Ford Australia is celebrating its 100th anniversary, and the country’s longest continuous automotive brand has announced how fans can celebrate.
A century ago this week, the Ford Motor Company of Australia was founded in Geelong (on March 31, 1925), following visits from North American executives two years prior.
After producing the Ford Model T as its first vehicle, the Blue Oval’s Australian division went on to locally build other iconic nameplates such as the Falcon, Territory, Fairlane and Capri (kind of).
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One hundred years on, Ford is the only carmaker still operating in Australia, following the withdrawal of Citroen from the local market last year.
Though it no longer produces vehicles here, Ford’s local research and development team plays a crucial role in creating popular models like the Ranger and Everest for global markets. Both models helped propel the brand to more than 100,000 sales in Australia last year.
To celebrate its 100th birthday, Ford is supporting the annual All Ford Day in Geelong on April 6, which is expected to be the biggest showing yet of all things Blue Oval.
Ford’s ties to Geelong extend beyond just being the town where it was founded – it has sponsored the Geelong Football Club ever since 1925, becoming one of the longest running supporter of any professional sporting team globally.
In that time, the Cats have won 10 VFL and AFL premierships, all in their familiar white and blue colours.
The 100-year partnership is also being honoured this week, with the Cats to don a special guernsey which incorporates a blue stripe inspired by the graphics on the 1971 Ford Falcon XY GT.
While Ford is also holding a ‘History in the Making’ event on April 4 exclusively for invited guests, local fans can take a trip down memory lane by delving into its expanded Heritage Vault website – which now includes even more Australian content.
Launched in mid-2022, the Ford Heritage Vault initially included no Australian images, documents and brochures, though small amounts have been drip-fed onto it over the past two and a half years.
Now, more than 2600 Ford Australia brochures and images can be viewed, ranging from the 1920s up until 2019.
It’s understood hundreds or even thousands more documents and images remain in local archives and cannot be sent to the US, due to Australian laws regarding the exportation of culturally significant historical documents.
“It has been a mammoth undertaking, but we’re continuing to add to the online archive with Australian-relevant documents, brochures and images,” Ford Heritage Brand Manager Ted Ryan said in a media statement.
“We want to ensure the collection is made accessible online for the general public, so everyone can re-live their favourite moments.”
You can view the Ford Australia contents of the Heritage Vault here, and a live stream of the History in the Making event will be available to watch on April 4.
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