average Australian eats more than 12 meat pies each a year. According to a 2004 study, the average New Zealander eats 15 meat pies a year.
Manufacturers of pies in Australia tend to be state-based, reflecting the long distances involved with interstate transport and lack of refrigeration capabilities in the early years of pie production. Many pies sold ready-to-eat at smaller outlets are sold unbranded and may be locally produced, produced by a brand-name vendor, or even imported, frozen pies heated prior to serving.
An Australian meat pie, first produced in 1947, by L. T. McClure in a small bakery in Bendigo, became the well-known Four'n Twenty pie. Due to its association with Australian rules football, Four'n Twenty has iconic status in Victoria. Other manufacturers well predate this brand.
Sargents—once the dominant meat pie brand of New South Wales, but not made since 2022—could trace its pie making back to 1891.
In South Australia, Balfours have been making pies for over a century, but Vili's began in the post-war era. Both of these pie makers supply pies to various venues hosting Australian rules football games.
Produced in Western Australia, Mrs Mac's Pies are sold nationwide, found mostly in service stations and corner stores, competing with other brands in the contested takeaway hotbox market on the basis of quality and fillings other than the normal fare.
In Victoria, some of the well known and famous pie makers include the makers of two of Australia's most famous pies - Four'n Twenty and Patties - both manufactured by Patties Foods in Bairnsdale.
In Tasmania, the main manufacturer of pies is National Pies. National Pies make typical beef mince pies, as well as "Cottage Pies", which are topped with mashed potato. National Pies' mince pies are rectangular in shape, as opposed to most other brands, which are round.
'Railway pies' once served on country trains and at refreshment rooms of the NSWGR, achieved a reputation for their high meat content and flavour.
Australian meat pies were introduced into the United States in 1994 by Mark Allen, of Boort, Victoria, when he and his wife, Wendy, began operation of Pacific Products, Inc. in Marietta, Georgia. Pacific Products was a wholesale only business, selling their pies to chain retailers throughout the United States. Although Pacific Products is no longer in business, Allen and his partner Neville Steele opened the Australian Bakery Cafe in Marietta, a retail bakery which also ships its products throughout the USA.
Big Ben Pies have been making pies since 1969 in Auckland, New Zealand and sells 13 million pies per year.
In 1977, during the time that American fast food restaurants moved into New Zealand, Progressive Enterprises created Georgie Pie, a fast food restaurant with a menu based on meat pies. The pies were batch made and frozen at Progressive's Māngere plant. The first Georgie Pie restaurant opened in Kelston, Auckland, and at its peak in the mid-1990s had become a chain of 32 restaurants across New Zealand. However, after a major expansion, Georgie Pie became uneconomic to run and was eventually sold to McDonald's New Zealand in 1996. The last restaurant at Mission Bay, Auckland, closed in 1998. In June 2013, McDonald's started a trial relaunch of Georgie Pie, selling one flavour of pie (Steak Mince 'n' Cheese) through eleven of its restaurants in Auckland and Hamilton.
Meat pies are made in numerous neighbourhood bakery shops in Australia and New Zealand. In recent decades, Vietnamese immigrants, often arriving as refugees, have come to play a very significant role in the local bakery small business sector, helping to arrest the decline in small-scale local meat pie production.