Office Stairs

A red fire extinguisher sits on the bottom step of the carpeted office staircase in the former Sundell Holden workshop on Smith Street, Chatswood, intact among scattered paper and fabric debris. Graffiti tags cover the timber-panelled walls on either side, and the white risers show peeling paint. A curved sheet of plywood marked with white spray paint lies across the floor at the base. The staircase connected the ground-floor workshop to the main office above. The Smith Street building was the workshop and service centre for Sundell Motors Pty Ltd, the company registered with ASIC on 5 January 1967 under ACN 000 560 770. The business operated as an authorised Holden dealer, assigned dealer code 610 for Chatswood by General Motors Holden. The Pacific Highway showroom handled vehicle sales; Smith Street was where the mechanical and service work happened. By 2015, when this photograph was made, the building was out of use, though the date it closed is not on record. Layers of street art had begun accumulating on its walls, the building entering a second life as an informal canvas before its eventual demolition. Inside, the decay was quieter: peeling paint, settling dust, light moving through empty rooms. The franchise that gave Sundell Motors its commercial identity ended on 17 February 2020, when General Motors announced the withdrawal of the Holden brand from Australia and New Zealand. The Holden brand ceased trading entirely on 31 December 2020. Sundell was one of 185 Holden dealers operating across the country at the time of the announcement. Willoughby City Council approved DA-2017/182 in March 2021 for a five-storey Woolworths development on the Smith Street site. The former workshop was demolished around that time. Woolworths Chatswood East opened on 26 October 2022. These stairs no longer exist. This photograph is what remains of them.