Ten years after Ford Australia shut its Geelong and Broadmeadows manufacturing plants, both regions have rebuilt their economies around new industries and investment. But former line workers we spoke to say the official growth figures do not tell the whole story of what it cost them personally to start again.
A closure that reshaped two communities #
Ford ended more than 90 years of local manufacturing when it closed its engine plant in Geelong and its factory in Broadmeadows in October 2016, bringing to a close a chapter that had defined employment in both regions since the 1920s. The closures followed similar decisions by Holden and Toyota, marking the end of large-scale car manufacturing in Australia altogether.
At the time, more than 600 workers were directly affected across the two sites, with flow-on job losses estimated across the parts and components supply chain that had grown up around the plants over decades. State and federal governments, along with Ford, funded transition and retraining packages aimed at helping workers move into new industries.
Geelong’s economic recovery #
Geelong’s broader economy has diversified significantly in the years since, with growth in health services, education, professional services and construction helping offset the loss of manufacturing jobs. The city has also benefited from continued residential growth as more Melbourne workers and families have relocated to the region, along with state government-backed precinct developments.
Local business groups have pointed to falling unemployment figures in the years following the closure as evidence the region successfully pivoted away from its manufacturing base. But economists caution that aggregate figures can mask uneven outcomes for individual workers, particularly those who were older, had limited formal qualifications outside their trade, or had spent their entire working life at the plant.
Broadmeadows: a harder road #
Broadmeadows has faced a more complicated recovery. The suburb, in Melbourne’s north, already carried higher rates of unemployment and socioeconomic disadvantage than Geelong before the Ford closure, and community organisations working in the area say some of those underlying pressures have persisted even as new investment has arrived.
Redevelopment of the former Ford site and surrounding industrial land has drawn logistics, warehousing and some advanced manufacturing tenants in the years since closure. Local employment services providers say these new roles have absorbed some former Ford workers, but the pay, shift structures and job security on offer have often differed markedly from the conditions workers had under their old enterprise agreements.
What former workers have told us #
We have spoken to several former Ford employees from both sites who described the retraining and redeployment process as slower and more difficult than they expected when the closures were first announced. Several said they took years to find secure full-time work again, and some described taking on multiple part-time or casual roles rather than a single ongoing position.
One former Geelong worker, who asked not to be named, told VCN he retrained in a new trade area through a government-funded program but said the transition period put significant financial strain on his household. Another former Broadmeadows worker said he ultimately left the workforce earlier than planned after a series of short-term roles failed to provide long-term stability.
These accounts are broadly consistent with independent research into the long-term outcomes for Australian automotive workers displaced by plant closures over the past decade, which has generally found that older workers and those in outer-suburban and regional locations took longer to secure comparable employment, when they secured it at all.
The policy response, then and now #
At the time of the closures, the Victorian and federal governments jointly funded worker transition programs including retraining subsidies, career counselling and job-matching services, delivered in partnership with Ford and industry bodies. Programs specific to the automotive transition wound down in the years following the closures, with affected workers then moving into mainstream employment services alongside other jobseekers.
Local councils in both Geelong and Hume, which takes in Broadmeadows, have continued to lobby state and federal governments for targeted investment in the years since, arguing that one-off transition funding is not sufficient to address the longer-term structural challenges facing communities that lose a major single employer. Both councils have pointed to precinct renewal projects, training partnerships with TAFE providers and efforts to attract advanced manufacturing and technology tenants to former industrial land as part of their ongoing economic strategies.
Lessons for future industrial transitions #
The Ford closures are frequently cited by policy researchers and union officials as a case study for how Victoria should plan for future industrial transitions, including the ongoing shift away from coal-fired power generation in the Latrobe Valley and broader changes in manufacturing and logistics driven by automation.
Advocates for affected workers argue that transition support needs to be sustained over a longer period than the two-to-three-year window typically funded after a major closure, and tailored more closely to the age, skills and location of individual workers rather than delivered as a one-size-fits-all program. Others have called for stronger requirements on companies to give longer notice periods ahead of closures, allowing more time for workers to plan their next steps.
Ten years on, both Geelong and Broadmeadows stand as examples of how a regional economy can rebuild after losing a major employer — but also of how uneven and personally costly that rebuilding can be for the people who lived through it. As Victoria continues to navigate further shifts in its manufacturing and energy sectors, the experiences of former Ford workers are likely to remain a reference point for how governments design the next round of transition support.
Tom Whitford covers regional Victoria for VCN. If you were a former Ford worker affected by the Geelong or Broadmeadows closures and would like to share your story, VCN welcomes contact through our newsroom.
If this article has raised concerns about financial stress, job loss or related mental health and wellbeing, support is available. Contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, both available 24/7.
