Thread: Who assembled the Landys in OZ

Thanks Lotz-A- Landies,

Appreciate the additional information and your insite.

Mines called "Mono" short for "Monolith" coined by my 5'2" wife who struggles to get in and out of her

Cheers

Baggy

Diana,
Only just reading this thread. I am pretty sure Faulls did not build, but did some minor assembly only. I have a copy of some ads somewhere. They only became the Land Rover Dealer in Perth in the early 70s from memory. Prior to that they were the Rover car dealer from the early 50s and actually badged the cars as Faulls on the firewall on some cars. We have 3 P4s a 56 badged as Faulls a 61 and 62 that came through Faulls but just had Rover badges. I also have a badge off a 57 that is Faulls. Martin Palmer formerly of Faulls lives nearby. He was with them for a long time from the 50s through to the end of their distributorship and delivered all 3 of the vehicles we have and was involved with LR sales I think too. Faulls started in Busseleton WA selling several brands and expanded from there. They became Winterbottom-Faulls in the mid 70s I think, then just Winterbottoms and eventually Barbagallos. If I catch up with Martin again I will ask him.
Cheers
CraigE

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Not completely correct. Rover Co Ltd contracted Pressed Metal Corporation who already assembled and built bodies for Leyland and AEC buses to assemble Land Rover vehicles but that only happened in about 1956. The factory was at Enfield in the mid western suburbs of Sydney. On Series 1 vehicles you should find a PMC built ID plate, just near the transfer box information plate vehicles, with an LRS or LRL serial number in addition to the chassis number. Land Rover and in fact Range Rover, production continued at Enfield, along with Pugeot until the mid 1980's. Australian Range Rover production ceased in about 1984 with the commissioning of the new Range Rover assembly plant in the UK. After the Enfield plant closed military Land Rovers, including the Parentie were built in the JRA plant at Moorebank.

Prior to PMC assembly, and in this case John's date of 1950 is correct, the Aussie CKD vehicles were assembled at a number of master distributors. Champion's Ltd in Adelaide, Regent Motors in Melbourne, Annand and Thompson in Brisbane and Grenville Motors in Sydney. (In fact the Grenville Motors assembly plant was in Australia Street Camperdown). Whether Faull's Motors in Perth actually assembled vehicles or only distributed them I am unaware.

There were quite some differences in build quality at the different assemblers and such was the quality control that Rover Co Ltd decided to have a single Australian assembly plant which was PMC as above.

Some interesting differences between the various assembly locations. In the 80" models the chassis number was supposed to be stamped on the LHS engine mount top, this was done at assembly and not at chassis manufacture (there is a chassis build number for that purpose). At Annand and Thompson by the 1953 models they had changed the location for the stamp to the top of the chassis rail and this location continue into the 1955 86" models which were supposed to be stamped on the spring hanger but A&T stamped the chassis rail top.

A&T also were the distributor responsible for the paint stenciled Land Rover on the front and rear of their vehicles.

Diana

Faulls definitely distributed Land Rover from the beginning of production, in fact 1948 vehicle R860004 was distributed by Faulls to its original customer Great Boulder Mines where it remained never being registered until recovered and restored a few decades later.

However I am unaware if they assembled any. They are not listed in Mike Combridge's list of 1950 CKDs.

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Faulls definitely distributed Land Rover from the beginning of production, in fact 1948 vehicle R860004 was distributed by Faulls to its original customer Great Boulder Mines where it remained never being registered until recovered and restored a few decades later.

However I am unaware if they assembled any. They are not listed in Mike Combridge's list of 1950 CKDs.

Checked some of my stuff last night. It appears in WA Winterbottoms became the LR dealer in 1970 odd. Taking over from Faulls (first Winterbottom-Faulls on the 60s and then just Winterbottoms. There are very scant details on the period of Faulls. Would be good if Martin Palmer and Thomas Tickel could put together some history as they both worked for them during this period. I know Faulls were the appointed Rover Car dealer, but also sold various other brands at some time and unsure if they were the appointed LR dealer or just sold them. Would be good to do some more research. As above I am sure Thomas would know.
I think I have a electronic copy of a Faulls ad from the 30s which I think was from Busselton and was promoting Chevrolet trucks? Will see what I can find. Talking to Martin some time ago I don't think they were a CKD as such, but pretty sure some of them did not come fully assembled and some was done. I was mainly focused on P series cars when talking to Martin. I know Martin either has or had some of the ledgers or may have given to the WA Rover club. Now that you have said it a friend of mine when we were in high school got a shorty Series 1 to rebuild and that had a Faulls plate on it, but that was over 30 years ago.

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Faulls definitely distributed Land Rover from the beginning of production, in fact 1948 vehicle R860004 was distributed by Faulls to its original customer Great Boulder Mines where it remained never being registered until recovered and restored a few decades later.

However I am unaware if they assembled any. They are not listed in Mike Combridge's list of 1950 CKDs.

Sorry, I have only just noticed this thread.
I bought my first Land Rover from Faulls in Perth in 1964. A series 2 diesel. Along with Martin Palmer and Thomas Tickel, Kevin Falconbridge of Rovertech fame, served his apprenticeship with Faulls.

Lots of fascinating historical information in this thread.
One question - were any of the LRs sent to the Snowy Mountains scheme built here or were they all imported? Just curious.

The following shows the world wide distributors of Land Rovers in 1961.
Australia is at page 40 of 91.

[ame]http://www.lrfaq.org/Dealerships/Global_Distributors_Dealers_5th_Ed_1961_pt1.pdf[/ame]

(sorry, I am not up with posting links, http://www.lrfaq.org/Dealerships/Glo...d_1961_pt1.pdf)

In Perth Faulls were known as just that, until Winterbottoms became involved in the 1970s, of which date I am not sure. They did not assemble Land Rovers to my knowledge, apart from changing cab types to customers requirements, and that only with used vehicles as far as I recall.

I was on the family farm at that time, and Faulls were one of the "old school" of dealers. One phone call and parts were dispatched the same day and charged to my account without question.

A couple of other old timers were Sam Small and Alex Brims.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Lots of fascinating historical information in this thread.
One question - were any of the LRs sent to the Snowy Mountains scheme built here or were they all imported? Just curious.

Yes.

Both imported built up and assembled here from CKD kits.

The built up vehicles were some of the early vehicles in each production year and the speciality variants like the 80 inch welders, Tickford station wagons, Rover factory and Firefly fire engines as well as several forward controls.