'Tutt Bryants' And Its Subsidiares - Fairmont History Outline

All post WW2 Fairmont motorcars bar a handful of imports were first assembled in Australia by the equipment firm 'Tutt Bryants' after securing a licence with Fairmont MN in 1948. Assembly was undertaken at Tutts Rydalmere plant in Sydney and motorcars were distributd under the 'Tutt-Bryant' name.

In 1956 Tutt Bryant design and developement arm 'South Pacific Engineering' was formed, no doubt to cater for the local parts production and Australian modifications with assembly continuing at the original Rydalmere factory. A unique serial ID plate for South Pacific engineering appears not to have been produced and motorcars continued to be marketed under the 'Tutt-Bryant' name until 1963.

A new manufacturing arm 'Pacific ACE Equipment Company' was formed in 1963 located in the Sydney suburb of Hornsby NSW and cars where now marketed under the 'Pacific ACE' name with a new serial plate reflecting this.

In 1967 the bulk of Fairmont assembly was moved to Tutts 'Pacific ACE' plant at Evans Rd Salisbury, a suburb of Brisbane in Queensland. Queensland Railways was replacing and expanding its Fairmont fleet during this period so it made economic sense to set up operations in Queensland. Around 350 3' 6" cars were assembled in the Queensland factory along with a quantity of other gauge sizes including the cars for the South Australian standard gauge project.

In 1977 operations then moved back to the Hornsby/Asquith? plant in Sydney with the plant now known as the 'Pacific Construction Equipment Company'. Motorcars were now marketed under this name and this continued till production ceased in 1981. It is interesting to note here that records indicate Tutt-Bryant supplied the spare parts where as South Pacific engineering and the Pacific Company's only supplied new units. Pacific/Tutts continued to manufacture and import other Fairmont rail equipment and provide design support till the mid 80's when the licence agreement with Fairmont MN was terminated.

Tutts as they were now called continued to supply spare parts from their Queensland branch till June 1996 when their remaining stock was sold to QR and a private collector. The Sydney and South Australian branches ceasing Fairmont sales and service prior to 1996 with the remaining stock from both branches sold off to private South Australian collectors or forwarded to the Queensland branch.

In 1998 Tutts, now sold and trading under a new company name Tatt-Hong, disposed of their last remaining Fairmont plans, production data, and sacked their Fairmont design engineer. Thus ended a 50 year association with the Fairmont Motor Car in Australia.

I am happy to report that a fair proportion of this data was saved from destruction and is being used as a resource for this history project. The present keeper of the records can be contacted by email for those wishing to know the build year or just undertaking research of their Australian motorcar.

Finally I note that the original Pacific ACE Hornsby plant street address was Salisbury Rd and the Queensland plant was in the Brisbane Suburb of Salisbury. This unusual anomaly has caused some confusion with motor car owners.

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