Our Touring Past

I received a letter from a gentleman in Sydney last week with a brief history of his little Propert folding caravan.



Dear Richard.

I have a Propert Folding Caravan which I bought in 1980, a strange thing happened, in January of that year I was at Windang NSW and I saw this folding caravan there and took photos of it. Then in July 1980 I bought the one I have and later I had my film developed and when I got the photos back I found that the caravan that I took photos of was the one that I had bought.

I bought it from a van sale yard for $300.00 in quite good original condition. I also have other types of old vans so between them all they do not get used a lot, but in 1994 I took the Propert around Australia with my EH Holden station wagon and did about 30 000km or 19 000 miles and was away about 4 months. I lived in it all that time but the trip knocked it around and was not as good when I got home. I started up north and headed into a van park at Mackay and there was another Propert there, so I pulled in next to them and got talking to the couple and we have been in contact since.

I think the serial Number on mine is 152. I have only seen a couple of Properts in all my travels, there is one in the Birdwood Car Museum over near Adelaide. It is a very good museum, they also have the first Holden made, they never used it and it has been stored for years.

Do you use your caravan or is it just for show ? I have not used mine for many years now, but it is safely stored in a shed for the time being.

All the best.
Wally.


So Linda and I will hopefully be able to call in and see Wally soon and get a couple of photos of his Propert.

Wally has just mailed a photo of his Propert taken about 8 years ago.

I picked up another little package at the post office from Wally this week. His Propert is stored in a shed so he draged it out to take a few photos for us.
His Propert looks to be in fairly good original condition with the original registration, which is always a bonus to have with a van.

I have some photos from Wally of his 1994 around Australia trip in his EH Holden and Propert Caravan.
He did about 30,00 km,s on his trip which was a planned holiday to celebrate his retirement at 65. He isnt doing to bad for an old fella as he is now 80 years old and still tows a modern caravan ( 1990 ) with the old EH.

At the Darwin / Alice Springs intersection in the Northern Territory.



Broom WA, with the beautiful blue water.



On the road to Albany WA.



Parked at the old "Two Up" school in Kalgoolie WA.