Holden has marked the 40th anniversary of the opening of its General Assembly Plant in Elizabeth, South Australia.

The milestone was celebrated by assembling a collection of restored and current Holden vehicles produced at the plant representing each of the four decades since January 1965. They included the HD Holden (1965), the HJ Holden (1975), VK Commodore (1985), VR Commodore (1995) and a current VZ Commodore.

Holden began operations on the 290-acre site, close to the satellite city of Elizabeth, north of Adelaide, with the opening of a hardware plant in 1959.

By 1963, more than 4,000 people were employed in its Body Assembly, Trim Fabricating and Metal Stampings plants.

The commissioning of the General Assembly Plant in 1965 increased the roofed area of the Elizabeth complex to almost two million square feet. Elizabeth became Holden's sole vehicle manufacturing facility in 1988.

Today, Holden employs more than 5,800 people at Elizabeth. Major operations on the 123 hectare site include plastics, body tool design, stamping, sheet metal and body fabrication, paint and vehicle assembly.

Holden's General Assembly Plant is an example of one of the most flexible production lines in the world. Its three-shift, 24-hour operation has record capacity of 835 vehicles per day for domestic and export markets and delivers no fewer than 45 left-hand-drive and right-hand-drive models off a single vehicle platform.

The plant is being extensively upgraded as part of a $440 million programme which commenced in July, 2004 and is to be completed by 2006. This is part of Holden's broader $2 billion, five-year capital expenditure programme between 2001 and 2006.

Holden Executive Director, Vehicle Operations, Rod Keane, said the vehicles displayed for the anniversary celebration reflected the way the Elizabeth plant had continued to improve and evolve over the last 40 years.

"It's a testament to Holden and to Australian manufacturing to be able to look at the cars produced throughout the history of this plant and to appreciate the technological advancements we have made in the production process since 1965," Mr Keane said.

"It's this factor that has enabled Holden to remain a viable and competitive carmaker, both locally and on a global scale.

We now fulfil a role within the broader General Motors, delivering cars under various brands to world markets and that's something we are immensely proud of being able to do."