C15 Wireless Van (aust )

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

I do apologise for not remembering correctly. Here's some history:

James Alexander Holden’s grandson, Edward “Edward W. “Ted”” Wheewall Holden had been the Managing Director since Holden’s Motor Body Builders was registered late 1917, and incorporated 25 February 1919 as HOLDEN’S MOTOR BODY BUILDERS LIMITED. Amongst others Holdens’ were building car and commercial bodies for General Motors’ vehicles imported from the U.S. and Canada. In 1923, William Arthur Holden, Edward W. “Ted”’s younger brother, instigated a search for a site for a new purpose-built premises in the Adelaide area. His enquiries led to a tract of land in open countryside lying between Adelaide and the Port, and as a consequence, 22 acres of land near the railway line were purchased for the first purpose-built plant, which was intended to include a 10 acre factory: Woodville body Plant, which was to build Holden bodies for the various operations then in train such as Melbourne Tramcars.

In 1926, General Motors Export Company incorporated a new subsidiary, the aforesaid GENERAL MOTORS (AUSTRALIA) PROPERTY LIMITED, based in Melbourne and Sydney, and Innes K. Randolph was appointed the company’s first Managing Director: Randolph had been in one of the Indian Sales Offices with Graeme K. Howard and was promoted and moved by General Motors Export Company to Australia to head the new subsidiary. Laurence J. Hartnett and G.C. Sears had replaced Randolph and Howard in India. This was a proper assembly operation of chassis exported from U.S. Plants, Chevrolet kits being supplied from the Tarrytown-on-Hudson Assembly Plant which exported S.U.P. cars, with “22” prefixes [these were the special chassis with cowl as against fully C.K.D. until the 1929 Models which were sourced from Bloomfield Boxing Plant]. Holdens’ had started producing closed bodies for Hudson and Essex in 1925, and then for 1926 assembled bodies from imported packs which were virtually identical to North American bodies. From this point on, more and more local content was added. This work required the installation of a much larger panel press at Woodville, which resulted in the acquisition and installation of a 40-ton machine that could exert a pressure of 300 tons and process 160 panels per hour. Increases in demand and output in 1926 resulted in increases in floor-space, with the result that the company claimed that they were the largest of their kind in the Empire outside Canada.

Further upgrading of Woodville which totalled A£460,000 with the new company purchase cost, saw the installation of heavy presses for cowl and door panel stamping and an increase of floor space at Woodville to 23 acres to allow production of up to 300 bodies per day. A further result was the removal of work and the Head Office from the original Adelaide city building to Woodville. Speculation was then rife that General Motors (Australia), the assembly operation was to take over Holdens’ but Randolph and his counterpart Edward W. “Ted” Holden put down this idea.

In 1929 It was agreed that Holden’s Motor Body Builders Limited and General Motors (Australia) Pty. Ltd. were to be merged at last, which was achieved in April 1931 using General Motors (Australia) funds amounting to £1,111,600 which had been earned but not repatriated to New York because of currency restrictions then in force. Autocar 5 December 1958 stated that “Holdens” [the Holden family?] received 6% Preference Shares which normally carried no voting rights, in the new company, and the rest of the Capital was American. In its first year, the new company showed a record loss of A£561,000. The new company was entitled GENERAL MOTORS-HOLDEN’S PROPERTY LIMITED, with an headquarters in Melbourne, and ultimately assembly Plants in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and finally Perth, plus the Woodville body plant.

The GM-Holden's Plant addresses were:
City Road, Melbourne, Victoria
Bridge Street, Sydney, New South Wales
Wickham Street, Valley, Brisbane, Queensland
Corner Rann & Birkenhead Streets, Birkenhead, South Australia
Corner Buckland & Victoria Streets, Cottelsoe Beach, Western Australia