The long road to nowhere

Australian prime Minister Ben Chifley’s presentation to the Australian public of the all-new Holden 48-215 in 1948 was less an announcement of the beginning of the Australian automotive industry than it was a coming of age.

In some form or another, Australia had been putting cars together almost from the beginning. As far back as the transition from the 19th to the 20th century, companies were being formed to take part in the automotive revolution and local workshops were busily producing cars such as the steam-driven Phaeton and the rear-engined Tarrant (both in Melbourne, as history would have it).

These pioneering enterprises were followed by many others, including Holden, which started in Adelaide as a saddlery business in the mid 1800s but switched to making auto bodies for a growing market in 1919. In 1925 it started to focus on the burgeoning auto market, finally becoming a subsidiary of General Motors in 1931 as a maker of car bodies for GM brands such as Buick, Chevrolet, Pontiac and the British Vauxhall.

Ford, as an auto-maker, goes back a bit further again. Ford Australia was founded in Geelong in 1925 as a subsidiary of the Canadian arm of the Ford Motor Company and was responsible for the local assembly of historically significant vehicles such as the Ford Model T.

However, the jump to fully-fledged local manufacture began with the Australian adaptation of a sidelined post-war Chevrolet design, dubbed Holden 48-215, in 1948. This was the beginning of true large-scale auto industry in Australia and saw a significant re-focus of attention away from imported brands from the UK, Europe and the USA.

As a local car-maker, Holden more or less had its own way until 1960, when Ford decided it wanted to take a swipe at the number one position and set up to build a locally adapted version of the Falcon sedan that was on sale as part of a new ‘mid-size’ push in the USA.

Chrysler, with similar aspirations, quickly followed with its Adelaide-assembled Valiant in 1962, and then came British Leyland, which modified facilities in Zetland, NSW.

The British brand embarked on an ambitious venture that included the production in the early 1970s of the Austin 1800-based six-cylinder Kimberley and Tasman and, a bit later, a rear-drive Michelotti design dubbed P76. Models also included a localised rear-drive Morris Marina – including a six-cylinder version intended to do battle with Holden’s four and six-cylinder Torana range (and Ford’s four and six-cylinder Cortina).

Chrysler, which by now had moved from assembly to full-scale manufacture, expanded its presence in the early-1970s with Japanese Mitsubishi product (Galant and Sigma), as well as a European design – a six-cylinder version of the Chrysler 180 that was badged as the Centura, and aimed again at Holden's Torana and Ford's Cortina.

Chrysler finally exited as a manufacturer from Australia in 1980, handing over its operations to Mitsubishi, which segued to Japanese vehicles and kicked off its Australian onslaught with the wide-bodied, front-drive Magna.

And, of course, there was Nissan, which was no less ambitious than other main players and during the 1980s orchestrated an assault with various small and mid size cars – including the initially rear-drive but ultimately front-drive Pintara (also sold with Ford badges as the Corsair). Model sharing was popular in those Button Car Plan days, with Nissan doing another deal with Ford that saw it selling a Falcon ute carrying Nissan badges.

There were other significant, though maybe less ambitious, players too. These included the Port Melbourne based Australian Motor Industries plant that was assembling a variety of passenger cars including Mercedes-Benz, AMC-Rambler, Triumph and Toyota, and had been doing so since 1958.

Britain's Rootes Group was also a player in Australia from the mid 1940s when it operated an assembly plant building Humbers, Hillmans and Singers. In 1965 it merged with Chrysler Australia.

And Volkswagen, which had been assembling its beetle model at its Clayton, Victoria plant since the 1950s and enjoyed a comfortable ride until the car succumbed to British Leyland’s original Mini in the late 1960s. It stepped up to the mid-size Passat model, then the original Golf that set the template for small cars into the future.

Up the road, in the outer Melbourne suburb of Heidelberg, French car-maker Renault was assembling Renault 10s, 16s and Peugeots as well, for a time, Ford’s Cortina station wagon.

These were the pre-SUV days when if you didn’t have a big, traditional Australian six-cylinder sedan, then you had no chance of hitting the top of the local market.

Toyota, watching from the sidelines, with its workhorse vehicles the most successful models in Australia, saw a need to move up from CKD assembly to the high local content volume market and began planning what it could do to reach the number one spot.

With its light commercials well consolidated through the separate Thiess Toyota operation, and its Corolla small car moving steadily into the Australian consciousness, it sent out some feelers that would possibly increase its market penetration – including the ill-fated joint venture with Holden in which a minimally-disguised VN Commodore was badged as the Toyota Lexcen.

The model reciprocation included the Toyota Camry renamed as the Holden Apollo and a version of the Corolla that was badged as the Holden Nova. At one point, Toyota adopted its own version of Holden's four-cylinder 'Starfire' engine for the locally-assembled Corona.

Ironically Toyota’s eventual domination came about not through a full-size car, but largely because of – among many other things, including its strength in the workhorse and 4WD markets – the success of its small car, the Corolla.

Sadly, all that is about to disappear... Whether or not Australia will ultimately be a better country for it, and whether or not it will mean a better deal for new-car buyers now that protective import tariffs are no longer relevant, remains to be seen...

One of the elder statesmen of motoring journalism in Australia, Tim Britten has been the founding editor at Car Australia and, before that, boss cocky at Motor Manual. Tim has been there, done that, over a period of decades, and remains an important contributor to motoring.com.au. He has personally witnessed many of the local industry's highs and lows – although there's no truth to the rumour he was actually present during the formative years.

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