Edward Holden/Frank Perry back strategy for industrialisation of South Australia in 1930s
General Motors Holden's chairman Edward Holden (front, second from left) at the Woodville GMH plant in 1927-28 with GMH general manager John Holden (at rear, left) and, also in front) South Australian industry minster S.W. Jeffries, acting Australian prime minister Earl Page , GMH director Wallace Bruce and federal health minister Billy Hughes.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia
South Australian business leaders Edward Holden and Frank Perry joined state auditor-general J. W. Wainwright in persuading the Liberal Country League government in the 1930s/40s to shift its focus from supporting primary industry to promoting secondary industry.
They helped refine the strategies to attract manufacturers to South Australia. These policies were largely put in place by premier Richard Butler and fully adopted by Thomas Playford, with further impetus during World War II.
Edward Holden, who joined the family firm (still trading as Holden & Frost Ltd) in 1906, oversaw it expansion into motor-body building highly automated mass production. With General Motors, Holden's dominated the car market throughout mainland Australia. In 1929, the company employed 3400 workers and was the biggest car body builder in the Empire – before the Depression hit and, with General Motors rejecting a merger, Holden was replaced in the managing director’s role in 1934. He remained chairman of the board of directors until 1947.
Frank Perry had joined his uncle Samuel’s foundry business in 1903. After buying James Martin & Co. works at Gawler in 1915, Perry became South Australia’s biggest engineering firm, with Frank as chairman and managing director from 1930 when his uncle died.
Both Perry and Holden went into politics on the Liberal side in the 1930s: Holden in the Legislative Council (1935-47) and Perry representing East Torrens in the House of Assembly (1933-38).
They continued to take a leading in South Australia’s industrialisation as president (Holden) and deputy president (Perry) respectively of the South Australian Chamber of Manufactures.
They formed a secondary industries committee in 1935, replaced in 1937 with the Industries Assistance Corporation of South Australia. These advised the government on policies, such as setting up the South Australian Housing Trust. The corporation saved or set up several companies that became major employers.
Holden supported other government efforts to attract industry in the 1930s, especially by reducing wharfage costs. But, increasingly, he emphasised the dangers of “socialistic” legislation and price and investment controls. In 1947, he voted against the government takeover of the Adelaide Electric Supply Co., despite pressure from premier Tom Playford.
