The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by email. This week’s issue is written by Besha Rodell, a columnist with the Australia bureau.

The news this week that General Motors will drop the Holden brand, ceasing production of the 164-year-old make by 2021, hit particularly hard. At a time when bushfires are threatening to destroy our wildlife and leading us to question many aspects of our national character, it seemed like an especially cruel blow to lose a brand that is so wrapped up in Australian identity.

Of course, this final chapter to the Holden story had been years in the making. Many people point to 2013, the year that then-treasurer Joe Hockey challenged Holden to “come clean” about its manufacturing plans in a speech in Federal Parliament.

Days later, Holden announced it would cease Australian manufacturing, and in 2017 the last car built in Australia rolled off the production line.

The Times has reported on the long slow death of the Australian automotive industry over the years, with a story in 2017 when the last Holden factory closed, and also in 2014 when it had become clear that our auto industry was a thing of the past. In that article, John Mellor wrote, “For Australians, all that’s left is to sit and wait for the inevitable end of a venerable, distinctive and once-vibrant industry.”