Land Cruiser Caravans.

[Richard]

Caravan Construction and Hire Co. Pty Ltd
Caravan House 192-204 Point Nepean Rd.
Gardenvale Victoria.

I have been given this rare little Brochure. It is a little bit moth eaten but I would say that it would be from the late 1930's. A history printed inside states "Mr Heber started from a small factory in Brighton, then moved to a larger factory at Bay St. Brighton then in 1937 moved to Point Nepean Rd.

So assuming that Mr Heber stayed at the 2 previous factories for 3 or 4 years each before 1937, that would put the start of his business at the end of the 1920's to early 30's. So this would be a very early caravan manufacturer.

1930's photo of a Land Cruiser Victory model caravan.

[Richard]

I have found this ad for Land Cruiser in a 1937 magazine. It shows a Land Cruiser Regent model caravan, and also ads weight to the debate that Land Cruiser Caravans was up and running well before 1937 as they have a well equiped Hire Fleet.

This old photo also shows a Land Cruiser Regent caravan being towed by a car equiped with a gas producer, to prove that the gas producer didnt affect the cars performance. Photo taken about 1939.

[Richard]

I was playing on the net the other day and stumbled upon a website that has a collection of newspapers from 1850's to the 1950's. I had a quick look through and found heaps of information on the very early caravan manufactures in Australia such as Landcruiser.

[Richard]

[Richard]

A couple more ad for Land Cruiser, with the ad below advertising the Land Cruiser Caravan Camp with "on site Land Cruiser Caravans" at Mordialloc.
Could this have been the First Manufacturer owned caravan park, we already know that Mr Heber (owner of Land Cruiser Caravans) started one of the first caravan clubs in Australia.

[griffin]

Hi Richard

Here is two more Land Cruiser advertisements, both from Australian Caravan Magazine & Log Manual for 1938. The second one is basic but indicates Land Cruiser vans were available trough Caravan Rentals P/L in William Street, Sydney. William Street runs up to the cross and was an 'auto alley' as I remember as a kid. Still some 'high end' auto shops there now.

The following photo is from the same magazine with the text shown the only information given. What appears to be 'Land Cruiser' is next to the lower left of the door. It seems to be a pretty flash van if it is from Caravan Construction and Hire Co. and unlike any the adverts posted so far. Any thoughts?

George

[Richard]

Hi George.
That is one big and very nice van and it looks rather regal with the flags on the front. I have seen similar shaped vans but never with the curved front.

I have also found this Hire ad for Caravan construction and it is interesting to note that the ad states "you see our Black and Green with Silver roof caravans every where".

[Richard]

Last month at the Bendigo swap meet I purchased another copy of a Landcruiser Caravans brochure. It is in about the same condition as the one I allready have, but it has a different last page which I have added.

[griffin]

1936 Commercial caravan for A.G. Healing Ltd.

While looking for something in my Bedford files the other day I ran across an advertisement from Bus and Truck Transportation magazine, Jan., 1950 for A.G. Healing Ltd., Franklin Street, Melbourne. It was promoting their new Bedford bus which was fitted out as a "Display-Mobile" carrying a variety of tools and garage equipment. It was designed to travel around the country bringing the items to town so the hard working garage men of the day could see what was on offer.

A portion of the advert, illustrated here, showed a caravan which had been similarly equipped in 1936 and used by the company. No further details were given and the print screen used on the photo is so course that the finer print can't be read unfortunately. The diagonal script on the side near the number plate appears to read Land Cruiser, could it be??

It would appear the van may have been specially constructed with no side windows on the off side which would no doubt give more wall space for shelving. An interesting feature I thought was the rear mounted spare tyre.

George

[Richard]

Hi George.
What a great find, the Land Cruiser caravans are so hard to find information on.
I have enlarged the picture and tried to sharpen the image a bit, which is still a bit grainy even though the Land Cruiser logo can still be seen.

Just as a bit of a side note Land Cruiser caravans have an amazingly simmilar shape to the later Glen caravans.

Cheers.