Arnotts lid
©2018 Arnott’s Biscuits Limited

George Street, Homebush towards Parramatta Road, Arnotts produced their famous biscuits from 1907.

In 1865, a small bakery opened on Hunter St in Newcastle, NSW, north of Sydney. It supplied bread, pies and biscuits to the local people and to the crews of the many ships that docked at the port to load coal. From these humble beginnings rose a company whose name is now synonymous with Australia’s favourite biscuits.

With demand outstripped its production capacity, Arnott’s began looking for a site for a new factory and in 1906 broke ground on a six-and-one-half-acre plot in the Homebush section of Sydney. Once considered a remote location, the Homebush area later became one of the central points of the city of Sydney, in part because of Arnott’s growing presence there.

The Arnott’s factory was relocated to Huntingwood in 1997 and the Homebush factory was closed. The former factory has been readapted into the Bakehouse Quarter. This site provides many references to its Arnott’s history ranging from the SAO sign to small Arnott’s Parrot emblems woven into building facades. George St has been recast with a cobblestone road and Edwardian style-lighting harking back to the days in the early twentieth century when the Arnott factory was first built.

One Comment

Ben Johnston

I’m a local resident and I see the SAO sign each day. I can see that there isn’t any maintenance work done to it and I’m concerned that it may get to a stage that it is beyond repair. Do you know if it is the responsibility of the Bakehouse Quarter management to maintain the structure. As for the neon sign, I’ve never seen it operating. Has restoration of that ever been considered?