Bunny Tails

Feathery grass plumes crowd the base of a corrugated metal wall, pressing against layers of spray paint in red, white, blue and black. Text fragments and abstract forms cover the surface up to a roller door on the right. The vegetation blurs the boundary between the wall and the overgrown ground at its base. It is a quiet image, and that quietness is the point. The building behind the frame was the workshop and service centre of Sundell Motors Pty Ltd, located at the corner of Smith and Gibbes Streets, 17 Smith Street, Chatswood East. Sundell held Holden dealer code 610 for Chatswood and was incorporated on 5 January 1967, operating as the mechanical and aftersales arm of a multi-branch North Shore dealer network, with the showroom function handled separately from the Pacific Highway site. The Smith Street building handled servicing and repairs within the Holden aftersales network. The Holden franchise that gave the business its name and its reason to exist was withdrawn on 17 February 2020, when General Motors announced it would exit the Australian and New Zealand markets. Holden ceased trading in Australia on 31 December 2020. At the time of the announcement, Sundell was one of 185 Holden dealers across the country. The ACCC investigated the manner of the withdrawal and later noted the conduct should serve as a lesson to all franchisors. A Senate inquiry found a clear imbalance in bargaining power between Holden and its dealer network. Whether the Smith Street workshop was still operating in 2015 when this photograph was made is not confirmed. What the photograph shows is ground that has been left long enough for grass to take the base of a wall, and light falling across something small and persistent at the edge of a workshop. Willoughby City Council approved a development application for a five-storey Woolworths supermarket on the site in March 2021. The building was demolished around that time. Woolworths Chatswood East opened on 26 October 2022.