Toyota Closes Port Melbourne Plant

CANBERRA – Toyota Motor Corp. Australia Ltd. moves the last of its Australian manufacturing from Port Melbourne to its Altona plant, bringing down the curtain on a half century of automotive operations at its first site.

The 54-year-old Port Melbourne plant is an historic site for the Australian auto industry. It is where the first Toyota ever built outside Japan was assembled in April 1963.

More than 1 million Toyotas were produced at Port Melbourne through 1994, and the company retained manufacturing operations there until the end of May.

Ted Okada

The final automotive operations – including bumper bar production and the assembly of small components – have been transferred to Altona in Melbourne.

Toyota’s expansive manufacturing operations now are consolidated into a single site for the first time since 1989.

Toyota Australia President Ted Okada says Port Melbourne played a significant role in Toyota’s long and proud history of manufacturing in Victoria.

“However…it was important to consolidate our operations, and we have invested heavily in new facilities at Altona in preparation for the introduction of the new Camry and Aurion models this year,” Okada says.

Car production commenced at the Port Melbourne site in 1952 under Standard Motors, which had started as Eclipse Motors in the 1920s and became Australian Motor Industries in the late-1950s.

In addition to Toyotas, the Port Melbourne assembly line produced British Vanguards, Standards and Triumphs, Mercedes-Benz vehicles from Germany and Ramblers from the U.S. until 1978.