It seems everywhere you go in Australia, someone has a Holden story. So novelist Paddy O’Reilly collected them and put them in a book titled It happened in a Holden.
Altona Homestead is hosting a display of Holden memorabilia, opening on Australia Day, with a panel discussion from 1.30 to 2.30 featuring Ms O’Reilly and guests telling stories about the Aussie icon.
“We’ll be inviting people to tell their own Holden stories as well,” she said. “No matter where I go in Australia, as soon people hear I’ve edited a book of Holden stories, everyone has one to tell me. It’s extraordinary. And then by sheer coincidence that terrible thing happened: as soon I started collecting the stories Holden announced it was shutting down in Australia.”
Stories in the book have been compiled from a cross-section of Australians, including from well known identities and everyday enthusiasts sourced from Holden car clubs and the like.
“The one thing that has come through really clearly is that people don’t love their cars the way that we used to,” Ms O’Reilly said. “I think because they change them over so much and they don’t have as long a life and you can’t fix them yourself. I think you can’t identify with a car now as something that’s part of the family like it used to be.”
Writer Kelly Gardiner is among many who have detailed their Holden family history in the book. “My grandfather’s was the first, and one of the original models – brand new,” she said.
“Who’d ever heard of such a thing? After that, everyone had Holdens. Pop traded up to a pale-green EJ wagon; Dad had a flash two-tone FC; Uncle Phil and Aunty Myrtle had an even flasher gold FX. Later generations graduated to Kingswoods and Toranas and a very posh Statesman with venetian blinds.”
