Holden Retirees Club News
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6th March Lunch report
Some 110 members joined us at the Mulgrave Country Club at the March Lunch, which is the best attendance at a March Lunch since pre-Covid days. The day lived up to expectations with an excellent speaker, a delicious lunch and an unusual ceremony, all for just $30!
Our President Bill Hooper opened proceedings at 12:30 by welcoming our visitors: firstly, our speaker Jeff Jamieson. Jeff is well known to many attendees, having worked at Holden in various roles for 36 years. But today he was going to talk to us about the Holden Manufacturing Heritage Centre, which he and some like-minded ex-employees founded in Elizabeth.
He was accompanied by his brother Graeme, who, although not a Holden employee, had helped Jeff with sourcing many of the display objects.
Tim Price of GMANZ returned for another visit, always good to see GM-ANZ taking an interest in our Club and its doings!
Finally, Bill gave a special welcome to a member making his first visit in a few years; John Nigo joined us, accompanied by his sister. John has not been in the best of health and it was great to see him with many of his old mates again.
All these guests were welcomed with applause from the members.
Bill then introduced a new member, Mick Wanders from Sales and Marketing, Victorian Zone, who also received applause from the group.
Bill named the colleagues who had passed away in the last 3 months and we all paused to remember those colleagues, including Don Wylie, whose funeral details are on the website.
Our delicious Lunch was then served.
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Following lunch, Bill introduced our guest speaker, Jeff Jamieson.
Commencing with GMH in 1968, Jeff developed through positions that included Experimental Project Engineer, Senior Body Structure Engineer, Body Structure Section Engineer, V car Program Manager and Electrical Section Engineer.
Moving the family to Adelaide in 1985 saw Jeff’s career progress through Quality Manager, Plastics Operations Business Unit Manager, Components Operations Manager, Director of Manufacturing Engineering, and Executive Director of Manufacturing. He retired from GMH in 2005.
In 2013 it became known that Holden was to cease manufacturing in Australia in 2017. Many of us, in all states, started to think seriously about preserving Holden history.
At Elizabeth, in 2016, while the plant was still in operation, Jeff and a small group of retirees, supported by interested plant employees, was formed to research Holden manufacturing history, capture as many historic documents as possible and gather artefacts of historic significance before they were designated to be scrapped or disposed of.
Between 2016 and today, after thousands of hours of volunteer work, the very small team has progressively developed the Holden Manufacturing Heritage Centre and has evolved into a not-for-profit association, with Jeff as Chairman.
Jeff's presentation on 6 March 2025 gave us a glimpse into the history, scope and status of the Holden Manufacturing Heritage Centre. It is located in the Elizabeth Plant Canteen building, and is available once monthly for groups to visit after booking ahead. Due to its location inside a secure comercial area, visitors can't wander in off the street but all visits must be booked in advance at $15 per person. Once a year they put on a tour that individuals can join, gathered together in a group.
Unfortunately, the recording device for Jeff's speech did not work so we are unable to bring you the audio, but Jerff has provided the slides which are largely self explanatory. Please click here for the pdf download.
Although not part of Jeff's speech, the South Australian State Library has commissioned an excellent short video presentation on the Heritage Centre, which can be viewed on YouTube or this link.
There were a number of follow up questions, and then Bill thanked Jeff on behalf of the members and presented him with the customary token of our appreciation.
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Hugh Videion is honoured!
In a departure from the norm, Bill then introduced a ceremony that has not been seen in HRC for many years. He called Hugh Videion to the stage and announced that Hugh had been awarded an Honorary Life Membership of the Holden Retirees Club. This was a recognition of Hugh's contribution to the Club and its members over the past 28 years. He has served as President and Vice-President and as a Departmental Representative. In that role, he has produced many highly researched obituaries of passed engineering comrades. For many years, he also provided new members with handwritten name tags, which everyone in the room was wearing (well, a few seemed to have forgotten theirs....!).
Members warmly supported the award.
In response, Hugh was characteristically modest. He was only helping his mates and did not expect to receive any special acknowledgement because he was not doing anything special! His mates thought otherwise!
Well done and well deserved, Hugh!
General business
- We have received a request from the Mission to Seafarers for volunteer drivers, who would be willing to assist by transporting ship crew members from commercial ships in the Port of Melbourne (near GMH stomping ground!) and back to the Mission to Seafarers building in Docklands. A small bus is provided for the purpose. If you are interested, a flyer is attached here, with more details and contact information.
- Trafalgar Holden Museum is once more hosting an ex-Holden Employees Day, on 15 June 2025. This annual event has proven to be very popular in the past, and the huge display of Holden vehicles and artefacts is undoubtedly the most complete anywhere. Admission is still just $15, or $10 for Seniors. More information available here.
The Lucky Door prize draw was next with six prizes donated by Russell Nainie, plus the usual cash envelopes from the Club.
All prizes were happily received.
Bill thanked everyone for attending and closed the lunch at 3:15 PM.
The next Lunch will be on 5th June 2025. See you there!
Some Happy Snaps:
Note: the Gold Coast group was forced to postpone their March lunch due to cyclone Alfred, which closed all Clubs on the Gold Coast and threatened personal safety. We hope they have all survived unscathed.
The Gold Coast Retiree Lunch was held at the Parkwood Tavern, Southport, on December 5, 2024
L– R Carole Hickey, Sue Colman, Sue Bryant, Jill Ashmore, John Ashmore, Rod Alford, Garry Newsome, Ron Stewart, Ted Bryant, Maureen Roberts, Jan Alford, Ron Colman, Graeme Roberts, Basil Hickey.
Thanks to Ted Bryant for this information.
Members who are users of Social Media might like to know that there are some pages of interest to both current and retired Holden employees. The first is the “GM Holden Alumni Group” on Facebook, which at the time of writing, has 1,647 members. This is a Private Group, so you must apply on the site to join, but only other members can see who is in the group and what they post. It is a lively group, started and moderated by HRC member, Thalia Abramzon.
The second is the “Holden Engineering Alumni” Group, which also a Private Group on Facebook, but you must have been a member of Engineering at some time to join. It currently has 465 members and is moderated by Sharmy Francis and Rod Pettit. Quote: “The aim of the Group is to share photos, news, stories & thoughts between past & current Holden Engineering team members. Any group member can invite others to join. All members MUST BE or HAVE BEEN Holden Engineering Team members. Please ensure that people you invite to join meet this simple criteria. Posts must be positive, professional & appropriate. No GM Confidential information.”
Lastly, for users of LinkedIn there is a “GM Holden Alumni” page with 367 members in the network at present, again administered by Thalia Abramzon. The direct link to the Group is: www.linkedin.com/groups/12295307.
All these groups are recommended to interested members who want to keep in touch with current and past mates.