Holden Retirees Club

Holden’s Motor Body Builders

Anderson St, Fortitude Valley. 

In July 1923, Mr. P. J. Allen, Works Manager of the Adelaide factory of Holden's Motor Body Builders from the inception of the company until then, went to Brisbane and built the Brisbane factory. It was situated on the corner of Anderson and Water streets, Fortitude Valley (sometimes quoted as Bowen Hills) near the Exhibition grounds, for servicing Holden (and other) bodies.

These ‘Body Service Stations’ were built by Holden’s in all States and were dual purpose:

• To offer a repair service for Holden made vehicles (and others), especially the Upholstery and folding roofs, and
• To assemble motor vehicles from Painted and Trimmed bodies shipped from Woodville, and mounted on chassis assembled in the Body Service shops from kits.

There is little specific information available about the Brisbane facility, except from advertisements it is clear that it operated until 1938, even in parallel with the GMA factory at Wickham St. (1927).  They were said to have the largest paint shop for Vehicles in Brisbane.

On March 1934, HMBB announced that the Plant was to be updated at a cost of “hundreds of Pounds”.

The GMH plant at Wickham Street was reopened in April 1934 after closing in 1931 because of the depression. Shortly after, on May 6^th, it was announced that the Repair Service would be relocated to the Wickham Street Plant premises.

It continued in business there until August 8^th, 1938 when it was taken over ‘lock, stock and barrel’ by the Eagers Body Service division of Eagers Service Pty Ltd., a Brisbane Dealer organisation who had acted as GMH Distributers, located in Austin Street, Newstead.

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