Holden Retirees Club

GM[A] Marrickville Plant, Sydney

6-10 Carrington Road

When General Motors [Australia] was formed, the first order of business was to initiate the build of an assembly Plant in each mainland state. The first of these new plants to open was the Sydney plant at 10 Carrington Road, Marrickville. [Note: Some references erroneously give the street name as Meeks St.  However, this in an anachronism.  Originally, Meeks St Marrickville extended from Sydenham Road to past Renwick St.  However, the construction of the Belmore Railway spur line cut Meeks St into two parts separated by the railway.  This gave rise to much frustration from people who found themselves at the wrong section of Meeks St, so in February 1921, the Municipality of Marrickville Gazetted a change to rename the southern end as Carrington Road.  This was the name of an existing  minor oad which virtually joined up with the renamed section at the southern end.]

On 4th June, 1926, it was reported that the company concluded negotiations yesterday with Robert Wall and Sons. Ltd., for the erection of an establishment at Marrickville. It has purchased 61 acres, and the buildings will cover about 130.000 square feet.  The land was said to be "of poor quality" and required a lot of filling.

In October 1926, ‘Pointers’ magazine reported:

The Sydney plant is situated in Carrington Road, Marrickville. It has a frontage of 400 ft. and an over-all depth of 290 ft. A part of the building is of two storied brick construction, with a frontage of 200 ft. and depth of 67 ft. In this portion of the building the offices of the Sydney branch will be housed. The section devoted to the warehouse has a frontage of 360 ft. and a depth of 65 ft. A railway switch from the main interstate line will run the whole length inside the warehouse, and outside will be a loading dock 25 ft. wide by 290 ft., with an additional siding for loading finished cars. Side walls and end walls are sheathed with galvanised corrugated iron, and the steel sash windows contain 21 oz. factory ribbed glass. The roofing is of corrugated asbestos fibrolite sheet of local manufacture. The total floor area is 98,000 sq. ft., 90,000 sq. ft. being for factory purposes and the remainder for offices. The construction in this State involved extensive land improvements, including filling, drainage and concrete retaining walls. Despite these difficulties the local building contractor has maintained a speed of erection comparable with Perth and Adelaide. Much praise is due both to Messrs. Ross and Rowe, the architects, and to Messrs. Robert Wall and Sons limited, the contractors. This plant will have a capacity of 60 cars per day, and will employ approximately 175 workmen."

The speed with which the job was completed was an example of what could be done in fast building. The architects, Messrs. Ross and Rowe, had only 10 days in which to prepare the plans and specifications; on June 1st Messrs. R. Wall and Sons, builders, signed the contract to erect the building, and 30 days later the walls and the roof were in position, and the floors laid.

By September 1st the whole building was enclosed, and on October 1st the contract was complete in every detail. With the exception of the front elevation facing Carrington road, this large building is constructed of corrugated Iron and Oregon pine, with a corrugated fibro-cement roof to keep the interior as cool as possible in hot weather. 

There were three assembly lines. Within a month, line one turned out an assembled vehicle every 26 minutes, and from lines two and three, one in every 30 minutes. In the warehouse section of the works, into which a direct line from Tempe Railway Station runs, there was storage room for 1,000 bodies at a time, equipped with a 23-ton portable crane. Outside the main building was a railway platform, 400 ft long.

Official Opening: 30^th October, 1926

On Saturday, 30th October, 1926, the Marrickville Plant was officially opened by the Premier of New South Wales, the Hon. J. T. Lang. At the ceremony were nearly all the General Motors distributors and dealers in New South Wales, as well as many 

prominent Sydney citizens. Mr. Lang was welcomed by Mr. Innes Randolph, Managing Director of the Company in Australia, and Mr. J. T. Potter, Manager of the Sydney Branch.

A gold key-was presented to Mr. Potter by the Sydney employees, with which the door to the new premises was opened. 

Mr. Potter had arranged for a demonstration of the assembly of a Chevrolet. The visitors were conducted to the main assembly floor, where a Chevrolet was completely assembled and driven off the rails under its own power in 29 minutes.

After the visitors had been conducted through the plant, they were entertained at luncheon. In the afternoon there was a dealers' convention, at which the general policies of the company were discussed and the dealers and distributors given an opportunity to ask questions and express opinions. In the evening the distributors and dealers were entertained at dinner at the Hotel Wentworth, an event which marked a fitting conclusion to an important day in the history of General Motors [Aust.] Pty. Limited.

