Trafalgar’s resident Holden enthusiast Neil Joiner expressed his disappointment at the announcement the iconic car manufacturer would cease building cars in Australia in 2017.
Mr Joiner, who plans to turn his Holden car collection into a museum by October, said Wednesday was a “bloody sad day” – not only for the workers at Holden, but for all manufacturing in Australia.
“The trouble is successive governments over 30 years have done nothing but knock more nails into the coffin of Australian manufacturing,” Mr Joiner said.
“I agree throwing money at a problem is doing nothing to fix it, but we can’t go on losing manufacturing jobs without a plan.
“And to lose an icon like Holden is absolutely tragic.”
Mr Joiner said he now thought his museum, which would tell the Holden story from the beginning, was “probably more important” following the announcement.
“The Holden story is a fantastic story, it’s just terrible to see it crumble,” Mr Joiner said.
“We want the museum to keep going to show the future generations just what we did have in Australia and what we were capable of.”
He said he feared future generations may find it hard to believe Australians ever made cars, judging by the way things were heading and also feared for their employment prospects.
“I’ve got grandkids and I think about them and their kids – what are they all going to do for a job in 30, 40 years time?,” he said.
“We can’t keep digging up coal and relying on that while not producing anything.
“Everybody is saying we’ll just invest in something else. Well I’d like to know what will we invest in and where these jobs are going to be created.”
Mr Joiner said his museum proposal had gained support from Holden, which had donated items to add to his display of 17 cars and products and agreed to the name of Trafalgar Holden Museum.
