158 replies to this topic

[Shiney005]

The photo above shows the plant after extensions to the saw tooth assembly area and staff rooms / canteen in the 1950's. TV City hadn't been acquired as yet.

[Shiney005]

Of course, not long after the plant opened, they were pressed into building products for the war machine, in this case a wing for a De Haviland Mosquito.

 

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[Shiney005]

They also diversified into household products with Frigidaire.

 

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First one off the line.

 

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[Shiney005]

Forgot the first car off the line.

 

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[Shiney005]

1950's

 

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[Shiney005]

Entrance to the main showroom.

 

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FE hard trim area 1956. Note FJ utes still in production.

 

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[Shiney005]

The TV City block was leased from the mid 1950's. This is where all film in Australia had been made from the early 1930's onward. It was used as a hard stand for incoming parts, completed cars, and was also an employees carpark.

This was taken in 1954, two years before TV was introduced to Australia.

 

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Made in the studio.

 

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Used as pre delivery carpark 1963.

 

 TV city temporarily used as pre delivery carpark. Then employee carpark. 1963.png   776.46K   2 downloads

[Shiney005]

In 1969, soakage pits were installed at TV City after runoff from heavy rain washed part of the car park away. (This area was called TV City right up to the plants closure)

 

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[Shiney005]

Parts storage and "train" used to transport them to the factory.

 

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Trucks arriving with parts and supplies from other states.

 

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[Shiney005]

Like all GMH plants, industrial action seemed to rear its ugly head every couple of years.

 

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Tyre fitting machine 1965.

 

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[Shiney005]

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[Shiney005]

The 3,000,000th Holden, a white HQ wagon was also built at Pagewood in 1974. 

Also, by 1974 the factory featured compressors that could pump 8,450 CFM, boilers that could produce 145,000,000 BTU's per hour, and fire protection pumps that could pump 4,500 gallons per minute at 160 PSI.

This was also the year that 41,000 Holdens were exported out of Australia. The photo below shows the plant at this time taking up the whole block, apart from the bus depot. (And there were two much bigger plants than this) We will never see this sort of production in this country again.

 

 1974.png   1.48MB   1 downloads

 

Holding yard 1976 with TV City barn in background.

 

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Edited by Shiney005, 10 August 2022 - 01:54 PM.

[Shiney005]

The closure of the plant on 29th August 1980 is best learnt about by reading Neil Podson's "The Rise and Demise of Pagewood". Link here. https://drive.google...1P-O9uIGj/view   or you can find it in the Pagewood section of the HRC website.

It was the usual suspects though. Cheap import competition due to the values of the Aussie dollar and the Yen, an aging factory that needed a lot of money spent on it, unions who wouldn't give up, and a government who seemed to be blinded all saw to the demise of the plant. The worst part was that no one in management (including Neil Podgson) had a clue that GMH had made the decision until it was done.

 

Official picket line after the announcement the plant was closing.

 

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I hate these photos with the workers smiling and cheering just before they walk away from the factory into uncertainty. The photographers must be able to work magic on them.

 

 Last car off the production line Pagewood 1980.jpg   274.38K   2 downloads

[Shiney005]

1200 workers lost their jobs when it closed in 1980.  The factory (north end of property) was sold to British American Tobacco in 1982 who utilised the buildings for production and storage up until April 2015 when it was sold for $90,000,000 to Meriton Properties, which is run by Australia's second richest man, Harry Triguboff.

The middle section of the property had already been sold to Meriton for $140,000,000 in 2013, and was already on its way to being covered in skyscraper apartments.

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The TV City end of the property (and the old bus depot) were completely covered over by a Westfield shopping centre in 1983.

The yellow arrow shows where the studio stood.

 

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Edited by Shiney005, 10 August 2022 - 02:37 PM.

[Shiney005]

In 2017 there was a heritage impact statement carried out by Meriton, with a declaration that apart from the admin building, (which had never been heritage listed) there was no part of the factory worth preserving. The admin building was to be gifted to the shire and used as a public area. 

