Our Touring Past

Well Linda and I have just returned from a 4 week trip down south to the Ballarat swap and then on to Tasmania for a fantastic 3 weeks on a little island with sooo much history, but before I go to far I just want to thank Michael for looking after the technical side of the website and Griffin for the day to day running of things, thanks guys.

On Monday the the 22nd of Feb we had the Sunliner packed and were ready to head off.
We decided to use my Falcon as the tow car as we only had 3 weeks to cover Tassie, all together we covered around 4200 kms, and it would have been a bit of a push for the FJ to tow the van that far in that time.

We made our way south with an overnight stop at Albury, and then on to Ballarat where we were set up in a caravan park and waited for the Swap gates to open on Thursday afternoon for a quick look around and a chat. With the main swap day being Friday we were up early for the bargains and once again it was well worth the drive for us, even if it was to catch up with a few old Historic caravan friends and a few new ones. We left dad at our stall with our parts for sale and he handed out around 200 ourtouringpast flyers to interested people.

When we first started going to the Ballarat swap about 12 to 15 years ago we were lucky to see one historic caravan, but this year there were several and I spent a fair bit of time chatting to the owners. Most of the vans that were there were being used to stay in with only a couple that were for sale.

Here a few of the vans that we came across.
The van below is a very nice original big van built back in the 50's by an engineer.
The tear drop below was a very nice replica tear drop made form a set of original plans supplied by someone ?
Hows this for the ultimate caravan !
This Viscount Royal was for sale, and it would have to be the best original Viscount that I have seen in a while, with the only thing that needed to be done was to recover the front cussions as they had deterioated.
There was several modern home made type tear drop caravans for sale similar to
the one below with a starting price of around $5500.00
This was the only FJ that I saw for sale, it was fairly complete but did have a bit of rust in it.
We came across this original folding car tent.

Hello Richard (fellow collector),
How was the trip to Tassy? My fiance & i are planing our honeymoon to tasmania in September. Driving our 1964 Austin Freeway station wagon towing either our early 1960's Adelaide made Clipper (15 footer i think)... if we have it ready in time!
or a smaller van if we find one we like in our price range & nothing needs fixing on it.

We where planing on making it a 3 week trip too (driving from Adelaide). Did you have any trouble taking your old van? do you think you would have had trouble in your FJ. If so how?

Regards,
Liz & Andrew

Hi Liz and Andrew.
We had a great time in Tassie, and we were over there for about 2 1/2 weeks and even that was rushed. Didnt have a problem towing the Sunliner and I dont think the FJ would have had a problem, but I would have taken a lighter van if I took the FJ.
Most of the roads are fairly windy and some hilly, from Strahn to Queenstown is very windy and all up hill for about an hour, the roads from Devenport to Cradle Mountain and from Launceston to St Hellens ( East Coast ) also have hilly and very windy sections.
We tended to take the van with us and stay, where it may be better to have a base, say Devenport and travel out to Stanley one day and Cradle Mountain another day. It all depends how confident you are with the car and van. And considering its only about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Launceston to Hobart.

Cheers.
Richard.

After the swap meet we made our way from Ballarat to the Port in Melbourne, the Ferry was running a couple of hours late due to some rough weather so we took a little stroll along the foreshore looking at the new apartments that have been built along the waters edge.
By now we had spotted the Ferry on the horizon and it seemed to take forever to come in.
After a long wait the Ferry was finally moored and we then had to wait in another que to board.
By the time the caravans were loaded we were some of the last vehicles to go on, which worked out well in the end as we were then the first to get off the boat. There must have been about 200 motor bikes going over and only about 8 caravans.

After checking the van and car was OK we headed up to our cabin.
After a very pleasant night on the Ferry we drove off at Devenport at about 8 am and drove up the road about 1 km to the caravan park and set up the van and then headed off for some grocery shopping and a look around.

