Attic Entrance

A metal staircase with a yellow handrail climbs toward a small attic storage opening, its uprights dense with red spray paint. A fish-like creature in yellow, orange and blue fills the wall above blue shelving units and cabinets, all of it layered with tags. The white door to the right disappears under overlapping paint drips, and a small round clock remains fixed to the wall beside the staircase. The building at 17 Smith Street, Chatswood East, served as the workshop and service centre for Sundell Motors Pty Ltd, the company operating under the trading name Sundell Holden. Sundell held Holden dealer code 610 for Chatswood, NSW, making it an authorised node in the Holden aftersales network. The company was registered with ASIC on 5 January 1967 and ran a multi-branch operation across Sydney's North Shore, with confirmed entities at Chatswood and Pittwater. The Smith Street site was the mechanical and service arm of that network, distinct from the showroom operation that once occupied the Pacific Highway frontage before its demolition in 1987. General Motors announced the withdrawal of the Holden brand from Australia and New Zealand on 17 February 2020. The Holden brand ceased trading on 31 December 2020. Sundell was one of 185 dealers operating across Australia at the time of the announcement; total compensation paid across the network was close to $150 million. The ACCC later stated that the withdrawal should serve as a lesson to all franchisors of what not to do. By the time the Smith Street workshop was photographed in 2015, the building had already passed out of active use. The walls downstairs carried layers of street art applied during the vacancy. Up here, past the attic entrance, there was only the quiet accumulation of dust and the slow failure of the surfaces. Willoughby City Council approved a five-storey Woolworths development for the site in March 2021. Woolworths Chatswood East opened on 26 October 2022.