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 The Plant quickly operated to capacity, assembling chassis sets, fitting bodies made in Woodville, and painting front end sheet metal.  On 12th November, the company announced price reductions for their vehicles, citing lower logistics costs arising from local assembly. Plus, a feature of purchasing a G.M. product was that it carried three months free service anywhere in Australia.

A report of the Sydney Motor Show held in mid-January 1927 remarks on the Australian-assembled Buicks, Oaklands, Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs, Chevrolets, Cadillacs, and Vauxhalls from the General Motors' factory at Marrickville.

On 3rd May 1927, the local Council voted to ask the Post Master-General to improve the Post Office service at Marrickville. This was following receipt of a letter from General Motors complaining that the Marrickville postal authorities had decided that no more than six parcels per day could be received from any one firm. The postmaster had also informed General Motors [Australia] that the delay in the delivery of telegrams was due to lack of sufficient staff.

Alderman Richards said that General Motors [Australia] Proprietary had taken up a 'lot of bad land,' had spent thousands of pounds in filling it in, and had put up a fine building. in which hundreds of workers were employed. Now the company found operations hampered by an out-of-date postal service.

Despite this minor problem, the 10,000th vehicle, a Pontiac, was produced at Marrickville on 23rd August 1927, barely nine months after the Plant opening.

The Plant became a show piece for GM[A] with many reports of VIP visitors being escorted around the facility - Governors, Parliamentarians, golfer Ben Hogan, Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith and Charles Ulm to name a few.  It was also the venue for Dealer and Distributor meetings and conferences.  The appearance of the Plant was praised for its gardens and lawns, the result of J.T.Potter's belief that the plant should look good, as well as be an efficient producer of motor cars.

Mr. L. M. Rumely, General Manager of the Export Division of the General Motors Corporation visited on 17th February ,1929, and said that he was much impressed with the tremendous progress he noticed in and around the Sydney Plant since his last visit, particularly in the nature of new and beautiful buildings.

A report on 12th April, 1930 says: "The plant has an attractive frontage of well-kept lawns, shrubs and flower beds. Even the public footpaths in front of the property have been planted with palms and lawns and are maintained in perfect condition by the company. Since the company's establishment in Marrickville the rough roads previously abounding the plant, sometimes impassable in wet weather, have given way to modern concrete highways, and it is not generally known that General Motors (Australia) Pty. Ltd. contributed £5,000 to the Marrickville Council towards the building of these roads." 

The ever increasing volumes required the Plant to extend and by 1930, there are reports of more visitors to view the extensions. The demand for the new 1930 Buick pushed plant schedules to 120 cars per day.

The Sunday Times, 2nd February, 1930 typically reports: "THE 2UW Radio Broadcasting Station has arranged for a party of the 2UW Club members to visit the big plant of General Motors [Australia] Pty., Ltd. at Marrickville, on Tuesday afternoon next, February 4. The General Motors plant at Marrickville is one of the largest motor assembling plants in Australia, recent additions having been completed to take care of the ever-increasing volume of work being done locally."

Despite the many accolades for the Plant, the volume of sales fell off sharply due to the Great Depression.  The future for HMBB looked uncertain and GM Export became concerned about the ongoing supply of bodies for its products.

On 10 October 1930, it was announced that two Australian built Chevrolet cars would be sent to the United States.

"An unique event in the history of Australia's progress in the motor industry is the pending shipment of two Australian built Chevrolet Six motor cars to the United States.  The two cars, a Chevrolet Six Club Tourer and a Club Sedan will leave by the ' Ventura ' on Saturday August 9th, consigned to New York for the personal inspection of Mr. J. D. Mooney and the General Motors engineering staff.  'The cars are fully equipped, ready for the road and are as much Australian as is at present economically possible to build them,' says Mr. J.T. Potter, Manager of the Sydney Branch of General Motors [Australia] Pty. Ltd. '

They have been built at our Marrickville Plant, and are fitted with all Australian bodies, trimmings, upholstery, batteries, springs, petrol tanks and numerous other Australian accessories.. The Chevrolets are being sent to the United States for the two reasons,' added Mr. Potter, ' firstly, to enable the General Motors to examine every detail of the construction and finish of the cars, and so make sure that they conform strictly to the high standards of quality and workmanship insisted upon by General Motors in its various plants throughout the world.

Secondly, to demonstrate the progress that has been made to date in the General Motors Plants in Australia. I have no doubt that the people on the other side of the world will be more than satisfied when they see these two Chevrolet Six cars. Our policy here, has been to spare no expense in the furnishing of our Australian Plants with the most modern tools and equipment and the securing of reliable local sources of supply for the component parts and accessories to put into the cars we build here for the Australian market.'

