On Canberra's hottest March day on record, staff at Pialligo Estate stepped out from the chill of a Fyshwick butcher with 62 kilograms of lamb shoulders and beef cheeks.
Two days later, on a Tuesday, a Queanbeyan truck company drove through black gates to deliver sausages to the sprawling estate.
Forty kilograms of dried pasta made its way from Braidwood to the hospitality venue in Canberra's east on the Thursday.
All the while, Pialligo's event planners were preparing for the weekend's weddings, discussing last-minute details with nervous brides and grooms.
Little did any of them know the glamorous estate was on the brink of collapse.
The first many suppliers heard of financial strife was when The Canberra Times broke the news on Friday.
Merchants of the various arms of the hospitality venue now say Pialligo were "slow payers".
But three months on, they are still shocked to learn Pialligo Estate Operations owes $10.6 million to nearly 600 creditors.
Meanwhile, there were indications the business was insolvent from as early as 2018, a creditor's report from liquidators RSM Australia shows.
The small businesses are unlikely to get a cent of the thousands Pialligo owes them, and with the cost of living biting at the heels, the loss still hurts.
'We've only just got through COVID'
Pialligo Estate has not paid a LongPark Meat Co bill since July 2022, co-owner Brett Palmer says.
When staff were gathering provisions at the meatshop that Sunday night, Pialligo Smokehouse already owed the business $6634.
The smokehouse is one of many companies under what the liquidators call the Pialligo Estate Group. Within this group are Pialligo Estate Operations and Pialligo Estate Markets, both of which are under liquidation.
LongPark supplied the estate with meat four times in March, invoices showing all orders were worth more than $1000.
Pialligo Estate Operations still owes the company $4411, liquidators say.
"It is a lot of money," Mr Palmer says.
"Talking to a lot of small businesses, it doesn't take much to close the doors and we've only just got through COVID."
LongPark co-owner Andrea Palmer says she constantly chased Pialligo for payments, but they never returned her calls.
Yet Mr Palmer was under the impression the business was booming.
"I'd been hearing they were going great guns ... I was sort of oblivious," he says.
"Because we were only there for a short time, there was no pattern set up and it was already too late for us."
He doesn't blame staff for the collapse or taking meat the week before Pialligo closed.
"There's no way they would have done that if they knew, but you feel sorry for them. They're all feeling pretty bad about the whole thing," Mr Palmer says.
Smaller businesses 'burnt'
Peter Gowland says he worked with Pialligo for many years, providing refrigerated transport and supplying meat wholesale.
His company, Priam Australia, delivered sausages to Pialligo Estate the Tuesday before it closed.
He had four accounts with the group. Pialligo owes Priam Australia $8416, liquidators say.
"We had issues chasing money all the time, so there's always been a problem," Mr Gowland says.
"I blame myself for not being on top of it hard enough beforehand, because the writing was there, but we let it go. We should have been much harder in chasing that money earlier before they went."
While big players like the tax office have lost millions, Mr Gowland says losing even a little bit of money can bust a small business.
"There are some people who played with [Pialligo] who are smaller, and they could get burnt, it could hurt them," he says.
'Never see a cent'
As far as Timothy Wimborne was aware, the new production side of Pialligo was booming.
His business, Braidwood Food Company, supplied dried pasta, which Pialligo told him went into about 1500 ready-to-heat meals a week.
The meals were sold to high-end retailers.
Mr Wimborne says he found out the estate was closing down on Friday morning - a day after delivering $600 worth of goods.
"I'm just resolved that we're never going to see a cent," he says.
Like many creditors, Mr Wimborne supplied to different companies within the Pialligo Estate Group.
Invoices show Pialligo Estate Production owed the business $1450, with the first payment due on April 6.
Pialligo Market Grocer also owes the business $450 from two deliveries due last February.
"Looks like they've been in a bit of financial stress for a while, so it seems a bit irresponsible to initiate a new business venture," Mr Wimborne says.
"If you have a business that closes down having paid, that's fair enough.
"I don't have all the details yet, but if you go bust and leave $10.6 million owing behind you, you've got some pretty poor business practices in place."
Who is owed money?
There are 575 creditors (a person or organisation owed money).
More than 200 employees have been underpaid more than $1 million, liquidators say.
Other creditors - including suppliers and government agencies - are owed more than $7 million.
That includes the Australian Tax Office, which Pialligo owes more than $4 million.
Some of the creditors owed money
- Australian Tax Office - $4.1 million
- Unknown private company registered in the ACT - $1.6 million
- ACT Revenue - $754,000
- Small to medium business loan company - $426,000
- Financial and lending company - $147,000
- Pork farm - $146,000
- ActewAGL - $83,000
- Linen hire business - $43,000
- Food service distributer - $42,000
- Fresh produce provider - $41,000
- Printing company - $34,000
- Wine importer - $33,000
- Canberra-based commercial law firm - $29,000
- Law firm - $28,000
- Electrical contractor - $28,000
- Security and cleaning company - $21,000
- Alcohol company - $20,000
- Electricity and gas supplier - $20,000
- Canberra region winemaker - $18,000
- Game farm - $18,000
- Icon Water - $14,500
- Canberra-based fishmonger - $14,000
- Canberra-based beer company - $12,000
- Canberra-based hotel - $11,000
- Access Canberra - $10,000
- Meat supplier - $10,000
- Department of Treasury - $5000
- Department of Defence - $3000
- Canberra-based chocolate company - $2000
- Institute of Public Affairs - $2000
- Department of Veteran's Affairs - $1500
- Source: Statutory report by liquidator RSM Australia to creditors of Pialligo Estate Operations
Could businesses get any money back?
In their report, liquidators say they cannot afford to continue investigating Pialligo Estate Operations.
This is because the company, which has one bank account in debit of more than $8000, does not have enough assets which can be liquidated and pay for further investigations.
ASIC could decide to pursue owner John Russell directly, but he would need to have enough personal funds to pay off creditors.
Do you know more?
We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on The Canberra Times website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. See our moderation policy here.
