Toyota starts selling off Altona plant, piece by piece

TOYOTA has begun selling off industrial machinery from its Altona factory ahead of its shutdown, with the sale sheet including sophisticated robots, sheetmetal presses, gantry cranes and enough catering gear to run a 200-person cafeteria.

Expressions of interest for the items have been advertised on auction website Grey’s Online with equipment from most sections of the huge factory, located in Melbourne’s western suburbs, up for grabs including the paint shop, resin shop, engine assembly line and welding shop.

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Highlights include the overhead carriers that moved cars through certain stages of production, an emissions lab and a veritable army of robot featuring painting, welding and assembly bots, plus more cranes than the Melbourne skyline.

There’s also general factory plant equipment and some serious kitchen gear such as deep fat frying stations and commercial ovens.

Offers for all equipment close on October 3, which happens to be the day Toyota shuts up shop bringing to an end 54 years of local production.

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Australia was the first country outside Japan that Toyota chose to build cars, with operations beginning at 1963 in Port Melbourne – the site where Toyota Australia’s head office will relocate to once local manufacturing ceases. Currently, Toyota’s local arm is headquartered in Caringbah, Sydney.

The Altona factory started as an engine plant in 1978 and switched to full vehicle assembly in 1994 after the construction of a brand new facility.

The plant became the first and only one in Australia to produce a hybrid vehicle, with production of the Camry Hybrid commencing in 2009.