I've just come to learn that the old Scott Bonnar original Factory located on the corner of Chapel Street and Port Road is set for demolition. It currently is occupied by Metro Holden which is about to go under the hammer and broken up in the rationalisation of Holden dealers around Australia.
The land has allegedly already been sold and the current building of which the original SB premises were housed in can be still clearly seen down the side of the showroom facade if you look at the screen shot below. There is also a basement underneath the old section which has been disguised in with the modern frontage.
Apparently new high rise apartments are to be built all along the Port Road frontage down to the "Southwark Brewery" in the next few years. Yes Coca Cola a few doors down is also set to be demolished when they move out in 2 years time.
I live a 24 Hour lifestyle, but every now and again I seem to fall asleep, well at least that's what my wife tells me.
Hey BB got a question for you I reckon you might know this
I remember seeing a "Rover" factory/storage area of some sorts in the Kilkenny/Croydon area but just can't place it. Any idea of what i'm talking about ? pos someone else may remember seeing it too
I remember seeing a "Rover" factory/storage area of some sorts in the Kilkenny/Croydon area but just can't place it.
Not to my knowledge. Rover had two locations for AUS manufacture. The first factory was apparently at Northgate, Brisbane. They moved to a new factory at Eagle Farm, Brisbane.
I'm just wondering if SG has seen the Rover name on a billboard by the train line on David Terrace Kilkenny next to the Brownbuilt factory as I recall seeing it there many years ago.
Cheers, BB.
I live a 24 Hour lifestyle, but every now and again I seem to fall asleep, well at least that's what my wife tells me.
Hi,it was actually a group of buildings which had a security office at entrance.what i'd seen was many boxes of new rover mowers etc held in a storage area.I don't know if this was a assembly area or what.This was 45 years ago.so hard to remember it all.
I have a friend who was in England a few weeks ago and he went looking for the Enfield factories in Redditch from athe sixties where he grew up and worked at the factory. The factory area was huge, had been going for 60/70 years employed a big workforce but there was not a sign of any of it to be found, he couldn't recognize where it had been, the whole area was now housing estates
I wonder if we will ever see housing turned back into mower factories, bowling clubs, nurseries, swimming centres, race tracks and other amenities we keep losing now? What are all these residents going to do in their spare time when all there is to see are other houses and apartment blocks?
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
What Spare time ? They'll all have to be working 24 hours a day in Retail and Hospitality to pay the payments on their super high Mortgage and credit cards, isn't that where all the jobs will be ?
I live a 24 Hour lifestyle, but every now and again I seem to fall asleep, well at least that's what my wife tells me.
There is an alternative - regional and rural Australia! So much of this country's population is jammed into the major cities! Why? Rural Australia is suffering the opposite problem. Loss of population and services.
Barnaby Joyce has caused a heck of a stir moving the vet medicines authority to regional NSW. I agree that the planning and preparation in this move was not ideal but the principal is sound. There is no need for so much of this country's services and administration to be stuffed into the capital cities - not with modern communications.
This is a huge country! Let's spread out a bit.
Cheers,
P.S. I have always lived in regional Queensland centres and wouldn't change it for anything! I'm currently in Sydney for work for a few day. You can keep it!!!
Most Aussie people don't like being stuck in big cities but that has always been where the work is, regional towns stagnate because the youth has to head to the cities for work, there just isn't the work for them where they were born. The Chinese and the Sub Continent people don't know any difference because they have always lived on top of each other so they think it is normal.
There are of course people who, for un fathomable reasons choose to live in the big smoke. Often has something to do with the wife not wanting to be too far from myers
For many, too, there is some sort of stigma attached to living in Tamworth, Horsham, Mackay, etc. and those that do are worthy of derision. There are some people you just can't help.
We have had trouble recruiting properly qualified people to work in our neck of the woods for the reasons I mention above and also that we pay less. What they don't realise (and quite frankly can't get into their thick heads) is that the cost of real estate, far smaller commute etc means they would be actually better off! Yes, folks, there are some really nice parts of this country where houses are affordable.
And what of retirees? Sure, live in the city while you have to but once retired, get out, get some space and some peace and quiet!
Government policy settings also plays a massive part in all this. With the right setting many organisations could very easily relocate to regional area.
prd I think you have answered the problem and the problem is governments don't care, all the way down to local councils that are all on a money grab to get the maximum they can from rates on the smallest property, so jamb as many people into the smallest space for maximum return. As for retirees moving to regional areas, that has gone on for decades but what you end up with is towns full of retirees and that does not help a town or region grow, they sort of stagnate
Actually Governments are endorsing redevelopment and reducing urban sprawl. This is all because they don't want to spend money on new infrastructure, like more power, water, roads etc. State Governments are now over ruling Councils and their planning codes so as to allow more subdivision and smaller blocks etc.no matter how ugly it all looks.
I live a 24 Hour lifestyle, but every now and again I seem to fall asleep, well at least that's what my wife tells me.
Metro Holden are to continue on for time being but no longer as Holden Dealers after the 31st of December 2017. Jack Torcaso (owner) released a video of his disgust with General Motors and their transition to another brand of manufacturer for the new year.
BB it made the news over here, I believe Jack is suing GM because after umpteen years as a Holden Dealer because one of the excuses they used to terminate his contract with them was because his surname did not sound very Australian. Who in this day and age would be dumb enough to words like that without the risk of being dragged into court
Wow Adelaide News getting aired in the big smoke of Melbourne, now that's news !
Anyway I totally agree, sounds very unusual that General Motors would leave themselves wide open like that. I've heard a totally different story as to why Holden struck Metro's off and it's along similar lines as to why Jack's other Dealership "Plaza Holden" parted company. From my personal dealings with Jack he's always been a quick to shoot sorta bloke, but by the end of the night he couldn't stop buying me beers.
Cheers, BB.
I live a 24 Hour lifestyle, but every now and again I seem to fall asleep, well at least that's what my wife tells me.
G'day Mod BB and Norm I don't know what to make of this ... beyond the 'two stories' scenario.
I would think the 'surname' story cannot be true. Most certainly an illegal thing to say - and multi-nationals are not even that stupid... although I do think of VW and their problems...
What I got out of this story is this: Large companies no longer understand the word 'loyalty' - to their representative retailers or to their ultimate end - their public customers.
Large companies seem to make change via the 'hired henchmen'. The loyalty chain is broken by the bringing in of 'new corporate blood', who have not engaged with any personal friendship built up over decades. These are typically portrayed as the brave 'Captains of Industry' prepared to make 'the hard decisions'. My reality is: the loyalty chain is broken as a un-convenient truth. History is lost.
I would like to hear the other side of the story though ... the GM side. Many thanks for the provocative conversation.
Jack the story must be true, I read it in the Herald Sun . There were 3 things that went against Jack or as the story goes, One was his surname, the second was the fact he was spending too much time at his dealership on the Mornington Penninsula and I can't remember the third but it was just as trivial. It might have been a couple of weeks ago so the paper is long gone from here.It could probably be looked up online somehow, but I don't know how
. There were 3 things that went against Jack or as the story goes, One was his surname, the second was the fact he was spending too much time at his dealership on the Mornington Penninsula and I can't remember the third but it was just as trivial. It might have been a couple of weeks ago so the paper is long gone from here.It could probably be looked up online somehow, but I don't know how
