From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 8 March

While there are myriad aspects to our diverse culture, things do not come any more Australian than ‘football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars!’ That one phrase goes a long way to encapsulating our vibrant ethos.

 

IN a television program on racism, an Asian immigrant said, “Of course I am Australia. I love meat pies with tomato sauce!” And she meant it.

Notwithstanding having never owned a Holden car, the shattering news that this iconic creation will soon disappear from Australia, forever, resonated deep in my soul. I was overwhelmed by an abiding sense of sadness, and profound regret. I cannot recall a time when there was not a Holden car. It was launched one year after I was born, and like The Queen, they have always been there; a comforting constant in our ever-evolving cosmos.

Those of my generation were born into a booming Australia. The Second World War had been over for two years. The nation was on the march. The excitement was palpable. Our parents had a singular purpose. They were determined to make the world a better place for their children and nothing would lie be beyond their potential grasp. We had ship building yards, steel works, aluminium smelters, car manufacturing, timber, woollen and cotton mills, vast market gardens and prolific orchards, a thriving fortified wine industry, wheat farms and flour mills, and lead, tin, copper and gold mines. Food and meat production was at its zenith. Australia was a cornucopia; a rich nation who wanted for nothing. On her visit in 1954, The newly crowned Queen Elizabeth said, “Australia may well seem the promised land. Only a pessimist would set bounds to its future.”  Times have changed and the world has moved-on. We no longer in isolation – a jewel in the far-flung Empire. Technology has transformed us into a global village. We watch wars live on television, hardly blinking as people die in the conflict.

With the demise of Holden, I was reminded that so many of the department stores – G.J. Coles was an Aladdin’s Emporium, and the familiar childhood, household brands have vanished, only to be replaced poor imitations: Actil pure cotton sheets and pillowcases, Laconia and Onkaparinga woollen blankets, and John Brown knitwear. Quality clothing was made from wool and cotton; men and children wore Chesty Bond singlets. Robur and Amgoorie teas, Starlet make-up, Whitmont and Van Heusen shirts, Rayner’s fig and Solus lumpy apricot jams, cut tissue-paper Christmas decorations and pop-up and silver encrusted Christmas cards, satin ribbon, tissue-lined envelopes and airmail writing paper, string shopping bags, Silvikrin shampoo, Potter and Moore’s Mitcham lavender brilliantine, Lifebuoy and Solyptol bath soaps, Persil, Rinso and Surf (which was Beria’s favourite chose) washing powders, Five Crown prunes, tins of loose biscuits, Mills and Wares original fruitcakes and Christmas puddings, and Swan and Emu bitter beer were as commonplace then as Made In China is today. I am accepting of, but sad for, the disappearance.

In 1917, Holden commenced its vehicle production when it began making car bodies for imported Chevrolet chassis. It was the first company to assemble bodies for Ford in Australia. By 1924 it was the nation’s exclusive supplier of car bodies for the US-based General Motors. General Motors in Australia merged with Holden in 1931. Together, they dominated the fledgling automotive industry. On the 28 November, 1948, Holden manufactured its first ‘made in Australia, for Australia’ car, the FX 48-215. At the launch, the Prime Minister, Ben Chifley, described the FX as a “beauty”. Australians loved it. The model was so successful waiting lists was a year. A total of 120,402 cars were made in its six-year run. Holden ascendancy continued throughout the 1950s and 60s, introducing many new models.

The Ford Motor Works building in Stirling Highway, North Fremantle, first caught my eye in 1957 when my father sent me for a two-week, seaside camp school at Point Peron. I am not sure why, but I thought it the most exciting edifice I had seen, ever.

No point in bemoaning. If we’d been more supportive Holden would still be here!

On a less sombre note: The late actress, Dame Gladys Cooper, went to her favourite restaurant in Chelsea, London. The apologetic maître d’ explained it was booked-out by General Motors. Determined not to be turned-away, she said, “Darling, I’ve known General Motors for years. He is an old friend of mine. He won’t mind if I sit quietly in the corner with my friends!” And she did!

Roland can be heard on Radio 3BA, every Monday morning and 10.45 and he can be contacted via [email protected].