It was seen that Bridgestone Australia's last tyre factory was shut down after operating for 45 years.

A farewell barbecue was arranged for 600 workers at Bridgestone's Adelaide plant after they clocked off for the last time today.

It was seen that a Japanese tyre company last October publicized that it would cut down 600 jobs in Australia and around 275 in New Zealand. They also said that they would swap locally made tyres with cheaper imports.

After an inquiry in 2002 the productivity commission said that in Victoria and South Australia there were 6,500 workers in tyre manufacturing.

"This is predominantly as a result of the massive industrialization of China and India and the rise of those countries to become, really, the manufacturing powerhouses of the 21st century", said John Spoehr, the Labour Economist from the University of Adelaide.

Mr. Spoehr said that it was a difficult environment for these workers and from the closures in the past it has been seen that one third of manufacturing employees get unemployed and sadly a huge number of employees get long term unemployed.