Ford's history in Australia

Although at least one Ford arrived in Australia in 1904, just a year after the formation of the Ford Motor Company, the local story of Ford began in earnest in October 1909 when R.J. Durance and his wife Ivy came from Canada to Port Melbourne to open an Australian branch.

They brought fully assembled Fords in and demonstrated them to the towns of the Australian bush with great effectiveness. Durance asserted: "Ford agencies were appointed anywhere smoke came out of a chimney".

However, Ford distributors were gouging their own sub-dealers as well as customers and in 1923 Ford Canada sent executives Hubert French and Mel Brooks across to investigate.

On December 23, French wrote recommending the establishment of manufacturing plant in Tasmania but later settled on Geelong. By the time French was ready to leave Australia, General Motors’ local boss Ed Riley had pegged the price of a Chevrolet at £235, almost £100 more than a Ford.

French returned in early 1925 as managing director, acquired a disused wool shed in Geelong and the first Model T came off the makeshift assembly line on July 25. Similar arrangements applied in Sydney (ex-freezing works) and Hobart (ex-brewery).

A total of 12,679 cars and trucks were assembled in 1925. The following year saw plants in Adelaide and Brisbane built.

But despite these developments, Ford’s market share fell from 69 per cent in January 1925 to 34.7 by year’s end, reflecting not just the demise of the corrupt old distribution system but the outdatedness of the ‘T’.

The desperately needed ‘New Job’ Model A was announced on May 26, 1927 and Australian production began 14 months later.

Between 1928 and 1932, 32,387 Model A Fords were made but the best market penetration was about 20 per cent in the first year compared with 34 per cent for GM. In 1930 assembly had begun in a warehouse in Fremantle. But the Great Depression began to hit hard.

On August 25, 1932 the Ford V8 was launched in Australia and the following July also saw the introduction of the economical 8hp (RAC) English Model Y.

During 1933, a Geelong woman famously wrote to Ford wondering why the company couldn’t produce a vehicle that would take her husband and herself to church on Sunday and the pigs to the market on Monday. Designer Lew Bandt drew the world’s first coupe utility and it went into production in 1934.

Local engineering capacity proceeded apace and in 1935 the old turret roof was replaced by a one-piece steel panel. Unique local bodies were produced including the 1938 two-door V8 coupe.

In 1936 Ford opened an assembly plant in Homebush.

Ford Australia’s contribution to the war effort was formidable. By 1939 truck payloads were up to 4.5 tons and a 4WD truck was put into production. Ford built a huge array of road vehicles including tractors. It built sea-going vessels – landing craft (up to 106 feet long), cargo boats, workboats.

There were winches and water tanks. In late 1943, working in 12-hour shifts over 12 days, Ford engineers produced belly tanks of up to 250 litres capacity for New Guinea-based P47 Thunderbolt aircraft. These gave the fighter planes the needed additional range to shoot down 200 Japanese planes in one raid. Aircraft engines were reconditioned.

GM Holden, too, played a pivotal role. An uneasy peace brought fears of a new war, which turned out to be the ‘Cold War’. In 1945-1946 the government was determined that Australia should achieve industrial self-sufficiency; full local manufacture of cars was deemed indispensable. Secondary benefits were employment and increased personal mobility.

But GM-H outmanoeuvred Ford Australia to launch the Holden 48-215 on November 29, 1948. Hubert French himself acknowledged that the Ford proposal – essentially to manufacture a US-style V8 sedan of pre-war type – ‘lacks the spectacular’.

The spectacular arrived in September 1960 when locally manufactured XK Falcons quickly fell foul of Australian roads.

Meanwhile, Charles (‘Charlie’) Smith became the second managing director when French retired in 1950. Modern overhead lines enabled complete assembly of V8 engines.

Fords into the 1950s included English V8 Pilots, the 1950 Custom Twin Spinner, a new 100E Prefect in 1954 as well as overhead-valve Customline sedans and Mainline utilities with optional Ford-O-Matic transmission.

