Almost 10 years after the final Australian-built Ford rolled down the production line, the future of the Blue Oval’s former Broadmeadows Assembly Plant site has been revealed.
As reported by The Urban Developer, the Barry Road site – technically located in Campbellfield, north of Melbourne – is set to be developed into a data centre by Singaporean firm Zerra DC, which has already filed for approval with the Victorian Government.
Documents lodged by Zerra DC in April show the site, located on 300-340 Barry Road, will be home to a “substantial 6-building Data Centre (nested within ‘Utility Installation’) campus and precinct, with ancillary ‘Office’ space”, if approved.
According to Zerra DC’s website, the company “develops and operates hyperscale data centre campuses”, delivering “capacity at scale into markets that are underpinned by the growth of cloud and AI”.
The potential development of the former Broadmeadows Assembly Plant site into a data centre is a far cry from the original purpose of the land under Ford’s ownership.
Ford opened the Broadmeadows factory in 1959 to built the first generation of locally made Falcons, named the XK, which went on sale in 1960.
Every single Ford Falcon made in Australia went down the line at Broadmeadows, with more than three million examples of the sedan, coupe, wagon and ute produced from June 28, 1960.
In addition to the Falcon, the plant also made Falcon-derivative models, such as the Fairlane and LTD long-wheelbase luxury variants, as well as the revolutionary Territory, which was the only SUV ever made in Australia.
The Ford Cortina and the convertible Capri (based on the underpinnings of the Sydney-built Laser and Mazda 323) were also briefly made at Broadmeadows.
After building its first car in June 1960, production at the site ended on October 7, 2016 when the final Ford Falcon was made, an FG X XR6 sedan, finished in Kinetic Blue.
Ford was the first of Australia’s last three carmakers to stop building cars, with Toyota (October 3, 2017) and Holden (October 20, 2017) shutting their local production lines within the next 13 months.
Though Ford Australia still has a significant research and development plus engineering presence locally – and in Campbellfield near the former plant site – the Broadmeadows Assembly site was sold to the Pelligra Group in 2019, and has been disassembled in parts in the years since.
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