National Holden Museum, Coffs Harbour

I attended the National Holden Museum in Coffs Harbour earlier this month.   It is quite a new museum, established after the previous Holden Museum in Echuca closed down in 2024.   While a lot of the cars in that museum were on loan, the permanent collection was sold off by Burns and Co.   Apparently the owner of this museum purchased a decent number of the cars, to add to his own private collection.

There were about 25-30 cars on display, and apparently there is another 25 or so cars that are part of the collection but do not fit into the museum.   I don’t know if they rotate it or not.   I’ve never owned a Holden, but I’ve always had an interest as they a really important part of Australia’s motoring history.  I would rather have a Commodore than most of the gormless SUVs on sale today.   Sadly the public didn’t agree.

The Museum is located on top of an old World War II bunker.  The Bunker was established to protect communications lines between Sydney and Brisbane.   The actual bunker houses the National Cartoon museum, which is included in a ticket for the Holden Museum.

The collection in the museum is quite varied.   Obviously it starts with an FX holden and then there are a few examples of the 60s models, 70s and quite a few from the latter years of Holden production.   Given the space they have, it is a pretty good coverage.

I don’t think you could make it work in a smaller location like Coffs Harbour, but I think it would be really interesting to have a museum that has an example of all the Holden Models parked side by side.  I went to a Corvette museum like that in the USA and it was really interesting to see them all together.

In any case I think my favourite was the HZ Caprice.   I think its important to support these smaller museums as it is not easy to keep them going.  They are mostly staff by volunteers.

I attended as part of a road trip up to Brisbane.  The plan was to drive up on Sunday, use Monday to take care of everything I needed to do there, and then return Tuesday.   I took my 560SEC on the trip and it went well.  The Holden Museum became my main stop in the middle of the day on the way up.   On the way there I took the M1.   It is the fastest way but its not a very pleasant drive.   On the way back, I took the more inland road via Warwick.  It adds another 45-60 minutes but I think it is well worth it.