Our Touring Past

Commercial caravans and their uses.

This Carapark commercial caravan was recently on ebay. It look to be a single axle about 18' long with 2 roof hatches. The aluminium cladding looks to be a diamond pattern which would make this example a later model. Carapark caravans like this were commonly used by local councils and the DMR etc as mobile site offices, lunch and change rooms.

This could arguably be Australia's most famous Commercial Caravan, Harry's Cafe De-Wheels which was a great Sydney landmark for many years near Garden Island and is now preserved and displayed at the Powerhouse Discovery Center, Castle Hill.

I managed to get in on one of the mid week tours of the transport collection and got a couple of photos of the van which is in the general display area.

The museums details and history for the van are here and well worth a read. The coupling looks unusual to me but would have little use according to it's history.

No flash photography allowed so the quality is not so good.

The Discovery Center is well worth a visit but opportunities are limited, check it out at http://castlehill.powerhousemuseum.com/

George

The Famous Berry Donut Van.

Well that's what the sign says and according to a search on the www it is claimed to have been operating there for 60 years and oddly for all the times I've been through, past or stopped at Berry I've never sampled a donut!! And, it's almost directly opposite the home of one of my Vauxhall mates, I'm slipping.

This time (May) last year I attended the Berry Showground to take part in the Heritage Motoring Day. We had a bbq lunch at the mates place and I took a photo of the van while I was there.

It appears to be a Carapark and no doubt built as a commercial van as it has dual axles with big almost truck wheels, although only on one side. It's jacked up and the other wheels have been removed and this photo shows how it looked last year. Same event this year took place last weekend so I decided to take the Viva GT for a spin and once again to the mates place for a bbq lunch. I was somewhat startled to see the Famous Donut Van has had a make over though and gone all trendy in mocha and brown colouring with a stylised donut sign, nothing is sacred it seems. This is how it now looks I wonder if it has been the same van the whole time and if anyone has earlier photos of it??
George

Hi George.
It is a bit of an icon in Berry. I can remember as a kid that mum and dad would go for a Sunday afternoon drive down to Berry just to buy donuts and sit in the park eating them. Ahhh the memories. That would be about 38 years ago, and I remember it as an old caravan then, but sadly no photos.
I dont know what it was used for previously but like you said it seems to be a fairly heavy duty caravan.

Richard.

1953 article on the use commercial caravans.

1967 article on Commercial caravans and their uses.

This van looks like an old Carapark, and has been around for a while in use by the Camden Lions Club. I had many a sausage sanga from it when it used to perform duties at the now defunct Bargo Swap Meet, which managed to be held at Camden just to confuse things.

This photo was at the recent Camden Show, the first time I've run across it in years. Looks like it has a few good years in it yet.
George

Two examples of commercial caravans that were built by Carapark caravans in the mid 1950’s.

The first is another photo of the mobile radio studio for 2GB.
And the second is a huge Army mobile recruiting office.

In September 1938 a number of articles appeared in newspapers across the country in regard to this Ford V8 and caravan outfit which was specially fitted out as a dentist's surgery. The same photos appeared with variations of the text, I've selected the best photo and the most complete text, so they are from different papers. The builders, Martin and King were specialist motor body builders in Melbourne, and I don't think they are known for their caravan work, I dare say this was a special commission, a 5th wheeler it seems in today's terminology. It's a very sophisticated and well equipped caravan for its day and seems to be based on American lines of the time.

George