Reo Motors (South Brisbane, Qld)

Having an interest in English caravans ( as I do) I can't say why I haven't tumbled to this before (suggestions are not welcome)
The "Rice" caravan was designed in 1925 (patent GB 252590 (A) ) but was not commercially produced until 1928, production then ceased in 1938.

The similarities between the "Reo" caravan and the "Rice" caravan are pretty obvious aye ?

There is further reference to the "Reo" caravan here suggesting it was made by Brindle caravans in Ashfield NSW with an intention to export them to England might have been a bit risky me thinks





Cobber.

Hi Cobber,

I think you are most probably right about the Reo folding caravans having been built by Albert Brindle, but I think I may have unearthed another snippet or two to add to the history of Reo caravans...while I was looking for something else on Trove as usually happens!

The following advert appeared in the Brisbane Courier-Mail on Friday, 4 March 1938 (page 10)...


(Source:  National Library of Australia  nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39752195 )

...which indicates that Reo Motors in South Brisbane up until that date had been selling caravans.

And what else did Reo Motors sell?  Well I can enlighten you on that score as well - trucks as you hypothesised above!  This advert was published on the same date and in the same place and page:



Ah, yes - so now we know that Reo Motors sold caravans, but were they folding caravans.  Yes they were, or at least some were.  This next advert was printed in the Courier-Mail on Tuesday, 4 April 1939 (page 14):


(Source: National Library of Australia nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39021637 ).

This advert was published more than 12 months after the one announcing that Reo Motors was selling out their caravans, and could indicate that they had sold out of one line of product but were now selling some other form of caravan.  However, the fact that the 'collapsible caravan' was being sold with 'no reasonable offer refused' suggests to me that this van was probably one last remaining one that had not been sold after their adverts in 1938.  Nevertheless, we now have evidence that Reo Motors sold collapsible caravans in the late 30's, and the fact that they indicated that they were 'relinquishing the agency' implies that they were selling caravans built by someone else. Was that Albert Brindle? Based on the evidence you presented above about the folding mechanism, etc, you'd have to think that that was very likely.

Don Ricardo