No doubt there was another reason: despite denials by E.J. Holden, GM Export was considering the takeover of Holden Motor Body Builders and the quality of bodies built by HMBB and supplied to GM[A] would have been a major consideration for GM.

By February, 1931, the Merger with GM was complete, and the Marrickville Plant, in common with most other facilites, became a General Motors-Holden's Ltd plant. However, the further decline in sales meant that GM-H decided to rationalise its production by closing all the state plants, except Woodville (to maintain a supply of bodies) and Melbourne (to supply Chassis sets). Melbourne was chosen because it was most central to the major markets of Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, small though they now were.

Marrickville Plant assembly closed down on 1st August 1931. The statement issued by the Company assured customers that they were not really going away: "We are by no means withdrawing from New South Wales, and will still carry on all other activities as usual at Marrickville. General Motors Acceptance Corporation is also continuing its activities in this State, and no change of policy has been made in the Spare Parts department. Cars, trucks and spare parts will be available for distribution and sale throughout the State of New South Wales as usual. Production only, has been transferred."

 Within months of the closure, sales began to pick up slowly, and on 29th November, 1933 the NSW Sales Manager, Mr W. J. Stack, said that "if the demand for new cars continued at its present rate, the company's assembly works at Marrickville would be re-opened early in the New Year. This would mean employment for probably 300 men". Mr Stack said that the company "was at present assembling cars at the South Melbourne works, but the maximum output was now being approached".

On 11th March, 1934, the Plant had a tin shed at the rear of the premises burnt down.  The cause was spontaneous combustion, the scourge of all paint shops at the time.  Luckily, the plant escaped the fate of many other plants with similar fires, and suffered no other damage.

The Plant was duly re-opened to much fanfare on 27th March,1934. By 27th April, they had re-employed 100 men and produced 300 cars. In May, they delivered 404 cars, 508 in June, and scheduled to build 748 in July. This July schedule was greater for the Sydney area alone, than the Melbourne Plant achieved in any month the previous year when making chassis for all Australia!

Volumes continued to rise until the building was bursting at the seams. 

There was a minor setback on 27th January, 1937, when a sudden summer storm ripped through South Sydney and took the roof of the front part of the building, plus inflicted considerable flooding on the site and surrounding district. The storm began near Castle Hill and swept towards the city in a north-westerly direction. It was at hurricane force when it reached Marrickville. It swept across Marrickville, Mascot, Botany, and Matraville. The greatest damage was done in these suburbs, but the storm left a trail of wreckage across the northern section of Botany Bay.  The damage took only a couple of days to rectify, and work resumed as normal.

But by now, it was becoming obvious that the Marrickville Plant had become to small and outdated for the volume and demands of modern motor car manufacture, so a new plant was built at Pagewood, in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. It was officially opened in February, 1940 and the work of moving the plant and equipment, furniture and staff from Marrickville to Pagewood was carried out over only two and a half days.

"There was no haphazard dumping of materials which would have led to tedious and wasteful sorting out later. Every bit of plant and. equipment was deposited at Pagewood just where it would be required by the assembly  staff. .The removal of the assembly plant from Marrickville to Pagewood took place on January 2-3. The transfer of office equipment and staff to the Administration Building at Pagewood was not effected until later. The complete transfer of this section of the plant was carried out in three-quarters of a day. One Friday evening the staff left the Marrickville plant and at 8.45 a.m.the following Monday they began work at Pagewood, everything - even the position of chairs - being ready for them.

After the production side of Marrickville was closed down, only one week was needed to strip the plant and prepare it for the incoming tenants.

The then empty Marrickville Plant building had been sold in December,1939 to Davies Coop Pty. Ltd, for £40,000, with occupancy available in February,1940. It was used as a cotton spinning and weaving mill, as well as producing cotton textiles, Tyre yarns and Duck Canvas, until 1961, when the site was acquired by the Department of Civil Aviation.

Davies Coop Pty Ltd added more buildings to the site, including a major office building in front of the GMA building, and a Canteen. In fact, the only GMA/GMH building you can easily see from the road is labeled 'Building B'.  Building A and the Canteen (the small building between the street and Building B) are Davies Coop buildings, plus the brick facade on the large building at 6 Carrington Road (to the left of Building A as you look at it from the road).  That building was GMA built, but Davies Coop added the brick façade and roofed over the entire area.

At the top of Building B you can see both GMH (in faded red writing) and Davies Coop signage. That entrance was the original around which the big crowd gathered on Opening Day.

What makes the site confusing is that Davies Coop adopted the GMH building style and copied it on their new buildings. Apparently Marrickville Council had some influence in that.

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