Our Touring Past

Gracemur Caravans.
Tom and Grace Murray.
131 Bargara Rd. Bundaberg. Queensland ( clik on address for location.)

The factory is still being used to manufacture fibreglass products.

With the bits and pieces of information on the Gracemur history I have gathered over the years and also alot of help from Bob Taylor I have been able to compile a complete history of Gracemur Caravans.

Proprietors. Tom and Grace Murray. Bundaberg. Queensland.

The company name came about from a part combination of Grace Murrays first and last names, Gracemur.

History

In 1959 Tom and Grace Murray were contracted to Bert Tickner of Mid North Coast Moulded Products of Forster. (Sunliner Caravans) To produce the fibreglass caravans in Bundaberg, under the name Gracemur. Using the 1958-59 Sunliner moulds, the Murrays would build the caravans and in return they would pay Bert Tickner a commission for every van they built.

In late 1959 Tom and Grace travelled to the Sunliner factory at Forster and purchased the 1958-59 model moulds, where they loaded all of the required moulds onto a trailer and headed back to their Bundaberg factory.

The first Gracemur Caravan was sold to Mr and Mrs Snell in February 1960, with the chassis number of Q1-600-001. As a bit of a side note, after Mr Snell passed away the first Gracemur produced was purchased back by Tom and Graces daughter Jan, the van is still in the family, as it is now owned by Jan’s son Robert.

The Murrays continued production for 3 years, and over this time built 53 vans. In 1963 they sold the business to Mr Bill Klingsporn, who continued operating until he sold the business to a Mr Shailer. It is not known what Mr Shailer did with the business or how many, if any, of Gracemur Caravans were built by the last 2 owners. It is known though that Mr Shailer took the Gracemur Caravan moulds to the local tip where they were dumped, ending the history of this brand.

Identification

The first Gracemur Caravan built has a chassis number of Q1-600-001, with the 60 in 600 signifying that this van was built in 1960. This would then mean that the second chassis number would have been Q1-600-002. The chassis number would also change to Q1-610-??? for 1961 and so on.

The fibreglass moulded interiors were later changed to a PVC lining with faux timber cupboard doors, which also meant the chassis number prefix was changed from Q1 to QX.

The main visual difference of a Gracemur Caravan from a Sunliner Caravan is that a Gracemur Caravan has a single opening window in the front with a wraparound Perspex window each side of this. Gracemur caravans also have a steel pipe and webbed chassis. The top cord of the Gracemur chassis being a 25 x 25 square hollow section, where the Sunliner has a 25mm round tube top cord.


See also
Sunliner Caravans
Skyline Caravans

The next 2 photos are of Trevors Gracemuir Caravan under restoration in 2008.

A couple of photos of Mals Gracemur that we found on the weekend, and like alot of people he didnt realise that his van was a Gracemuir built in Bundaberg.
The photo below shows the original pipe chassis, leaf springs and solid axle.

Gracemur Chassis Details.

The Gracemur draw bar is nearly the same as a Sunliner draw bar except that the TOP tube of a Gracemuir draw bar is a small square tube.

I was sent an email on Tuesday from Tony with a bit more information on Gracemur Caravans.

Hi, We were on your site and looking at the "Gracemuir" Caravans and would
like to add some information.

These vans were built by Grace and Tom Murray on Bargara Rd. in Bundaberg
and their name is actually Gracemur Caravan (using Grace Murray's name in
it's title). We purchased from them the last caravan built by them in
1972 - this was second hand at the time (1978).

Trusting this may be of some help to you. Tony

Thanks for that very helpful bit of information, and I have updated the information to suit.

Cheers.
Richard.

I have received some photos from Tony reguarding the Gracemur caravan mentioned in the last post.
Tony and his wife purchased the Gracemur in 1977 from Tom Murray. The van was built in 1972 for a travelling sewing machine mechanic, so the interior had been modified from the standard model to suit his needs. The Murrays then purchased the van back some years later and then sold it to Tony.

The Gracemur in the photo had its original paintwork, and as this is the second Gracemur I have seen with this colour scheme it may well be the Gracmur factory colour scheme.

Well here it is, In the 18 years that I have been involved with Vintage Caravans this is the first ever sighting of a Gracemur caravan ad.

A 1970 ad for Gracemur caravans.
From memory, I think the Murrays had sold the business by this time and was beig run by another gentleman.
The picture also shows the distinctive colour scheme of the Gracemur's.

I was at the vintage caravan run to Coledale on the weekend and I met up with Stewart that has collected a bit of information on Sunliner and the related models of the fibreglass caravans.

This is his 1966 Gracemur ad. It is interesting as the ad shows they are they are the Queensland manufacturer of Sunliner Caravans.

Gracemur Body Styles.

I have been archiving photos that I have collected over the last couple of months, and I came across these two Gracemur caravans that were recently on eBay. It is interesting that the first one has the typical body style (1958 to 59 Sunliner body). This one has the front middle window slightly smaller in height than the fixed windows, and the aluminium side windows have an external frame screwed to the body. As do all of the other Gracemur caravans that I have seen.

1958 to 59 Sunliner body style. Although this caravan has Sunliner badging, it is actually a Gracemur Caravan.
Front middle window slightly smaller in height.
Rear as with all other Gracemur and Sunliner caravans.
Well that was till I came across this Gracemur caravan that has a 1960 to 62 Sunliner body style, the owner at the time confirming that the chassis has a top cord of 25 mm square tube, which just about confirms it as a Gracemur.

This shows that at some stage Tom Murray or Bill Klingsporn up graded the Gracemur moulds, probably after Bert Tickner released the 1963 to 70 Sunliner. This would have been a new model that the Murrays released just before they sold the business, or it could be the model produced by Bill Klingsporn when he purchased the business from the Murrays sometime in 1963.
This later model Gracemur has the front middle window the same height as the front fixed windows, the side windows have had the external frames deleted and seal directly to the body. The wheel spats have been deleted and replaced by side flashes, and the front stone guards are now moulded into the body.

1960 to 62 Sunliner body style.
Wheel spats deleted.
Rear as with all other Gracemur and Sunliner caravans.

This caravan was recently offered for sale on ebay, at first glance from the side shot it looked like a Sunliner, but on closer inspection it has the typical Gracemur single opening front window with a later exterior body style. Inside it has the typical Gracemur fully fibreglass interior as did the 1958-60 Sunliners.
Identification solved, well at least I thought so, if you look closely at the top cord on the chassis on the A frame, (third photo down) it’s a 25mm round pipe where as a Gracemur should have a 25mm square tube.
So now Iam left wondering why the top cord is a different section. Is it a one off? Did the chassis manufacturer simply run out of square stock? Or did Gracemur start to use the chassis which were built by Bergman and supplied to Sunliners?
Another one of these vintage caravan unanswered questions.

This Gracemur vintage caravan was recently for sale on Gumtree. The exterior was very nicely restored and the interior was still to be done.