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The Book · Out Now

Remembering the Australia that made things.

Cars. Utes. Tools. Tractors. Caravans. Beer. Entire industries built over generations — gone within a single lifetime. This is the full story: the factories, the people who built them, and the decisions that let it all go.

The Lost Factories of Australia — book cover

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The Book

What this book is.

Millions of minutes of Industrial South have been watched by the people who remember the Australia we cover — the factories, the brands, the machines that built this country. They've left thousands of comments. They've named the plants where they served their time. They've told us what year they started, which shed the apprentices swept, and what the gates sounded like at knock-off.

This book gathers it all into one volume. The companies that built Australia, the families who ran them, the foreign boardrooms that ended them — and the moments it all came apart. Holden at Elizabeth. The foundries of Toowoomba. The refineries that kept us moving. The tools, the workwear, the ice cream trucks of an Australian summer.

A record of the country that made things — before the men who remember are gone.

Inside

A sample.

From Chapter One — The Cars Australia Forgot How to Build “

There was a time when Australia was one of only a handful of nations on earth that could build a car from the ground up — design it, engineer it, press the steel, cast the engine, and drive it off the line. The Kingswood. The Falcon GT. The Valiant Charger. The Torana that ran Bathurst. Every one of them built by Australian hands at Elizabeth, Broadmeadows, Tonsley Park and Fishermans Bend, and every one of them parked in an Australian driveway by Sunday. Then, on a grey October morning in 2017 — the date set years earlier in a GM boardroom in Detroit — the last Australian-built car rolled off the line at Elizabeth, and the workers clapped, and then it was quiet.

The cars are still loved. The factories are gone. The towns they built are still there, mostly — but the streets are quieter, the pubs have shut, and the men who once knew which shift was on by the sound of the gates have grown old. This is the story of how the country that built the cars it loved forgot how to build them at all.

The Audience

From the blokes who were there.

“

My first job, 15 years old — 1985 to 1989, fitter & turner. All gone now. Bless you fellas.

@tuf3racing751 · on the Clyde Engineering video

“

My father, 63 this year, still has my Grandfather's entire Sidchrome tool collection. Never broken, cracked or flaked in almost 80 years. One day I'll inherit them, and pass them down the line.

@jhaynes85 · on the Sidchrome video

“

My Father worked for Clyde Engineering for 43 years. They gave him a watch that turned his wrist green a year later. No pension, no recognition of 43 years as a craftsman.

@anthonyburke5656 · on the Clyde Engineering video

“

Victa gone, Holden gone, Ford gone, Valiant gone, Hills Hoist gone. AUSTRALIA GONE.

@johnblyth9787 · on the Victa video

The Channel

About Industrial South.

Industrial South tells the story of Australian industry — one factory, one marque, one padlocked gate at a time. The films are where this began. The book is where it's written down.

Industrial South · Hi, I'm Benny Watch on YouTube ↗

“Somewhere in your shed, most likely, there is a spanner that has outlived the factory that made it. Pick it up. Feel the weight of it. Somebody made that — and this is the story of where they went.”

The Book

Get the book.

  • The Lost Factories of Australia. The complete record in one volume, with real archival photographs throughout.
  • The Roll Call. A print-ready poster of the lost factories — founded to closed. For the shed wall.
  • Every future edition, free. Corrections from the blokes who were there, new chapters as they're written — yours forever.

$77$47AUD

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The fair-go guarantee Read it for 7 days. If it's not what you hoped, email us and we'll refund you in full — no forms, no arguments. A real person answers.

Before you buy

Straight answers.

How do I get the book after I pay?

Straight after payment you'll get an email with your download link. One click and the book saves to your computer, tablet or phone. The Roll Call poster comes in the same email. If anything goes wrong, reply to that email — a real person answers.

Can I print it?

Yes — it's yours. Print the whole book at home or at Officeworks, put it in a binder, keep it in the shed. The layout uses large, clear print for exactly that.

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Payment runs through a major secure checkout used by thousands of businesses worldwide. We never see or store your card details — and the 7-day fair-go guarantee covers you completely.

What if you got something wrong about my old factory?

Tell us. Plenty of our readers served their time at these places, and their corrections make the record better. Every buyer gets the updated edition free — the record only gets sharper.

Is this a subscription?

No. Pay once, it's yours forever — including every future edition, free.

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