National Holden Motor Museum to reopen, but not quite as we knew it

By Contributed

Aug 14, 2024

The National Holden Motor Museum collection has made its way from Echuca to the Bunker Gallery in Coffs Harbour. Photo: Supplied

One of the most significant collections of Holdens will return as a permanent exhibit at Coffs Harbour’s Bunker Gallery.

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The National Holden Motor Museum will make a comeback as a permanent exhibit at the Bunker Gallery in Coffs Harbour in northern New South Wales.

The Bunker Gallery — which hosts the National Cartoon Gallery — opened on Saturday, August 10, and showcases a dedicated space for 25 historic Holdens and other artefacts permanently on display.

Local car dealership owner and former Holden dealer Geoff King has provided the vehicles, which came from the previous iteration of the National Holden Motor Museum based in Echuca, which closed in April 2024 after more than four decades.

The NHMM first opened in the Melbourne suburb of Bayswater in 1983 when racing icon Peter Brock was part of the opening celebrations, before moving several times to settle at Echuca a decade later.

Holden stopped manufacturing cars in Australia in 2017, with the brand continuing with a fully imported line-up until it was closed in 2020.

When the Echuca site closed in April, the NHMM was the oldest continually operating Holden museum in Australia and, therefore, the world.

Now, the top floor of the Bunker Gallery — a historic World War II site itself — will carry on the legacy.

“Holden is an iconic Australian brand — there's no doubt about it — and it’s really, really fabulous to be able to put that history on show,” museum manager Bruce Nelson said.

The exhibit covers the entire top floor of the museum and includes a 48-215 sedan — the first Holden model produced when the brand started making its own cars in 1948 — previously owned by the Hughes brothers who started the Holden Museum.

The mural displayed behind the car when it was shown at Echuca has also made it to its new home in Coffs Harbour.

The Bunker Gallery exhibit opened on Saturday, August 10. Photo: Supplied

There’s also a healthy amount of Bathurst paraphernalia alongside a replica of Peter Brock and New Zealand co-driver David Oxton’s 1985 Bathurst entry, a VK SS Group A Holden Dealer Team Commodore.

It’s part of a significant swag of memorabilia to explore alongside the cars, as well as a cinema section, like the Echuca museum, running footage of historical Holden advertisements and documentaries.

“It's had a lot of interest locally through the media and obviously just word-of-mouth around town,” Mr Nelson said.

“There's a quote on the wall here; ‘As the world changes, precious memories live on at the National Holden Motor Museum’, which I think sums it up nicely.”