Were these actually called "Chevrolets"?
I was just trying to be fully correct. Most people over here just call them a Chev or Chevs, hearing Chevy sounds odd to me. Very rarely do I hear Chevy, unless it's 55 Chevy, 56 Chevy, etc.
I know that at some time bare chassis were shipped to Aus and then bodied by coachbuilders there, but still, I thought that Holden was (at least from the very early days) the Australian "branch" of Chevrolet (or GM.)
That's right, Holden were building the bodies for GM cars from the early 20's, but they weren't owned by GM. They bodied lots of Morrises, Fiats, etc as well. Holden was bought by GM in 1931 (to become GMH), but were still making bodies for other cars, Austins, Singer and so on. Holden started making cars in 1948, and were a separate company within GM. I don't think Holden was ever a branch of Chevrolet, if anything it was the US GM. GM Australia was established in the early 20's to handle the assembly of CKD cars and trucks, and also make parts for GM vehicles. I was looking at a very tired 1928 Chev truck last week, and we noticed that there were a few GMH stamped parts on there, spring hangers, front pulley, etc.
The chassis in the utes, either the Fords, Chevs, etc were usually made on convertible chassis as they had extra strengthening, like a big X brace in the middle or something. And you're right, it's a 50 ute. I'm fond of the utes, the 1936 Ford I think is the best of them.