Photos from 2017.

 

Staff rooms and canteen.

 

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Powerhouse

 

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Main factory

 

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Warehouse

 

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Showing original roof structure.

 

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[Shiney005]

And the admin building with an intact clock tower.

 

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By 2019 however, Col took this photo. The cynic in me thinks the only way it could end up like this is with an excavator bucket or similar. I guess Meriton weren't that interested in any heritage after all.

 

 Pagewood office building Nov 2019. Pic taken by Col.jpg   89.49K   6 downloads

 

Now the admin building is gone and the block looks like this. Soon it will all be high density housing.

 

 

 

 

 Main.png   1.07MB   6 downloads

[Shiney005]

I meant to put these up yesterday. It is a bit weird when you look at this site on Google Earth, because the Westfield shopping centre seems to be its own little photo. It never changes as you go through the years.

 

2000.

 

 GE 2000....png   1.68MB   3 downloads

 

2015

 

 

[Shiney005]

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2022

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Red arrow is where the clock tower stood

 

 GE. Red arrow is where clock tower stood..png   1.01MB   6 downloads

[Shiney005]

I'm working elsewhere for the next week and a half so I will get onto Elizabeth and Dandenong (along with NASCO, DISCO and CAC) when I get back.

[Indy Orange]

Good stuff Laurie.

[Pogo]

Hi Guys,

My complete histories of all of the plants is available on the Holden Retirees Club website, hrc.au/Collections/Manufacturing and Quality Control page. Or hrc.au/75 will also get you there.

It has some updates to my Final Chapter pages, especially we now know exactly the Therry St Plant was.

I also have a Corrected history of J A Holden on the site, as well as for his wife, Mary Elizabeth who was widowed at age 47. There are smaller part bios of other Holden family members as well.

The learning from the JAH story is just how much incorrect info is taken as gospel about JAH and the early days of Holden. Most of it coame about through the book "So great a Change", written by Nancy Buttfield, who was a direct decendent of JAH so is assumed to be correct. But the book is riddled with errors. I won't ennumerate them all here, but the main ones are that JAH came to Australia in 1855 (not 1852), and J A Holden & Co was started in 1859 (not 1856). These dates have been now accepted by GMANZ, and prominant Holden experts Norm Darwin and Don Loffler. The start of business date comes from two avdertisement by JAH at the time. It is hard to argue against J A Holden  himself!

Neil Pogson

Edited by Pogo, 07 August 2024 - 03:56 PM.

[RallyRed]

Will have a look at that, thanks for your efforts!

[Shiney005]

Hello Neil.  The link I put up for "The Rise and Demise of Pagewood" isn't working anymore. Has the address changed? 

 

Link to Holden retirees Club here. (Google couldn't even find it) https://hrc.au/

 

I will have to get back into this and finish it one day as I have purchased more photos from the Victorian and South Australian state librarys.

[Pogo]

Hi Laurie,

The Pagewood story is still working as far as I can see. It is best found on the Collections/Manufacturing and Quality Control/Pagewood page where there is a link to the story.

The direct link is https://drive.google...f1P-O9uIGj/vieP

We are having a problem with the site this week as, for some reason we have not yet been able to determine, Google search has stopped listing it in the search results. I have our developer looking at it now, so hope to be back in the search lists again, soon. Meanwhile, the site is still fully functional on hrc.au

 

I have been a bit lax lately, busy on other stuff, but I still have a heap more stuff to load. Just a matter of finding the time.

[ewe-one]

Hi Laurie, adding a couple that you missed from that little known australian state, just off the coast of NSW, called New Zealand. 

 

The GMNZ Petone (pronounced pee toe nee) opened in 1926, last vehicles rolled off the line in 1984. 

 

Most of the VAP was moved down the road to Trentham in Upper Hutt which opened in 1967 with the final vehicles rolling off in 1990 after the government removed tariffs on imports.  Almost 600,000 vehicles where built over the years.  Not many you may say but pretty good considering we had a population then of around 2-3 million.

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