158 replies to this topic

[Shiney005]

I could only find a couple more photos of City Road in Melbourne. Two interior shots, and one of the street out the back.

 

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Edited by Shiney005, 01 July 2022 - 02:23 PM.

[Shiney005]

There is nothing more on King William Street when it comes to cars, but I found a shot of workers filling horse collars with hay, a leather pouch made by Hoden and Frost, and another of an ambulance that had been built.

 

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[Heath]

Mate. This thread absolutely rules.

[RallyRed]

Wonderful history. Thanks

[Shiney005]

Rightio. On with the show.

Beverley. Following info is from the HRC website.

As I mentioned in the original piece on Woodville, "In 1926, "Holden's Motor Body Builders" purchased the Whittingslow Engineering firm at Beverly which allowed them to produce their own drop forged, heat treated and machined components."

In 1926, Holden Motor Body Builders learned that General Motors Export Co. were to distribute their own cars in Australia, but use HMBB to supply all of their bodys. This lead to the Woodville expansion and the purchase of Beverley.

Interestingly, HMBB had earlier bought a property over the road in 1924 and they held it until 1948, but nothing is known about that site.

Before the war, there were no bodys built at Beverly, but there were 250 people employed there in the production of smaller metal pieces including hinges and door locks.

 

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From 1927 until 1931, the plant was plagued by strikes from all kinds of unions, and with the addition of the depression, it was closed down for three years.

On the 8th november 1934, there was a notice that General Motors Acceptance Corporation had moved into the premises.

A GMH booklet published in 1936 states that the Beverley plant was the Sales and Service branch for S.A. and that they assembled cars and trucks there. The following year, it was listed in the GMH inventory as a subsidiary body plant occupying 5 and 3/4 acres. 

In November 1938, all staff had gone to work at Birkenhead and the plant was shut down once again.

In September 1940, tenders were called to rebuild the toilet blocks there, and by the following April, GMH were assembling 2 and 4 pounder artillery guns and 20mm anti aircraft guns for the war effort.

November 1942 saw the Federal Government purchase the site, but with GMH still leasing it and continuing to manufacture arms there. The name was changed to General Motors Holden Ordinance Division. 

Early 1944, and Woodville, Birkenhead and Beverley were all besieged by strike action over members wanting to work less hours.  Remember that this was happening at the same time as the D Day landings and the Aussie troops were being slaughtered by the Japanese in New Guinea, all the while waiting for guns and ammo to turn up from the motherland. There is a good book that I have read on the wharfies taking part in the same tactics as well. It is called "Australia's Secret War" and I think it should be read by every student in school to show how disgraceful Australians can be.

Anyway..................with strikes continuing on until the end of 1945 the plant was closed for good around the same time.

 

These photos are all from the war years.

 

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Edited by Shiney005, 02 July 2022 - 12:39 AM.

[Shiney005]

A couple more beverly pics from the HRC site.

 

1925 Engineering and Blacksmiths.

 

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1935 chassis and vehicle assembly.  I wonder if the guys making these cars realised just how beautiful they are.

 

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March 1927. Unions want to go from 48 to 44 hour week.

 

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Same year. Unions wanting to go from 44 to 40 hour week.

 

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January 1944

 

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September 1944

 

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The site today, also showing the mystery location over the road.

 

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[claysummers]

They prolly made pope lawnmowers there at some stage.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[VZ1_60]

great photo's, thanks. It is sickening to think what we were able to make as a country with some investment through the 1930's to 1990's, and now a lot of it is gone forever.

[Shiney005]

Great snippet on Beverly found by S pack.

 

I found these snippets of info about the GMH Beverly site in an EPA document about TCE contamination of the groundwater in the suburb of Beverly S.A.

 

https://www.epa.sa.g...ey_history.pdf 

See pages 21 & 24 specifically.

 

6.2 Industrial land use 1900−1949

Prior to World War 1(WW1) in 1914, there was a small amount of manufacturing industry in the historic Beverley area.

Street directories and aerial photographs indicate that these industries were mostly located either along Port Road or

further south towards the Torrens River, with the central areas of the suburb largely dominated by the brick-making

industry.

Early manufactures who operated in the area include:

• Crompton and Sons − tannery and skin merchants on East Avenue between Spring and McLean Streets

• JA Lawton and Sons −axle manufacturers who operated on Port Road east of Main Street, and

• Jarrett and Son − wagon and trolley manufacturers who also operated on Port Road east of Main Street.

Post WW1 there was a substantial increase in manufacturing in the historic Beverley and York area, with a number of

automotive and appliance manufacturers beginning or moving operations into the area. Key businesses included:

• Holden Motor Body Building Company

• Coumbe and Son Engineers, and

• Pope Products Ltd.

