For what its worth, with the many conversations I have had with engineering types from the BMC-Leyland factory, in particular Peter Davis who was Office Manager for Product Engineering (who was responsible for organising the Knock Down Allocation Schedules - KDAS - for all cars being imported as CKD or SKD), the following is the official factory description.
If the car was assembled in Australia from mostly imported components, then it is said to be Australian Assembled.
If it is from body panels pressed in Australia with a majority of Australian content (ie: in line with the local content rules) then it is said to be Australian Made.
The difference is the amount of local content. Australia's local content programme was based on input cost. This meant that BMC (and Leyland) Australia pressed the body panels and welded them together and fitted mostly locally-sourced parts and met the local content rules. The 1098cc engines (and some 998cc engines) were assembled in Australia from parts cast and machined in UK, but qualified as Australian content because of the work in assembling them. However, the engines/transmissions/brakes package for the Cooper S were imported CBU (Completely Built Up) but the remainder of the cars were locally sourced parts (body panels, interior, wheels, tyres, glass, battery, etc) so the Cooper S still classifies as Australian-made. This also applies to post-May 1975 Minis and Mokes, with imported CBU 998cc engines.
By comparison, the South African local content rules were based on weight, so they built their own engines, from complete casting and all machining to assembly. With locally-sourced interior trim, wheels, tyres, etc, fitted into imported SKD or CKD body shells, they were classified as South African made.
Importantly, while CKD stands for Completely Knocked Down, this is a bit of a misnomer for two reasons. Firstly, some components were imported in partially assembled form, such as subframes, rather than as their completely separate components. Also, there were many parts, such as batteries, wheels, tyres, interior trim, etc that were locally sourced for the Morris 850 from early on, yet the cars are considered to have been supplied CKD.
So, in a nutshell; Morris 850: Australian assembled. Mini De Luxe: Australian Made Morris Cooper: Australian assembled Morris Cooper S: Australian made Austin Cooper S (for export): Australian made Mini K (Mini De Luxe Mk2): Australian Made All Leyland Minis sold new here: Australian made
and so-on.
All Mokes from 1968 to 1982 are definitely Australian Made, but there is conjecture and dissension regarding Mokes 1966 to 1968. Most histories of the Moke list the Australian little-wheel Moke as being assembled from CKD with local input. This would qualify them as Australian Assembled.
However, the differences between the early Aussie Mokes and their UK counterparts, even in the body panels, are significant. Also, all Australian Mokes were allocated a YDO number - originally YDO7 - rather than using the UK number ADO15B. The Morris 850 assembled in Australia was always known by the UK designation ADO15 and only when the cars qualified as Australian Made were they allocated Australian Design Office numbers YDO4, YDO5 and YDO6. There are other examples of Australian Made BMC cars having YDO numbers but earlier series models being known by their Austin or Morris UK designations and considered Australian Assembled.
So, I would consider Australian little-wheel Mokes to be Australian Made as well.
Just my 12c (with inflation and GST) worth.
Cheers, Watto.
_________________ Watto . Photojournalist Mini historian and enthusiast http://www.theminiexperience.com.au
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