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Australian Car Manufacturing – High Achievers, Orphans & Lost Souls. Part 1: 1900 – 1940

Australia’s car manufacturing industry has a longer and more diverse history than the conversation about Ford, Holden and Toyota might suggest. And when those three, in a year or two hence, shut down their manufacturing operations, they will exit


Australia’s car manufacturing industry has a longer and more diverse history than the conversation about Ford, Holden and Toyota might suggest.

And when those three, in a year or two hence, shut down their manufacturing operations, they will exit via a well-trodden path. 

Australian car manufacturing is littered with the shattered dreams of vehicle engineers and entrepreneurs, many of whom have been beaten, like our current manufacturers, as much by circumstance as by any short-comings in their products. 

In fact for some, the brilliance in the cars they conceived and engineered still shines. You have to wonder what might-have-been had things been different.   

Over the next five days we’ll feature Australia’s lost models, cars unique to this country, and the lost manufacturers behind them. We’ll also feature those rare souls who have survived. 

Each of them unique, each Australian-manufactured, and now, all but a few, mostly gone. 

MORE: Part 2, 1946-1960
MORE: Part 3, 1960-1972

The Tarrant

Part 3, 1960-1972

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