Generations of Australians grew up driving, admiring, riding in, and loving their locally-made cars.

The Kingswood, Falcon, Commodore, P76, Pulsar, Camry and many, many more put Australians on the road and gave them the freedom to explore our wide open land.

And it’s not over yet.

It’s been more than a year since Ford, Holden and Toyota closed the last of their local car-making factories but classy Australian engineering lives on in everything from Cadillac engine bays to the Ford Ranger ute that was designed, tested and developed at Broadmeadows and the You Yangs before being exported to the production line in Thailand.

David Brabham, youngest son of Sir Jack, has even developed a road-going supercar called the BT62 that is being built in Adelaide and will be sold around the world for $1.8 million.

So car-making is not completely dead, it’s just different. Very different.

Pull on a pair of retrospectacles and its easy to see that Australian cars were local, special and very different from the rest of the world.

The original Holden 48-218 introduced the idea of the ‘Big Aussie Six’ and a family car tradition that continued right through to the very last Commodore.

Along the road, there were plenty of towering highs and dismal lows.

The legendary Ford Falcon GTHO Phase III was, for a time, the world’s fastest four-door sedan.

The Holden Monaro became the Pontiac GTO with exports to the USA and was followed by a V8 Commodore that was badged, sold and raced in NASCAR oval-track competition as the Chevrolet SS.

For a time, there was even a Kingswood with a Mazda rotary engine that was sold in Japan as the Roadpacer.

Australian car-making had a lot in common with the kangaroo and emu over the decades, as a high wall of protection from imports and government subsidies allowed the production of cars that were unique to Australia and uniquely Australian.

The Falcon and Commodore, in their dying days, were local one-offs in a world that had moved away from big family sedans.

So the road is now closed for large-scale local car-making but there is a rich history to explore, celebrate and — in some ways — mourn.

CHECK OUT PAUL GOVER’S ALL-TIME LIST HERE. CLICK INTO THE COMMENTS BELOW TO TELL US YOUR FAVOURITE AUSSIE CAR AND RATE HIS top 20.

This is the final instalment in a special three-part series by Paul Gover that began with his Top 50 Cars of All Time.

Recap the Top 50 Cars of All Time here.

Check out Gover’s list of the 10 biggest Aussie car flops here.

MORE: AUSSIE CARS YOU NEVER KNEW WERE BUILT HERE

AUSTRALIA’S CLEVEREST CARS

AUSTRALIA’S MUSCLE CARS, PART 1

AUSTRALIA’S MUSCLE CARS, PART 2

WHY THE LEYLAND P76 WAS A CLASSIC

THE DEATH OF THE FALCON