GOLDEN HISTORY
IRELANDS DRIVE DOWN MEMORY LANE
A SECRET deal between Cairns Holden dealers David and Richard Ireland and the late King of the Mountain Peter Brock created some of the best Holden Dealer Team (HDT) V8 Commodore demonstrators in Australia.
David Ireland said Brock once owned a holiday home at Port Douglas and often borrowed a high-performance Holden from the Mulgrave Rd dealership when staying in the Far North.
But he has revealed that one day the Bathurst champion hatched a transaction to benefit both parties.
Mr Ireland said the racing driver offered to build special HDT demonstrators in return for the cars being made available to him and his friends to use when they holidayed in the region.
“There were three or four cars over two to three years. They had better gearboxes, better cylinder heads and induction systems,” he said.
“They were beaut demonstrators. We lent them to Brocky and his mates for a week at a time and we kept them for the rest of the time to use.”
The Irelands have taken a drive down memory lane as the departure of Holden after 71 years hits home.
Last week they sold the last new Holden in Cairns, an Equinox SUV, and the familiar signs and other branding will be coming down from the Ireland Holden showroom as the brothers consider a future without the Red Lion.
General Motors pulled the pin on Holden earlier this year and the Irelands have finalised a compensation deal with the American motor giant, which includes a servicing and parts contract for five years.
The brothers have recalled the good times when Holden was king of the road in Cairns and Australia.
In the 1930s, the 97-yearold family business had two Holden (and Vauxhall) dealerships in the Cairns CBD: McDonald Motors in Abbott St where CQUniversity is today and Ireland Holden in Lake St, the site of the former Blue Sky Brewery, later moving to where a car park is opposite the city library.
“Our market share then was 50 per cent. You bought a Holden, a Ford or a Morris back then,” Richard Ireland said.
Eventually the dealerships moved to the current Mulgrave Rd site in 1968 but the late 1970s recession resulted in a merger and the redundancy of 50 staff.
Richard Ireland distinctly remembers as a child the new car smell of the showroom at the weekend.
“I hadn’t experienced that for more than 30 years when one Sunday (recently) I had to come into Mulgrave Rd. It was a hot day and when I walked through the showroom the smell of rubber, trim and paint came flooding back,” he said.
“The new car smell permeated the building. It took me back to my childhood.”
In the early 1980s Richard Ireland said he nearly killed a customer.
He was showing real estate agent Phil Harvey, of Gordonvale, a new Holden Calais when the car rolled back and crushed him against the door.
“He survived, he was very badly bruised, and, yes, he did buy the car,” Mr Ireland said.
He said the mantra: “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday” after motor racing successes was “absolutely true”.
Mr Ireland said sales staff were primed on Monday mornings after Holden won a weekend race.
“If a Holden won Bathurst the sales people were in the showroom early on Mondays,” he said.
Victories by Torana XU1s, SLR5000s and VL Commodores brought punters into the showroom to buy a Holden, Mr Ireland said.
But, he said, when buyers could not identify with the current one-size-fits-all Supercar racing cars “the wheels fell off” sales.
Mr Ireland said diehard fans couldn’t buy the cars that race today.
He said rental car companies were big customers for the business with 300-500 being bought a year by Avis in Cairns and later Bob Ansett’s Budget operation.
Foxwood Timber company was also a big fleet buyer.
“They used to buy 25 cars at once. That was massive (in the 1970s),” Mr Ireland said.
David Ireland said the Fry family, of Norship Marine, were very loyal customers.
“They have bought more than 400 Holdens as well as Bedford and Isuzu trucks, Mitsubishis, Holden V8 utes, Calais, Monaro and Jeeps,” he said.
Another Holden faithful was the late businessman and chemist Peter Cominos.
“Every three years I would get a call from Peter who would tell me, ‘David, it’s been three years, I think I will replace the car’. We would take a Calais out to his pharmacy on the Esplanade, pick up the old car and he would send a cheque for the balance owed a couple of days later.”
Richard Ireland’s favourite Holdens were later model Monaros while David Ireland’s was a 1977 Torana A9X which he later reluctantly sold.
The most expensive Holdens the brothers sold were two HSV W427s, one for $170,000 and another about $200,000 with a special paint job, both acquired by the late Portsmith Fuel and fishing fleet owner Kevin Lock.
The brothers say they are “bitterly sad, angry and disappointed” that General Motors axed the brand.
Seven years ago they invested more than $3 million in a new showroom, upgraded workshops, a new service reception area, increased sales staff space and reception, new administration and corporate offices, new IT and customer contact centres, parts department and used vehicle sales offices and have yet to see a return on the investment.
But, as they close the door on 71 years of Holden, they are optimistic.
The former Holden showroom is likely to become the home of several of the firm’s other brands in a multifranchise model.
They are weighing up a another marque and are considering the new GMSV (General Motors Special Vehicles) brand which is replacing HSV.
“We are thinking ahead for the business and solving the problems,” Richard Ireland said.
He said there were 95 staff and their families to care about as they drive forward away from the Holden chagrin as well COVID-19 impacts.