Last Toyota Camry starts production | exclusive

This car marks the beginning of the end for the Australian automotive manufacturing industry. Ford will shut its factories next year, followed by Holden, then Toyota.

The first example of the last car to be made in Australia will go down Toyota's production line in the Melbourne suburb of Altona today.

The official sign-off ceremony for the new Toyota Camry comes two-and-a-half years before the local car manufacturing industry falls silent forever.

Ford is due to close its Broadmeadows and Geelong factories in October 2016, about one year before Holden shuts its Elizabeth assembly line near Adelaide.

It has enough export orders for the Camry to keep the factory running until its planned shutdown date

But Japanese giant Toyota will be the last of the three to lock its car-factory gates at the end of 2017 – and this new Camry is the model that will take the company and the industry to the end of the line.

Toyota Australia says it has enough export orders for the Camry to keep the factory running until its planned shutdown date.

"We are 100 per cent categorically, absolutely, committed to continuing production until the end of 2017," said Toyota Australia president Dave Buttner.

Despite the imminent closure, Toyota says its 2500 factory workers are determined to go out on a high.

The feeling of a brand new car makes people feel proud and happy

"When the gates shut for the last time, I know I can hold my head high knowing I've done my best," said Robert Cook, a technical officer on the production line that will build 90,000 cars this year, about twice as many as Holden and five times as many as Ford.

The Toyota Camry has been Australia's top-selling medium-size sedan for 21 years but 70 per cent of the vehicles made locally are exported to the Middle East.

"The feeling of a brand new car makes people feel proud and happy and that's what motivates me to make the last car the best car," said Tony Ashamalla, factory manager.

Toyota has built more than 3.2 million cars in Australia since 1963 – just three years after the first Ford Falcon and the same year the EH Holden came out – and more than 2 million vehicles have been made in Altona since the factory opened in 1995.

When local production ends, Toyota will likely import the next generation Camry from Thailand, which has a Free Trade Agreement with Australia and is now the second biggest source of vehicles sold locally after Japan and ahead of South Korea.

Mr Buttner, who came up through the ranks at Toyota in manufacturing-related jobs between 1988 and 2002, said he had mixed emotions about the arrival of the new car.

Up to 90 per cent of blue collar staff had taken up the offer to develop new skills

"It's a bitter sweet experience," said Mr Buttner. "Bitter in that it will be the last product we build in Australia … but the other feeling is of great pride, when you see the commitment and absolute passion and dedication of every worker on the production line."

Toyota says it has started retraining its workers for life after manufacturing and up to 90 per cent of blue collar staff had taken up the offer to develop new skills.

The average length of service for Toyota Australia's production line workers is 15 years. The longest serving employee, an 83-year-old who works in quality control, who declined to be interviewed, has been with Toyota for 42 years.

"We are actively looking across Victoria: where are the jobs, are they in construction, hospitality, healthcare, what's the average weekly wage, what's the entry qualifications," said Mr Buttner.

"We've now started developing one-on-one transition plans for every employee. We will pay for the training, we will assist with any literacy skills people may require, writing resumes, and so on."

The new car is the sixth generation Camry made in Australia since 1987 and arrives just two years after the last all-new Camry went on sale.

The new Camry is due to arrive in local showrooms from next month

Customarily, only minor revisions are made at this point in the car's model cycle.

But with more than 800 new parts, it is the biggest facelift in the Camry's history. Every panel except the roof is new.

The new model cost $108 million to develop, including $23.6 million from the Federal Government and a smaller, undisclosed sum from the Victorian Government.

Once production ramps up, the new Camry is due to arrive in local showrooms from next month.