Holden has been donating historic material to the State Library of South Australia since 1997, and has confirmed it will keep it there, as the car maker prepares to end its Australian manufacturing operations late-next year.
The ABC reports that the Holden collection spans 140 metres of shelf space. The material, said archivist Jenny Scott, was more than just interesting from a nostalgia point of view, but was a “social history, an industrial history of Australia really,”
The collection covering a century and a half of the company, “talks not just about Holden cars, the collection also talks about government policy around car production and tariffs,” Scott told the ABC.
“They are critical to someone doing major research into issues like that, and they are critical to someone wanting to make sure they are repainting their Torana the correct colour.
“The World War II records show how women came into the workplace.”
Holden will shut its Elizabeth, SA factory in late-2017. About 300 engineering and design professionals will continue their roles after that.
Ford Australia, which ended Australian manufacturing this month, will not keep its archival material locally. This will be moved to the US-based car maker’s parent company headquarters, in Dearborn, Michigan at the end of this year.