In 1954 Ford Australia sold a record 42,968 vehicles. A huge expansion program brought new stamping presses. For all this, there was a problem: mostly Ford’s products weren’t robust enough for Australia. Charlie Smith sought to convince his Canadian bosses that local manufacture was the answer but did not succeed until 1955.

In 1956 Ford Australia purchased 162 hectares in Broadmeadows. Head office lent the Bolte Victorian government £90,000 for rail, water and sewerage. The original Geelong factory became an engine plant.

A revised version of the Mark 2 Zephyr, to be known as the Mark 2A, was scheduled for local manufacture. The plant opened in August 1959 with Zephyrs and the gargantuan Fairlane sedan and Ranch Wagon.

In late 1958 Charlie Smith and a team viewed the refurbished Zephyr in Dearborn and didn’t like it. Offered the Falcon instead, Smith sent a historic telegram: ‘Cancel Zephyr’.

Despite marketing claims, the XK Falcon was never properly tested in Australia and the car XK suffered like its predecessors. Ball-joints that were fine in American conditions routinely failed, as did clutches.

Fixes were made but the reputational damage had been done. The near miracle that restored the Falcon’s fortunes was deputy managing director Bill Bourke’s extraordinary 70,000 mile, 70mph XP Falcon Durability Run over nine days at Ford’s new You Yangs proving ground in April-May 1965.

Bourke succeeded Wallace Booth in 1968 and brought a marketing genius to Ford Australia that set the company on the long drive towards market leadership. In 1963 the market share had been 16.9 per cent. In 1968 it was 20.7 per cent.

Ford Australia already had its own design centre. In 1972 an emissions laboratory was opened at the proving ground and the plastics plant so crucial to the 1979 XD model was announced.

In 1980 the Homebush plant was updated for the Laser.

Ford Australia manufactured its last V8 engine on November 25, 1982 before switching to four-cylinder engines for the Telstar. That year Ford outsold Holden for the first time (139,318 to 139,181). In 1985 Ford Australia had a 24.5 per cent market share.

In 1987 came a new paint facility. Two years later a joint-venture with Nissan in response to the Button Car Plan, which aimed to reduce the number of Australian automotive manufacturers, saw the Nissan Pintara rebadged as a Corsair and the Falcon ute with a Nissan badge (did even one buyer not know it was a Ford?).

By 1990 exports of (flawed) Capri convertibles to North America began and the 1992 joint-venture with Tickford Vehicle Engineering gave Ford Australia a high-performance division to rival Holden Special Vehicles.

Two years later the long retreat began with the closure of the Homebush plant, before the Brisbane plant closed in 1998.

Under leadership of the late Geoff Polites in 2004, Ford created the Territory – Australia's first and only homegrown SUV.

Then in 2007 big upgrades were made at the proving ground and the Geelong stamping plant and an R&D centre was opened in Geelong. But on May 11 came news of the demise of Fairlanes and LTDs, followed in 2010 by the end of the Falcon wagon.

On May 23, 2013 Ford Australia announced the end of local manufacture, with the last Falcon Ute rolling off the line in July 2016 and the last Falcon sedan and Territory emerging on October 7, the last day of Ford manufacturing Down Under.

Ford Australia timeline:
1904: First Ford brought to Australia
1909: First Australian Ford branch opens
1925: Ford Motor Company of Australia established
1925: First Model T manufactured, in Geelong
1928: Model A production begins
1932: First Ford V8 manufactured
1934: First Coupe Utility released
1955: Zephyr assembly begins
1960: Falcon launched
1964: First Australian-designed Falcon released
1981: First Laser manufactured, in Homebush
1990: Ford Capri exports begin
1994: Homebush closes
2004: Ford Territory released
2007: Fairlane and LTD retired
2010: Falcon wagon retired
2016: Territory, Falcon ute and sedan retired

Related reading:
Why we’ll miss the Ford factory
History of Ford Australia's large car