Paramount Caravans. South Australia.
Mr W. H. Willshire.
126 Woodville Road, Woodville.
Jennison emailed me this fabulous little brochure for Paramount Caravans of South Australia. The brochure looks to be pre war and Iam not sure if the company was linked to Paramount Caravans of Victoria which look to have more "modern" vans.
Paramount Caravans - South Australia
Paramount Caravans - South Australia
ourtouringpast.com THE vintage caravan restoration website
and home of The National Caravan Museum.
and home of The National Caravan Museum.
Re: Paramount Caravans.
Its a 37 model VV/brochure by all accounts - the towcar is a 35 ford. The imperial 17'6" model came with shower,chemical toilet and its own elec generator!!!
Thought to be SA origin but not confirmed
regards
jenno
Thought to be SA origin but not confirmed
regards
jenno
Re: Paramount Caravans - South Australia
I've had a little tinker with this topic and split the Victorian company into a separate post to avoid confusion and added the address of the SA company based on this advertisement from The Mail (Adelaide) 21-7-1934.
That said though I did find this photo in the Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton) dated 10-5-1934, and while the S.A. make isn't specified, I'm very confident it is in fact a Paramount. Sandgate (Brisbane suburb?) is a long way from Woodville, S.A., and one would wonder how the locals would have known of the distant company given the apparent lack of advertising, there must be stuff out there to find. I also wonder how it was transported to Sandgate with the state of the roads at the time, possibly it was sent by rail or ship. Coastal shipping was still a major way of moving goods in the 1930s and GM-H shipped their bodies from Adelaide to interstate assembly plants on coastal freighters. The rail option would have been messy given the four States it may have had to cross all had different gauges. I wonder if we can ever find out for sure? George
If their self promotion is to be believed then they had been quite successful to that date, mind you it would appear if they had built only half a dozen vans they could probably have truthfully made their claim, there did not seem to be a lot of activity in the caravan industry here at that time. This is the first advertisement I've run across for them to date.That said though I did find this photo in the Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton) dated 10-5-1934, and while the S.A. make isn't specified, I'm very confident it is in fact a Paramount. Sandgate (Brisbane suburb?) is a long way from Woodville, S.A., and one would wonder how the locals would have known of the distant company given the apparent lack of advertising, there must be stuff out there to find. I also wonder how it was transported to Sandgate with the state of the roads at the time, possibly it was sent by rail or ship. Coastal shipping was still a major way of moving goods in the 1930s and GM-H shipped their bodies from Adelaide to interstate assembly plants on coastal freighters. The rail option would have been messy given the four States it may have had to cross all had different gauges. I wonder if we can ever find out for sure? George
Re: Paramount Caravans - South Australia
For sale recntly on eBay was this very nice and very original 1935 Paramount Caravan.
With the sellers comment as follows.
Rare!! Very original 1935 paramount caravan-Interior is a virtual time warp, all original fittings, ice box, bath tub, light fittings ,spirit oven ,etched windows -etc. Requires very little restoration, canvas needs replacing on roof (fits over the wooden panels, one window glass is broken, a great opportunity to own a piece of caravanning history.
Its very rare to come across a caravan of this vintage and even rarer the Paramount brand, I must admit though that you just cant go past the etched glass windows of that era.
With the sellers comment as follows.
Rare!! Very original 1935 paramount caravan-Interior is a virtual time warp, all original fittings, ice box, bath tub, light fittings ,spirit oven ,etched windows -etc. Requires very little restoration, canvas needs replacing on roof (fits over the wooden panels, one window glass is broken, a great opportunity to own a piece of caravanning history.
Its very rare to come across a caravan of this vintage and even rarer the Paramount brand, I must admit though that you just cant go past the etched glass windows of that era.
ourtouringpast.com THE vintage caravan restoration website
and home of The National Caravan Museum.
and home of The National Caravan Museum.