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BMC - Leyland Australia Heritage Group Memorabilia

Description

Unique IDAS-1158DateBetween 17th July 1957 and 31st December 2011Date qualifiercircaFormatVarious - See Descriptive NoteDescriptionThe British Motor Corporation (Australia) Pty Ltd (BMC) developed and manufactured vehicles such as Austin, Morris and Leyland for Australian conditions at a 57 acre site on the old Victoria Park Racecourse located between South Dowling Street and Joynton Avenue, Zetland.

Lord Nuffield purchased the site in 1948 and his Nuffield organization built an assembly plant there for Morris Cars using imported packs of components. He opened this plant in March 1950.

When BMC was formed in 1954, the Australian operations of Austin and Morris were combined and, using predominantly Austin technology a comprehensive vehicle manufacturing facility was established on the site. On this one site:
> Body panels were pressed and assembled into body shells and then painted;
> Cylinder blocks and heads, crankshafts, con-rods and other mechanical components were machined from Australian castings and forgings and assembled into complete engines, gearboxes, axles and suspensions;
> Components from a wide range of Australian suppliers were collated, and with the components manufactured on site, were assembled into complete vehicles which comprised almost 100% Australian content.

The manufacturing ceased in March 1975 when the site was sold to the Australian Government and the operation contracted back to an assembly one at other Australian sites.

The companies operating the facility during these 25 years were:
> Nuffield Australia Pty Ltd;
> Austin Motor Company Australia Pty Ltd;
> Fisher and Ludlow Australia Pty Ltd;
> British Motor Corporation (Australia) Pty Ltd;
> British Leyland (Australia) Pty Ltd; and
> Leyland Australia Pty Ltd

From the commencement in 1958 of manufacture - rather than just assembly of imported components - Australian designed modifications were progressively introduced:
> Initially these were changes to incorporate local supplier requirements – e.g. local steels - and to overcome product deficiencies.
> Subsequently more significant local designs – e.g. wind-up windows in the Mini range – were adopted and later unique models – e.g. the Austin 1800 utility - were introduced.
> In 1967 the decision was made to design two new vehicles at Victoria Park – a Model “A” and a Model “B”. The Model “B” became the P76 released in 1973.
> When the plant was closed in 1974, the Model “A” was at the prototype stage.
A large part of this research material is associated with the background to and work associated with the development of these two models.

This research material was donated by the BMC Leyland Australia Heritage Group and comprises original material from the companies’ records that has been preserved by the Group’s members. It includes budget and policy reports, product specifications, private research notes, private correspondence, car manuals, miscellaneous brochures, telephone directories, photographs and related audio-visual material.

Where the material came from the collections of particular members, this is noted in the item description using the members’ initials:
DTB:David Beech – Product and Manufacturing Director
JBK:John Kay – Marketing Director
RWS:Bill Serjeantson – Chief Product Engineer
RNF:Reg Fulford – Chief Product Engineer – After RWS
JMH:John Hamilton – Mechanical Engineer
KRH:Experimental Engineer
JBA:Barry Anderson – Senior Design Engineer
RAF:Road Proving Supervisor

In 2012 the Heritage Group published a book – Building Cars in Australia – Morris, Austin, BMC and Leyland 1950 to 1975. This provides an overview of the plant’s birth and development, how the major product decisions were made and why it failed. This book would provide a researcher with further background of the operations of the companies.

An earlier book by Gavin Farmer – P76 – anything but average – published in 2008 presents more detail of the P76 development program.

See the Agency and Organisation entity metadata for more detail about the group.

Relationship summaryRELATED TO: BMC-Leyland Australia Heritage Group AG-0249 LanguageEnglish (eng)

Item

Photo Collection: large format colour slides Unipart publicity

Photo Collection: Large Format colour and monochrome transparencies for report describing the Model

Photo Collection: Large format colour transparencies of Victoria Park manufacturing

Photo Collection: Unipart publicity shots large format colour transparencies

Photo Collection: Contact Prints attributed to Polkinghorne covering 1965-1971 of VP activities

Photo: Two photos of Morris commercial vehicle taken in UK (South Birmingham), year unknown

Photo: Victoria Park aerial view from West - High Resolution Print

Photo: Four photos of Moke taken outside South Dowling St Showroom (Part of admin building).

Photo: Victoria Park aerial view from East

Photo: Victoria Park aerial view from South

Photo: Scrap parts sale

Photo: Cab 1 with Austin Tasman at body drop station. Note power unit for Austin Kimberley

Photo: E series hot run test - see text on reverse

Photo: ICL Mini Van handover - in front of "new" administration building (c 1968)

Photo: Peter North pictured with V8 power unit and transmission

Photo: Peter North, Gough Whitlam and John Martin - during visit by the whole shadow cabinet prior

Photo: A series Cooper S engine Hot Run Test

Photos: Victoria Park aerial views - contact prints

Photos: Assembly Lines - CAB 2 with Minis (3) and CAB - 1 with Austin 1800 and Morris 1500 (1)

Photo: Victoria Park aerial view from South West

Photo: CAB - 1 Assembly Line with Austin 1800s and Morris 1500s/Nomads.

Photo: Victoria Park aerial view from South East

Photo: John Osborne, Bill Briggs and Peter North - Retirement presentation - see notes on reverse

Access

Public access noteAccess Notes:
Restriction Category:

Identification and Arrangement

Source system ID1158System of arrangementNumerical

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BMC - Leyland Australia Heritage Group Memorabilia