Today is a sad day,
This afternoon, with a blue Ford Falcon XR-6 coming off the line,
Ford today officially shut down all Australian factories that have been in existence for 91 years.
In 1925, Ford established the first Australian car production line in Geelong.
Started assembling the very popular Ford Model T, in Australia.
In 1934, the first Ford Ute, designed and manufactured by Australians, went online and became a milestone in the history of Australian automobile manufacturing.
In 1972, the Ford Falcon series, known as the Australian Auto Light, was officially designed and produced in Australia, and the first Falcon XA was designed and manufactured entirely independently of Australia. It was the pride of the Australian auto industry at the time. Falcon`s horsepower and wild performance made the brand a hit for a while.
In the late 20th century, Australia`s auto industry began to suffer from Japan and South Korea, and cheap competition forced the expensive Ford to close two factories in New South Wales and Queensland.
The phenomenon has intensified since the 21st century, when Ford announced the closure of its plant in Geelong in 2007, and in 2013 it announced that it would close its last workshop, in Broadmeadows, on October 7, 2016, today. So far, Ford`s production in Australia has been completely abandoned.
In fact, Ford`s 2400 employees in Australia, in addition to the sales department survived, the withdrawal of more than 600 workers in the production line will officially declare unemployed.
Most of these workers have worked in Ford`s first-line workshop for more than 20 years.
In other words, almost all of these workers spent their entire careers in Ford`s workshop.
Suzanne McConchie met the love of her life in the workshop, now full of children.
Andreas Zarogiannis spent his youth in the workshop, now white-haired.
Now, these can only be memories.
After the closure of the factory, these "laid-off" employees can receive a subsidy equal to 5 weeks` salary per year. If an employee has worked for 20 years, he or she can receive a two-year annual salary allowance.
The final production of this batch of Falcon will also be in the form of lottery to the staff.
But at a time when the Australian auto industry is so depressed, no amount of subsidies can make up for the loss to its employees because it means either a career change or a permanent job loss!
Not just Ford, Australia`s only two automakers, Horton and Toyota will each close all of their plants in Australia in 2017.
However, it is not entirely the blame of car makers.
Australia`s auto market is the lowest of the 20 home-grown car-producing countries, leading to a market mainly made up of imported cars.
On the contrary, Australia`s auto export program has barely begun since other major auto markets around the world are protecting local automakers.
Australia`s low tariffs on imported cars and Australia`s high labour costs directly result in locally produced cars having no advantage in price competition.
A total of about 1.14 million cars were sold across Australia last year, of which less than one hundred thousand, or even 10 per cent, were produced locally.
Such low sales mean that there is not much profit. In fact, Australia`s three biggest automakers have maintained so far on hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies from goverment each year, and that money often comes from taxpayers.
For example, as an honorable taxpayer, when you bought a locally produced Ford four-cylinder Falcon in Australia, you actually paid $7000 in advance for its production. In other words, the car you thought you bought for $35000 actually cost you $42000.
In the final analysis, it was Australia`s goverment`s neglect and misdirection of home-grown manufacturing that led to the irreparable decline of the industry in Australia.
However, no matter what difficulties and choices Ford has experienced, Ford has created its own history in Australia. The Falcon series, which belongs only to Australia, began manufacturing in the 1960s and independent design in the 1970s. He`s an indelible memory of a generation of Australians.
Today, it coincides with the first day of the Bathurst 1000 Australian car Rally qualifier. By this time of the past year, the Horton and Ford families had scuffed their hands, ready to compare the performance of their cars. Ford chose to leave at this time, or not a kind of sadness.
All the way, Ford. I hope you`ll come back and have a look. Bye-bye.
