D’Alberto Holden collection goes to auction

A dealership proprietor’s expansive collection of near-new Australian-built Holden models spanning across five decades will be heading to auction early next year, following the sale of a D’Alberto Motors dealer in Echuca, Victoria, where most of the vehicles are housed.

The collection of 50-plus Holdens have been stockpiled by four D’Alberto brothers, who have kept aside a vast number of models the local arm of General Motors has sold to customers over the years in their trio of country Victoria and New South Wales dealerships.

UPDATE: See the auction results!

MOTOR has been told that the tarpaulins have just started coming off the private collection ahead of an auction held by Mildura-based Burns and Co set for 13-15 April, 2018, but already a number of significant near-new examples of famous Holdens have emerged.

Headlining the collection so far is a 1970 Holden Monaro GTS 186S with just 320 miles on the clock, while an iconic blue Brock VK SS Group A Commodore has logged just 2336km according to the auction house. A red Brock VL SS Group A Commodore isn’t far behind, having travelled just 5279km.

A couple of Walkinshaws will be on offer as well, including a metallic light blue ‘plastic pig’ Walkinshaw VL SS Group A with only 1271km showing, and a red Walkinshaw VN SS Group A Commodore with 1830km on the odometer.

The oldest vehicle up for auction will be an FX 48-215, while EK, EH and HR Holdens, and several Commodore and Torana models, are also in the early stages of being catalogued. MOTOR has been informed that there are examples of the reborn, 2001-era V2 Monaro that are virtually new, making this collection basically a real Holden dealership time warp.

The four D’Alberto brothers – now aged in their 80s – consolidated their trio of Holden dealerships earlier this year, closing Kyabram and focusing on the Echuca outlet 40km away. Now, however, Echuca – where the majority of this car collection is held – has been sold and only the Deniliquin outlet across the border in New South Wales remains.

Burns and Co described the auction as, “Certain to be one of the countries most prized private collections of Holden motor vehicles … with extremely low kilometres and never been registered … along with numerous workshop lots, signage, car manuals et cetera amassed over three Holden dealerships in Echuca, Kyabram and Deniliquin since the 1980s.”

The auction houseis familiar with the process of selling Holden car collections. Last year following the passing of Charlie McCarron, the owner of a Holden dealership in Canowindra, NSW, a similar number of stored-away near-new models were sold. An LJ GTR XU-1 Torana fetched $100K, a HK Monaro GTS 186S snared $80K, while a HD Premier nabbed $43K.

Check out the auction details here