5 days ago
In its car-manufacturing heyday, Australia made Citroëns, Minis and Mercedes-Benzes
When the final Commodore SS-V rumbled off Holden's Elizabeth production line in South Australia on October 20, 2017, it closed the book on 120 years of large-scale auto manufacturing in Australia.
The story of the Aussie-made car was most famously headlined by such celebrated names as Monaro, Torana, Falcon and Charger, along with familiar ones like Camry and Magna.
But it was a story that also included machines often dismissed as foreign, welded and bolted together in places like Heidelberg (in Melbourne, not Germany) or Enfield (in Sydney, not Britain).
French Citroëns, Renaults and Peugeots were assembled by Australian workers in Australian factories. So were German Volkswagens and Mercedes-Benzes.
Even the comparatively less well-known Studebakers, Ramblers, Singers and Triumphs were built here in Australia as car makers sought to get around tariffs on fully imported vehicles designed to protect Australian industry.
Among these local "foreign" cars were specials unique to Australia, such as the Citroën ID19 Parisienne — a simplified version of the brand's famous DS model.
Melbourne Citroën enthusiast Ferdi Saliba, who owns a black ID19 with a striking red interior, said many of his car's admirers were surprised it was essentially Australian rather than French.
"I recently returned from a 5,000-kilometre trip in the car to Maryborough in Queensland for a Citroën meeting," Mr Saliba said.
The ID19 was built in Heidelberg by a company called Continental & General from parts mostly produced in France but with some uniquely Australian touches.
To simplify production, and to save money, the ID19 had a traditional manual transmission (instead of the complex semi-automatic in foreign Citroëns), no power steering and locally sourced vinyl trim. It shared its assembly line with Peugeots and Studebakers well into the 1960s.
Curiously, the simplicity of these Australian Citroëns (and their rarity) make the ID19s highly sought after by modern collectors.
"There aren't that many left in good condition."
Another Australian car maker, Australian Motor Industries, assembled Triumphs, Ramblers and Mercedes-Benz cars in Port Melbourne in the 1950s and 1960s from complete knock down (CKD) kits, comprising components delivered from suppliers worldwide.
The Benzes included flagship models such as the sophisticated 220S Ponton.
Newcastle Benz enthusiast Ian Hemphill admitted he got a kick out of telling other Mercedes owners his was not put together in Stuttgart.
"People are always surprised to hear that this flagship Mercedes, the first of the S Class series, was actually assembled in Melbourne," Mr Hemphill said.
Volkswagens weren't merely assembled in Clayton, they were truly Australian-made cars, put together with Australian-made panels and parts between 1960 and 1967 before the brand reverted to CKDs in the late 1960s and early 70s.
Club VW editor Phil Matthews said older members of the official Australian Volkswagen car club were mostly aware of the brand's local history but younger enthusiasts were often very surprised.
"Aussie VWs of the 1960s were quite different from their German, American and British cousins," Mr Matthews said.
"In June 1954, Martin and King Pty Ltd of Clayton, Victoria, a railway carriage manufacturer and car body works, began assembly of the first VW CKD packs.
"The Menzies government protected the local car industry with a new 30 per cent tax hike on fully imported vehicles so there were plans to add as many Australian-made parts as possible.
"By 1959 VW ended importing CKD kits as full-scale manufacturing began at Clayton [of] up to 90 cars per day with up to 75 per cent local content."
Competition from other brands (including Mini) and an inability to update new models out of Germany saw Volkswagen revert to assembly of CKD kits in 1968.
Nissan (then branded as Datsun in Australia) bought the Clayton plant in 1975, building its own cars alongside the Volkswagens and Volvos, the three brands' cars even sharing the same paint palette.
Hillmans, Hunters and Singers, meanwhile, were once built in the Melbourne suburb of Noble Park until 1965.
Goggomobil Darts were made in Punchbowl, Sydney, from 1959 to 1961.
Ultimately, the comparatively small size of the Australian domestic car market and the high cost of manufacturing compared with many countries in Asia, combined with a steady reduction in import tariffs, doomed the Australian-made and assembled car.
Brands like Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Chrysler and Ford maintain a strong sales and engineering presence in Australia long after car assembly ended here.
Ford Australia has a Regional Product Development Centre at the site of its former factory in Broadmeadows in Melbourne's north.
This centre developed the Ford Everest mid-size SUV, built in Thailand and sold throughout Asia.
Others brands have disappeared entirely.
All that remains of a national car manufacturing industry that once produced hundreds of thousands of cars, utes and SUVs each year, and which ranked in the top 10 car makers worldwide in the 1970s, are a handful of small-scale vehicle producers, defence vehicle manufacturers, and heavy vehicle brands (including: Kenworth, Mack and Volvo) which still assemble trucks in Australia.
Among the scores of brands and models once assembled in Australia are many rarely thought of as Aussie cars:
Citroën built a modified version of the classic DS in West Heidelberg, Melbourne, from 1960 to 1966.
Nissan and Datsun-branded models were assembled in Sydney then built at Clayton, Melbourne, between 1960 and 1992 in the factory previously owned by Volkswagen.
The famous Dart was developed in Australia and produced by Buckle Motors in Punchbowl, Sydney, from 1959 to 1961. About 700 were built.
Rootes Australia was an affiliate of Rootes Group in Britain, which produced Hillmans, Hunters and Singers from CKD kits in Port Melbourne from 1946 until 1972.
Australian Motor Industries assembled several Mercedes-Benz models from 1959 until 1965 in Port Melbourne, including the top-of-the-range 220S.
Production of the Mini began in Enfield, Sydney, in 1961. An Australian Mini Cooper S won Bathurst in 1966. Production ended in 1978.
Peugeot 203s were assembled in Sydney and Melbourne from 1953, along with the 403, 404 and 504 models. The 404, 504 and 505s were built alongside Citroen and then Renault models in Heidelberg.
Various Rambler models were assembled by Australian Motor Industries at Port Melbourne between 1954 and 1978, well after the brand was retired in the United States in 1969.
Renault bought Continental & General's Heidelberg factory in 1966, building Renault 10, 12, 16 and 18 model cars there until 1981.
An American brand built first in Sydney and then in Heidelberg until 1966.
Clayton was home of Volkswagen production from 1960 until 1976. Volkswagen was Australia's third-largest producer in the early 1960s behind only Holden and Ford.
The Swedish brand assembled cars alongside Volkswagens and Nissan-Datsuns at Clayton from 1972 until 1988, and still builds trucks in Wacol, Brisbane.
