The Philips Takeover: How Holland Destroyed Australia's Greatest Radio Empire

The Philips Takeover: How Holland Destroyed Australia's Greatest Radio Empire By 1940, the Grant Street plant employed 1,200 workers. Astor wasn't just a radio maker, it was Depression Australia's voice, building the WS208 radios coast watchers carried through New Guinea. The company that armed the Pacific war. But in 1970, Dutch executive Herman Huyer absorbed Electronic Industries Ltd for Philips Eindhoven. Willem Sparrius, engineer of Australia's first colour television, watched the last Astor radio boxed at Clayton in 1974. Today, Grant Street is a freeway exit. Astor House is now apartments. The WS208 sits in the Kurrajong Radio Museum. This is the story of how one Dutch decision dissolved an Australian empire, and what it says about a country that forgot who armed it. This is not just the story of a radio company. It's the story of a country that sold its own voice. #Astor #AstorRadio #AbandonedFactories #LostFactories #IndustrialDecline #AustralianManufacturing