The ute: another great Australian invention that’s stood the test of time

THE Hills hoist, the Black Box flight recorder, fly spray — Australians are behind some great inventions, including the iconic ute.

There’s no denying Australia’s love affair with utes — but the style has never been number one before, until now.

MANY of us don’t realise it, but the humble ute was an Australian invention — up there with the Hills hoist, fly spray, and aircraft “black box” data recorders.

In 1933 a Victorian farmer’s wife wrote to the boss of Ford Australia: “My husband and I can’t afford a car and a truck but we need a car to go to church on Sunday and a truck to take the pigs to market on Monday. Can you help?”

The Ford executive gave the letter to 23-year-old engineer Lewis Bandt, who came up with the idea of fitting a truck-like pick-up rear end to the Ford coupe at the time.

Practicality was the birthright of the original Ford ute.

After some trial and error, the production version was unveiled at the Brisbane motor show in February 1934 and went on sale soon after.

The concept was so popular, Holden copied it and built ute versions of even the earliest Holden sedans, from 1951.

The first Ford Falcon ute wasn’t produced until 10 years later, in 1961.

Holden and Ford dominated the ute market through the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. But by the late 1990s, the rise of Toyota HiLux-style four-door, 4WD utes was becoming apparent.

Holden and Ford had the advantage of offering ute buyers “car-like” safety, features and comfort.

Lorraine Payne inherited this 1965 XP blue ute that is still giving faithful service after 32yrs.

But these newfangled imports could seat more, tow more, carry more, and go further off the beaten track.

Japanese-branded utes, all of them made in low-cost Thailand, were starting to get better equipped and more comfortable, and soon they chipped away at the dominance of Holden and Ford utes.

Imported utes got an unexpected boost and locally-made models got hit right where it hurts -when in 2005 Australia signed a free-trade agreement with Thailand, the biggest producers of utes in the Asia Pacific region.

The Ford ute proved so popular, Holden created one of its own — this model obviously several interations down the track.

It meant imported utes could be sold in Australia at a lower price and with more equipment than the locally-made utes.

In 2006, just one year after the Free Trade Agreement with Thailand, the Toyota HiLux overtook sales of Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon utes.

Since Australia agreed to lift the import tariff on cars from Thailand, we have bought close to 2 million vehicles from our Asia-Pacific neighbour — from familiar brands such as Ford, Holden, Toyota, (the three companies closing their factory doors) as well as Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Mazda and others.

This modern incarnation of the ute shows Australians haven’t lost any affection fore them.

In return, Australia has shipped to Thailand just 100 cars. Not 100,000. Just 100.

That’s because Thailand maintained hidden, non-tariff barriers while Australia opened its borders completely.

Ingeniously, Thailand continued to impose higher registration fees on cars with larger engines — such as those made by Ford and Holden.

Toyota already has a Camry factory in Thailand, so doesn’t need to export any cars there.

While Australia will close its car manufacturing industry by the end of this year, Thailand is now the second-biggest source of motor vehicles in Australia after Japan and ahead of South Korea.

We may have invented the ute but our appetite for them over the past decade has helped put Thailand on the automotive manufacturing map.