Car manufacturing may have disappeared from Broadmeadows, but its legacy continues to shape the identity of Hume. Panagiotis Theodorelos, known locally as Peter, and son Chris, chat with Jack O’Shea-Ayres about the important legacy that was left by the Ford manufacturing plant, and its everlasting effect on Australian culture today.
From its opening in 1959 until its closure in 2016, the Ford Broadmeadows Assembly Plant stood as one of Australia’s largest car manufacturing hubs.
At its height in 2011, more than 2000 people clocked in each day, producing iconic vehicles which rolled out of Broadmeadows and into Australian driveways.
But the factory’s true legacy lies not in the machines, but in the people who worked there, and former employee Panagiotis “Peter” Theodorelos embodies that history.
Peter arrived in Australia from Greece in 1967 and like many others immigrating during that time, he needed a job to keep him going.
With the way things were back then, he simply picked up the phone, dialled a few numbers and asked around. He phoned the manager of a hotel, a cleaner who looked after a block of toilets in St Kilda, and a taxi driver with his own fleet.
Peter secured jobs with almost all of them, working as a cleaner, a taxi driver, a chef at a Toorak Hotel, and a position at a cafe in South Melbourne before stepping into the Ford plant just after his wedding in March 1968.
They all shaped him into the man he is today, but the Ford manufacturing plant in Broadmeadows left a lasting impact on him and his family.
Peter said family friends introduced him to his job on the factory floor.
“I went there, asked for a job and started straight away,” he explains.
For Peter, the job was all about support, connection and the combination of cultures from all different walks of life.
His son Chris said the job “couldn’t come at a better time”.
“He’d just spent all his money being married, and he’d left his previous job at the cafe,” he said.
But two days into his job on the factory floor, an accident on the assembly line injured Peter’s hand, forcing him to give up his newfound work for a three month recovery period.
Still new to the plant, and a stranger to nearly everyone else working there, Peter was devastated that he couldn’t work, but Ford covered his medical bills and paid his wages during his time off until he eventually got back to working the floor again – a gesture that left a lasting impact on his perception of the working life.
Upon his return after three months of recovery, Peter was put on light duties, with his resilience and work ethic eventually leading him to a series of promotions as a leading hand, then team leader, and eventually inspector.
Peter explains he had next to no experience when he first arrived at the factory, bar a couple of skills in welding and repairs he’d gained during his time in the army in Greece.
Over time, connections were made between many of those working the factory; from those born in Australia, to the migrants from Vietnam, Greece, Italy, and even further around the world.
He recalls an invitation to the celebration of a colleague’s traditional Vietnamese wedding.
Everyone Peter knew from the plant was there.
Despite the language barriers, stories were shared, and so was the food.
Peter told of massive plates of Vietnamese delicacies being brought out for the friends and family to enjoy. The idea was to share from the same big plates.
Peter, like many others, didn’t know how to use chopsticks and it was him who started grabbing food with his hands – there was no other way around it.
And so then everyone came together, reaching for the food with their hands, dipping the cuffs of their best suits in the various sauces and drippings, laughing together as they did.
It was a moment that defined the family Ford had built for Peter in his time there. No matter the background, the skills or the knowledge, every one of them were the same.
“Good times. Very good times, they were,” Peter reminisces.
“Very good people, too. The English wasn’t great, we couldn’t always talk to each other. But we had good times.”
Chris shares that a lot of those moving to Australia and starting work at the plant didn’t know what they were looking for, but they were in search of something better.
“They had nothing, a lot of them had come out of wars and heard about Australia and the lives people were having,” he explains.
“They did it for the money, to make a living – but beyond that it meant security. [Dad] could work one job without having to worry about finishing up and going to the next one, like he used to do.
“He got that time to socialise after, it was good for him. Cause all those workers got along they’d be seeing each other outside of work, too. Barely any spoke English but they showed up and that was enough.”
In 1993, Peter’s 25 years of service was honoured with an engraved gold watch, and when he retired in 1999 after 30 years with the factory, he received a gold bracelet and a lump sum of more than $8000.
Peter’s story of loyalty and hard-work reflects the strength and commitment of Australia’s industrial history, along with many more of the migrants employed by Ford in the Broadmeadows plant from its early beginnings right up to its closure.
The legacy of Australia’s industrial manufacturing history lives on in the enduring bonds between workers like Peter and their workplaces.
More can be learnt about the legacy of the Ford Broadmeadows assembly plant at the Broadmeadows Museum, where the Gears of Time: Ford Broadmeadows through the Years exhibition, running through to Monday 15 December showcases the plant’s history, achievements and iconic vehicles.
Find original uniforms, awards, photographs by Wolfgang Sievers and Andrew Chapman, and powerful personal stories like how a Ford sponsored scholarship helped a local student work his way up to becoming a doctor.
For info, visit https://broadmeadowsmuseum.org.au/.
