Holden’s priceless collection of concepts and classics set to stay in Australia

Holden’s Heritage car collection is safe and will continue to be enjoyed by Australians – it seems.

Holden couldn’t tell us exactly what would happen to the collection of concept and milestones vehicles in the longer term, but assured CarsGuide that the cars would not be taken or sold overseas.

The heritage collection counts the Efijy, Coupe 60 and Hurricane concepts in its ranks, as well as landmark Commodore, Monaro and Barina models, totalling around 60 vehicles.

Holden spokesman Daniel Cotterill said that there was a plan, but that it was “literally a work in progress”.

He would not speculate on how or by whom the collection would be administered going forward, but said that the brand is “formulating a plan to ensure that the dignity of, and respect for, the collection is protected”.

“But I can tell you that the collection will not be leaving the country,” he said. “There’s been all sorts of speculation about the cars being shipped to Detroit, but Detroit has just closed Holden down; why would they want the cars over there?”

Rumours over the future of the Heritage Collection have been rampant with the news that Holden was being wound up in coming months, fuelled no doubt by the announcement that Holden sold off several members of the collection late last year.

However, those sales were largely of models of which Holden had multiples.

In some cases where Holden still held the first and last example of a particular model, the company retained the last and auctioned the first.

There’s also Australia’s Protection of Moveable Cultural Heritage Act in place; legislation aimed at ensuring that objects of cultural importance remain in the country.

The legislation specifically mentions objects of science or technology, and if the Holden collection doesn’t represent objects of cultural importance, we don’t know what does.