The reason I am emailing you is to talk about a plywood caravan of the late 50’s vintage built by my father (the perfectionist). It appears to be similar to your Daisy model but unfortunately as I was only 15 at the time I can’t give you anymore information regarding what it was modelled on. It was last registered in December 1979 and has been under cover all its long life.
As I have said my Dad was a perfectionist in construction so the van is extremely well built. It has a lot of sentimental value to me and my family and, as a result, we would prefer that it not be destroyed. I have approached several museums but so far have not elicited any interest. The van is presently in a waterproof shed (also built by Dad) on a property at Stroud which is one hour north of Newcastle.
We wish to remove the van from the shed and if possible send it to a good home. A friend of ours who camps with us saw your website banner on a visit to caravan show a couple of months ago and gave us your contact.
We don’t want to destroy the van as, apart from the sentimental value, for its age it is in very good condition, so we are looking for someone interested in taking it on board and hopefully look after it for future generations. The van has the original annex, wooden poles (again made by Dad), a double bed/mattress which converts to a built in table and benches, a two single bunks, original fridge/freezer operated by gas or electricity, wardrobe, sink with pump tap, cupboards above top bunk and above sink and stove inlet, power ac/dc, etc etc.
I hope you are interested as we do not want to have to destroy this great old van and components and part of our history of caravanning.
David didn’t have any photos of the van, and it was stored about an hour away from where he lived, so Linda and I set off on Saturday morning for the 4 hour drive to Stroud to meet David and finally have a look at his van.
It was actually a great weekend to spend 4 hours in the car as it was a pretty cold weekend, and although it was cloudy we didn’t run into any rain. We set off and was at Stroud by 12 o’clock just in time for lunch and a quick look around the antique shops, ( and you wouldn’t believe it, I picked up a Keith Winser 1954 Touring Manual for $8.00 ) we then headed out to Davids property.
The caravan has been stored in a shed for the last 30 years and David and his family have used the van as part of their holiday accommodation at a little spot by a very picturesque river all that time. It was a relief to see that the caravan was as good as David had described, and David and his brother were very proud of the little caravan that their father had built.
After a chat and a tour of the property it was time to load the van, so I swung the car and trailer around to pick up the van, and was promptly bogged in mud. So I un hooked the car trailer, and the Ute still wouldn’t budge with 5 people pushing ,so the Ute completly disgraced itself and we had to have a quick tow out. The van was loaded and we headed off home via Cessnock to have a look at another van.
Lunch at Stroud in the showground.