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General Motors station was originally opened as a 'special platform' on 1 October 1956 to service the General Motors Holden car factory to the north. An alternate date for the opening is 18 November 1956. Work on the adjacent General Motors Holden factory commenced with the purchase of 152 acres (0.62 km2) of land in 1951, construction commencing in 1955, and completed in 1956. Construction of the station was paid for by General Motors.
The station opened at the site of a number of private railway sidings, two years after electrification of the line through it was commissioned, and at a time when suburban services to Pakenham did not exist. As a result, only a single platform was provided on the north side on the Down (Pakenham bound) track, and services operated as extensions of Dandenong trains at factory opening and close times. This was altered on 20 January 1975, when suburban services were extended from Dandenong to Pakenham. The Up (Melbourne bound) platform and footbridge to the north was provided in late 1974, and Pakenham trains were timetabled to stop at the station at factory opening and close times.
The station was provided with a crossover between the double track lines, and a signal box to control it. A number of railway sidings also branched from the station in a westerly direction along the main line. In 1979, they served the International Harvester, Heinz, and General Motors Holden factories. The station could not be accessed from public roads, with the only way in and out via a gate into the General Motors Holden factory. In 1991, the General Motors factory closed down, leaving the station essentially isolated.
A notice was issued by the Public Transport Corporation stating that the station was to close from 5 November 1991, however it remained open for a further eleven years, despite the closure and demolition of the factory, and the fact that the footbridge now led to a fenced-off, empty paddock where the factory had once stood. It was estimated to be the least patronised station in the entire city network, with only an average of 11 passengers using it a day. By the time it closed, only eight trains stopped at the station each day, four each way … Wikipedia
In 1964 the GM Holden Dandenong Plant had an employee number of 3600.
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CREDIT: State Library - Victoria Photographers (historical images) are listed at the end of the video