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That may well be a specifically Australian demarcation, David. In Britain, the only line drawn is the government's daft licencing law which says that a pre '74 car is a cherished classic and thus exempt from annual duty, and a post '74 car can never be.
Irritates "N" registered MG B and Triumph Stag owners mightily, I can tell you!
I think that to be honest, the term "classic" is rather too broadly used in the context of the old-car movement. I mean, a Nash/Austin Metropolitan is cute and distinctive, but it was also a terminally ghastly car in almost all respects.
But every Metropolitan which has made it this far is worth preserving, for its obvious will to live against all the odds.
My own hobby car, a 1970 Mercedes Benz 220, currently in immobile pieces in a lock-up, I would never describe as a classic. It's a distinctive old car. An icon in Beirut perhaps where the vast majority of them have served their time as taxicabs, running for 200,000 miles on paraffin and no maintenance. But it's not a classic in any sense of the word. Nor will it ever "become" a classic by virtue of having survived long enough. But that doesn't make her any the less precious in my eyes, and certainly does not make her any less worthy of preservation.
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