IN 1953, Australia was changing.

Post-war rationing was over, some bloke called Lang Hancock had found iron ore in Western Australia, hurdler Shirley Strickland became a household name after winning gold at the Olympics, Bathurst hosted the Australian Grand Prix for the first time and a bunch of Poms blew up their first atomic bomb right in our back yard.

It was also the time the first seeds of expansion were sown for the Australian car industry. Demand for Holden’s 48-215 was outstripping supply, as was a freshly added sedan-based “Coupe Utility”. So, on the fourth anniversary of the first homegrown sedan rolling out of Woodville, GM announced an ₤11 million investment in the plant that would lift production to 200 a day.

The flood of migrants into Australia brought with them European tastes. Porsche had launched the 356, the first of its cars, in 1951 at the South Melbourne town hall, just up the road from the Albert Park Grand Prix circuit.

A number of them started to establish a foothold in Australia to work around punitive tariffs brought in to protect local jobs and Holden.

The complicated merger of Nuffield and Austin, British Motoring Corporation and Leyland formed British Leyland Australia, Chrysler Australia was formed after the US carmaker bought out coachbuilder T.J. Richards with the aim of building a family of passenger cars and commercial vehicles with 90 percent local content.

A strange little car from Germany – one that both Morris and Ford rejected after World War II – arrived in Australia in 1953. It was simply known as the Volkswagen, though the air-cooled, rear-engined family car devised during the Third Reich’s reign was more popularly known as the Beetle.

After a slow start, sales built steadily as the decade progressed, with the Beetle the fifth best-selling vehicle in 1956 and reaching number three two years later. It would eventually add an assembly line in Clayton, Victoria.

Originally intended for a factory to build a future Zephyr, the Broadmeadows head office was to eventually become the home of the US-designed and engineered Falcon.

British cars such as the Hillman Minx (maker of the 1956 Mark VIII Gaylook De Luxe Saloon – oh these were much more innocent times!), Humber Super Snipe (both by Rootes Australia, the local offshoot of a British company that also made the Sunbeam and Singer models), Standard Vanguard Spacemaster, Vauxhall Velox, Austin A30 and Morris Minor were still comparatively popular in Australia during this era.

An event called the Round Australia Trial was introduced to allow carmakers to demonstrate how well-adapted their products were to the Australian environment.

The 403 built on its predecessor’s reputation from 1955, but the lack of six-cylinder power meant no Pug ever came within a cooee of Holden’s popularity.

The epochal Citroen DS that shocked the world in 1955 arrived in Australia a couple of years later. Its futuristic styling clicked with the UFO mania sweeping the world at the time, though Aussies were sceptical about the cost maintaining the ingenious hydraulics that controlled the suspension, brakes and gear lever. Arguably the most beautiful car ever produced, the DS also somehow found a following among more avantgarde-minded motorists.

But a completely redesigned top hat that evolved into 1956’s far-more contemporary FE Holden ended up being one of the most exciting moments of the decade, making headlines and causing mayhem in dealerships as folk clambered to take a look at the latest version of Australia’s Own.

Holden would enter the 1960s as the undisputed king of the Australian car market.

Next: 1958-1962: The Ford Falcon flies

Catch up on our previous 1948-1952 recollection: Australia’s post-war car industry is born