Our Story
The antecedents of PKF in Australia go back to Wilson Bishop & Henderson, which was founded in Melbourne in the 1890s. Over the years, this firm developed a national practice with offices in Melbourne, Adelaide, Alice Springs, Brisbane and Darwin. In 1968 the firm, then known as Wilson Bishop Bowes & Craig, became one of four founding members of the International Association of Pannell Kerr Forster.
On 1 January 1980, the firm merged with a Sydney and a Perth firm and together they formed the national accounting firm Pannell Kerr Forster. It was the first member firm of the International Association to take, as its sole name, the name of the Association.
In 1991, Sydney firm Bowie Wilson Miles joined the Pannell Kerr Forster partnership. From 1994 each Australian office became legally independent and PKF in Australia now operates as a national association of firms.
During the 1990s Pannell Kerr Forster was joined by firms based in Adelaide, the Gold Coast and Mount Barker. In January 2000 the name Pannell Kerr Forster was replaced by PKF, and since then the association has been joined by firms from Canberra and Tasmania.
In 2007 and 2008 the Brisbane, Melbourne and New South Wales firms merged to form one East Coast Practice, which left PKF Australia in 2012. In 2011 Perth-based firm Mack & Co joined the PKF network.
In March 2014, five Lawler Alliance firms (in eight locations) joined four existing PKF firms to represent PKF in Australia. In a relatively short period of time, The Lawler Alliance had emerged as a top-20 accounting and advisory group in Australia, winning a number of national awards for client service excellence.
Click here for more history on the Lawler Alliance.