The next day we met up with Lindas uncle ,who was on a 2 month holiday in Tazzie travelling around in their motorhome, and headed off to Cradle Mountain for a few days free camping at a beautiful spot on the banks of a lake , with about a 20 minutes drive to Cradle Mountain.
We spent the day in the national park and did the walk around Dove Lake.
The weather started to turn for the worst so we then headed out to Stanley in the North West, with another couple of nights free camping along the beach and at night we had penguins walking past the van after a day out fishing.

A photo of Stanley and "The Nut".
We then left Stanley and headed back towards Launceston to Delorain, which would then lead us down South.
This van was in the caravan park at Delorain and it was being used and was registered.
After leaving Delorain we headed out to Evandale for the Sunday market which is well worth the look as we found lots of little treasures. In the afternoon we drove to the historic town of Ross.
I think everyone would have seen a picture of the garage at Ross.
And a night photo of the sandstone convict built bridge.

Thats great! exactly what we wanted to hear.... We just bought a 1968 10ft Norich, Little Nipper Caravan at the weekend. Apparently made in Adelaide. (was a 1 Owner!!!).
Have not been able to find any info on it yet.

We dont think we will have any problem towing it with the 1968 Austin Freeway. (which we are currently working on to get back on the road! i saved this one from being scrapped, appeared to be a one owner too).

Love the pictures you've put up, gives us a better idea where to go.

=)

Hi Freeway.
If you like old buildings and history then you are going to love Tassie, if you want to know any more you can call me on 0408 671770.

Now back to the trip.

I had to drag Linda out of Ross, but when I finally had we headed south down the main highway to Hobart, but before we reached Hobart we deviated off the highway and had a very bumpy trip to Richmond, which is another lovely town.
Here we are at the Big 4 caravan park in Hobart. I dont think that I mentioned that I joined Big 4 before we left, from memory I think it was $50.00 for 2 years. While we were away we stayed at the Big 4 parks when they were available and we saved about $55.00 and we still have 22 months left to use it, so it was worth while for us.
This is the second time that I have been to Port Arthur, and I enjoyed this time as much as the first. We spent the day there from 9:30 till about 4:00 as there is soo much to see.
Port Arthur church.
Guard House.
Me trying to get back out of the "Asylum".

After we had seen the sights of Hobart and surrounds and Port Arthur we headed North up the east coast stopping off at the smaller towns for a look around, with morning tea coming up we stopped at Spring Bay and found this old English caravan in the local caravan park.
Linda fell in love with these to buildings that were also at Spring Bay.
In the after noon we stopped at Swansea for the night and after we had set up an imaculate 1977 F100 pulled in that had a slide on camper attached.
After talking to the owner I had learned that it was a one owner F100 and he had the camper made in 1977 as well. It was hard to believe how good of condition the ute and camper were in.

We left Swansea and still heading North up the coast we had heard of a fantastic pancake place at Elephant Pass so we headed up the windy pass only to find that it must have been good as we could not park any where so we continued on to St Marys for a counter lunch at the pub.
We arrives at St Hellens after a very nice drive with some spectacular coastal views and spent a few glorious days there in another fantastic Big 4 caravan park. We found that these smaller towns arnt spectacular but they are just a great place to spend a couple of days.
Launceston Motor Museum.

The Launceston Motor Museum has a fantastic collection of cars and motorbikes on display, with most of the cars on loan this gives them the chance to constantly change the display every couple of months or so..

Here is a link to the National Automobile Museum of Tasmania
There is a wide selection of cars from 1900's to the 70's muscle cars.
Avery nicely restored EH ambulance
This 48-215 is Body No 37 and one of the first 3 FX's to come to Tasmania. The car was first delivered to Motors Co in 1948, where it was used as a company car. The car has been owned by Motors Co for all but 9 years of its life, and was restored to concourse condition in 1998 by Motors Co.
I have seen this figure before at swap meets but never knew what he was supposed to be doing. I can now see why these compressors bring alot of money.