During WW2, efforts by wartime Premier Thomas Playford 20 resulted in a large number of munitions factories being

opened to the west of Adelaide. These sites were later purchased and converted to ‘traditional’ manufacturing industry

after the war.

It should be noted that during the wartime period, many of the factories across Adelaide altered their operations to

support the war effort. It is not known whether any munitions factories existing within the Beverley assessment area.

However, information sources indicate key businesses supported and contributed to the manufacture of munitions during

this time.

It is known that TCE was used as part of the machining and manufacture of WW2 munitions.

 

7.5 Holden Motor Body Building Company and General Motors Holden

Holden Motor Body Building Company (Holden) began operations at Beverley on Howards Road in the late 1920s, prior

to the sale of the site in the mid- to late 1940s.

Holden was founded in 1856 as a saddlery business before transitioning into automotive manufacturing. In 1924, Holden

became the exclusive supplier of American car manufacturer General Motors, leading to the merger of the two

companies in 1931 forming General Motors Holden Limited (GMH).

The specific activities undertaken at the Beverley factory are not documented in detail; however, it is known that some

form of automotive assembly and engineering was undertaken at the premises. An article from The Register (Adelaide

6 August 1927) outlines the proceedings of an industrial dispute between Holden and engineers of the Beverley factory.

The article mentions that at Beverley activities undertaken did not include motor body building, but the manufacture of

parts required in motor body building and the whole of the blacksmithing required for the Woodville shops. They also

made ball sockets and hood frames at Beverley.

The historic Beverley factory was purchased by the Australian Government during WW2 to assist in the war effort. Based

on information from The Royal Australian Artillery Historical Society of Western Australia Newsletter, Issue 1/2000

February 2000, the QF 6−pr Tank Attack gun was manufactured by GMH as the main coordinating contractor. GMH

received the various components manufactured by other contractors around Australia and the final assembly of the gun

and carriage was undertaken at the GMH Beverley site.

Holden may have used TCE at the site.

GMH is still in operation and a registered business entity, although not at Beverley.

 

[MRLXSS]

Amazing research and thanks for sharing!

I'll see what I can dig up in my files, I helped bring the Holden Archives Collection book to life and collected a lot of history with it. Most is on my old work computer though, it was mainly the really cool Torana stuff that I kept for myself.

 

Speaking of that book, there was a few pages on each of the main factories - not sure if there is any more info there to help fill in your gaps!

[Shiney005]

Cheers Matt. I think I have that book, but unfortunately it is still in one of a hundred boxes from moving house. I will see if I can find it tomorrow.  I will start on the Finsbury plant in the morning, but have very little information on it.

[Shiney005]

I just found this which shows how General Motors acquired Holden Motor Body Builders. 

 

The famous "Lion and Stone" symbol was designed in 1928 by George Rayner Hoff, and represented the legend of man's invention of the wheel. It was subsequently fitted to all Holden bodies and, although undergoing minor changes over the years, remains to this day. During the 'Great Depression' in 1930, production fell from 34,000 units per year to a mere 1651 and, in 1931, General Motors were able to buy the entire Holden's Motor Body Builders and merge it with their North American operation to form General Motors - Holdens.

This move was not entirely motivated by taking advantage of the company when it was at an all time low but was mainly occasioned by the Australian government freezing the currency so that money couldn't leave the country during the depression. The money to pay GM in the United States for the previously imported chassis was trapped in Australia and so was used to finance the buy out which in part took the form of swapping the ordinary shares held by 1550 Australian shareholders in Holdens Motor Body Builders for 561,000 6% 1 pound preference shares (ie 6% of the value of their shares each year) in the new company. This made the paid up capital of the new company 561,000 pounds Australian capital (37% of the total) and 965,800 pound U.S. capital (63% of the total).

 

In addition there was tension between the Australian operation and the United States with management in the United States complaining "Amazing people these Australians; they just won't do as they're told" (Inness Randolph head of General Motors Australia to Larry Hartnett in 1929) and a merger/takeover was also a way to solve this little problem. In 1934 Larry Hartnett (later Sir Laurence Hartnett) was sent to Australia by GM as Managing Director of the Australian company with a directive to either make it profitable or close it down.

Fortunately Hartnett respected the resourceful nature of the Australian operation and stated "The economies achieved by Holden's at Woodville put them, in many ways, years ahead of the rest of the world in manufacturing techniques. The resourcefulness and initiative of the Australians in this industry is beyond praise." By 1935 the world economy had strengthened and under the leadership of Larry Hartnett GM-H lifted production to 23,129 bodies and a profit of 650,000 pounds. The company also introduced the "Sloper" to the world which was the fore runner of the hatchback and led the rest of the world in producing the first all steel bodies.

