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21global competition and a shrinking domestic market. Free-trade agreements and the availability of cheaper, more e%u00a0 icient imports made it increasingly di%u00a0 icult for local manufacturers such as Holden and Ford to compete. In 2017, the last Australian-made car rolled o%u00a0 the production line, marking the end of an era. It wasn%u2019t just about losing a product; it was about losing a piece of our identity, something that was distinctly ours, made for our roads and our way of life.And what a shame that is. As Monash University%u2019s senior industrial design lecturer Ian%u00a0Wong points out, %u2018Australian design is rooted in practicality and is world class%u2019. We are, he says, %u2018natural problem-solvers, and we tend to take on challenges ourselves. There%u2019s a real confidence in our designers to not just do the creative work but also handle the engineering, marketing and logistics. We don%u2019t wait for someone else to solve the problem %u2013 we just get on with it. It%u2019s part of our culture.%u2019 What I love about the items in this book is that they are ours. They might not always be the greatest designs in the world, but they represent a moment in our history, and they have the ability to take us back in time to a place that seemed simpler and somehow more optimistic, a time when we could punch above our weight somewhere other than on the sporting field. I hope that this book serves as a poignant reminder of how very resourceful we are, of how%u00a0 problem-solving, inventiveness and great design are embedded in our DNA %u2013 and of the fact that we are capable of creating some absolute rippers!