Flynn Caravans.

[Richard]

I have been lucky in finding out a little bit of the history of Flynn Caravans.

Jack Flynn started building caravans at the rear of his house in 1949 at Albert Park.
As caravan building started to take off he later moved to an old cabinet making workshop at 17 Collins St. Thornbury. Its is interesting that the workshop still had the old steam driven centre shaft which then had large leather belts coming off it to run the machinery.
Jack continued making high quality caravan up until around 1966 when he realised that he could not compete with the new mass produced caravans that were starting to take a hold on the industry like Franklin and Viscount etc.
Jack later purchased the Tasmanian Timber Bending business which he ran till he retired in the early 1970's.

[Richard]

Today would have been the 100th birthday of one of Australia's most innovative caravan builders Jack Flynn.

The photo below shows Jack (in his early forties) standing in front of one of his ply caravans.

[Richard]

An image below of a very early Flynn caravan, with the photo taken around 1940.

Part of the Jack Flynn collection.

[Richard]

As I mentioned in a previous post I have been very lucky to have been in contact with Nigel Flynn who is the son of Jack Flynn the builder of Flynn caravans. Nigel has kindly given me the following photos that relate to his late father building his caravans.
Without going into great detail of the Flynn family tree, here is a brief history of Jack Flynn and his Flynn caravans.

The History of Flynn Caravans. Part I

Jack Flynn had family roots at Hamilton in the Western District of Victoria, where Jack and his elder brother collected and milled the local hardwood. After losing his younger brother to the mill, the mill itself was totally destroyed in the January 1939 “Black Friday Bushfires”. Jack then spent a few years of the late 1940 working at the Tasmanian Timber Bending Works.
In 1949 Jack started building small caravanettes, which proved very popular. In the late 1940’s and early 50’s Jack could see that Australians were becoming more affluent so he designed the “Cabin Car” to be towed by the smaller British cars of the day. Then with the release of “Australia’s Own Car” the FX Holden and later the FJ, Jack could see the need of a more family holiday orientated van to be towed by this style of car.
Jack continued caravan construction up until around 1967 when he became disillusioned with the industry and could see the demise of the “specialist” caravan builder as mass produced production line vans were coming into vogue.
Around this time Jack acquired the Tasmanian Timber Bending Works, which Jack son Nigel eventually sold in 2001.


Photo 1.
One of the first caravans that Jack built which has very similar lines to the Home Beautiful style of caravan but still has the trademark Flynn vertical back window..

Photo 2 and 3.
A late 1940’s photos of a Flynn Cabin Car.

[Richard]

Part II.

A Flynn “Far Horizons” caravan that looks to be around 14’ long and was built in the early 1950’s. This van also features the Flynn vertical back window.

[Richard]

Part III

The Flynn Caravan Port at 756 High St. Thornbury. Victoria.

Click HERE to see the Flynn Caravan Port in its current condition.

Nigel ( Jacks son ) fondly remembers working at the Caravan Port on many a Saturday working full time filling gas bottles.

A late 1950's Flynn caravan at the Caravan Port yard. We are not sure if this van was for sale or if it was one of the Flynn hire fleet.

[Richard]

Part IV

The two following photos are of Jack Flynn. The first one is Jack in his early 40's in front of a very nice flynn bondwood caravan.
The second photo is of Jack working on the roof of an alloy caravan, which would date it around the early to mid 1960's. It is unusual that in both of these photos of Jack he is not smoking as he smoked up to 80 cigarettes a day, so as rarely seen without on in his mouth..

[Richard]

Part V

The Caravan and Trailer Industry Association float at the Moomba parade. Of course it was a Flynn caravan, well at least a mock up anyway.

[Richard]

Part V

The Flynns on Holidays.

Like many early caravan builders Jack Flynn started out with a van that he built for the family in the late 1940's and progressed from there to be a full time caravan builder.

An early 1950's Flynn caravan on holidays towed with the Flynn Caravan work truck.

The Flynn family on holidays around 1955. Keith Winsers Flynn "Trans-Continental" can be seen on the left. Jack and Keith Winser were great friends and the two family's regularly travelled together while on holidays.

The Flynns and Winsers on holidays around the mid 1950's at a stop along the Great Ocean Road.