[Shiney005]

Another little tidbit on Hartnett I found was his involvement in swapping Australian wool for German Bosch components to get around Germanys export restrictions and Australian tariffs between the two wars. He was very much a fan of the Australian car industry, unlike a few other Yanks who have been sent here to manage Holden over the years.

[Shiney005]

I am trying to research the factories without relying too much on Neil Podgson's work, but in this case I really wish I had gone to the HRC website first.  I have spent hours trying to find the link between GMH and Finsbury, only to find that it was a government owned munitions factory and GMH never had anything to do with it.

However, while we are in the area, I thought I would post up a bit of Chrysler history as it all seems to mimic the Holden story quite well, and they had a plant in Finsbury. The difference between Chrysler (TJ Richards and Co.) and Holden's was that Chrysler beat them to it.

 

Finsbury munitions factory May 1944

 

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Chrysler story.

 

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The Chrysler Tonsley Park site was massive.

 

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[308 Sunbird]

Thanks for all your hard work bringing this to us Laurie, very much appreciated.

[Shiney005]

Lets move to Queensland for a bit.

The Wickham Street factory in Fortitude Valley was Holden's first acquisition in Queensland after leasing a small property up the road for about a year in 1926. The new plant was a former Ford dealership and once up and running, could produce 40 cars a day using bodies shipped up from Melbourne. The first car off the production line was a Vauxhall 20/60 in February 1928.

 

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It closed in 1931 due to the depression, and reopened 3rd April 1934. By 1954 it had outgrown itself, and land at Strathpine was bought to build a new factory, but Wickham Street kept producing cars until the Acacia Ridge plant was opened in 1965.

 

1944

 

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1947

 

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Receiving bodies August 1960

 

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Looks pretty cramped in there.

 

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1986

 

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Edited by Shiney005, 07 July 2022 - 02:16 PM.

[Shiney005]

Strathpine.

As mentioned above, because Wickham Street was too small to keep up with the demand for Holdens in the 1950's, 150 acres at Strathpine was purchased with the intention of building a new plant there, however it was only ever used as a distribution centre which was built in 1957.

 

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[Shiney005]

Going backwards again for a second here. Before the Wickham Street plant was opened, Holden Motor Body Builders were assembling cars on the corner of Anderson and Water streets from 1923 to 1938 with bodies brought up from Woodville.

This meant that both sites were operating at the same time only 700 meters apart from each other.

 

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[Indy Orange]

Great stuff Laurie,so interesting.

[Shiney005]

Acacia Ridge.

 

Even though the Strathpine land was bought in 1954 with the intention of building a new plant there, somewhere along the line it was decided to build it at Acacia Ridge instead. The main reasons were that new suburbs were being developed south of Brisbane (to house a large workforce) and it was close to both the standard and narrow gauge railway lines.

Construction started during 1964, and used Queensland manufactured steel, and almost all of the contractors were local. It was $20,000,000 straight into the Queensland economy.

There was a debate in another thread in here somewhere about whether or not there was a tunnel under the plant, and yes, there certainly was. It was big enough to house the trains that were bringing parts up from Woodville and Fishermans Bend. There was also a tunnel under the canteen and office block which is still there. 

 

Sept 30 1964.

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Rail tunnel into building.

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Looking from the north 1967.

[attachment=100897:AR c1967 CKD Assembly Plant Aerial view crop. Huge pic 2 cropped small.jpg

Attached Files

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[Shiney005]

New CKD plant with HD's manufactured at the Wickham Street plant stored inside.

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View from the south.

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Edited by Shiney005, 18 July 2022 - 10:24 AM.

[Shiney005]

The plant started assembling cars using Woodville bodies in January 1966 after the Wickham Street plant closed and by the end of that year the CKD area of the building was finished so bodys were produced in Queensland for the first time. The first car down the line was a HD, and the first local bodied car was a HR. Capacity was at 22 cars per hour by the 1970's.

 

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HQ's and LJ's.

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[Shiney005]

The Holden Torana was released to the press at Acacia Ridge, and production of the Gemini started in 1975. This was the only plant to produce the Gemini in Australia.

In 1979, HZ production wound up in July, while Commodore and the Gemini carried on until the plants closure in October 1984.

 

HJ and TX Gemini

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I had a picture of the last Gemini down the line, which had playboy centerfolds taped to the windows, but for the life of me I can't find it now.

[Shiney005]

By 2004 a TAFE had been built over the area where the rail entered the building.

 

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By 2017 it was looking pretty rusty.

 

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[Shiney005]

By March 2022 the admin centre and canteen were gone.

 

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