Former Chrysler and Mitsu plant evolves

Siemens is the latest company to move into Australia’s newest technology precinct on the site of the former Chrysler and Mitsubishi manufacturing facility in the Adelaide suburb of Tonsley Park.

The 165-year-old German technology powerhouse this week opened a state-of-the-art maintenance and repair workshop that will initially house about 25 employees from April.

Siemens Australia CEO Jeff Connolly said he was confident that number could double as the business grows.

“Precincts like Tonsley Park offer great potential for innovation and industry collaboration, bringing together complimentary businesses with leading academic institutions,” he said.

The new $5 million building, which will maintain and research turbines and other equipment, will primarily service the resources and energy sector.

“The facility will be able to overhaul larger equipment for the oil and gas industries that previously would have been sent offshore. We will now be much closer to our customers and can provide greater responsiveness for critical local industries.

“This facility will attract work from heavy resource states such as Queensland and Western Australia, which otherwise would have gone overseas,” Connolly said.

South Australian Deputy Premier John Rau said Tonsley was critical to shaping South Australia’s economic future, and was quickly attracting global companies such as Siemens.

“Tonsley epitomises what the future of manufacturing in South Australia will look like,” he said.

Chrysler Australia first established its automotive manufacturing plant at Tonsley Park in 1964, before opening an engine factory at nearby Lonsdale in Adelaide's south.

In 1980, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation bought Chrysler Australia Ltd and the Tonsley Park site, which operated for a further 24 years before MMAL closed the Lonsdale engine plant in 2004 and ceased manufacturing altogether in 2008.

The SA government announced it would purchase the Tonsley Park site in 2010 and two years later released a master plan for the 61-hectare site, with aim of establishing it as "a platform for economic growth" over the next two decades.

The master plan calls for 70 per cent of the site to house commercial and high-value industrial businesses and 18 per cent to comprise residential accommodation, with a further 10 per cent reserved for education and two per cent for retail shops and a town square.

Other tech companies attracted to Tonsley include the California-based Prospect Silicon Valley and Origin Energy, which was selected to deliver a major three-megaWatt solar electricity project — one of the largest solar installation projects in the state's history.

Origin will partner with South Australian company and Tonsley tenant ZEN Energy Systems to install the solar array on the old Mitsubishi Main Assembly Building.

Ford Australia yesterday announced it will transform its Broadmeadows Head Office in Melbourne into an Asia-Pacific R&D centre, as well as retaining its Geelong and Lara facilities, but is yet to confirm the future of its adjacent manufacturing plant after it ceases Falcon and Territory production by October 2016.

Toyota, meantime, announced in December it will shift its Sydney-based sales and marketing team to its Port Melbourne HQ, and retain its nearby Altona plant for training and other commercial purposes after its stops making the Camry and Aurion at the end of 2017.

However, the future of GM Holden's Cruze and Commodore factory at Elizabeth in Adelaide's north remains unclear after it ceases operations around the same time, although the company will retain its Port Melbourne head office and Lang Lang proving ground to the east.