Trove - WA newspapers digitised

[Franklin1]

I see that a lot of the West Aust papers have now been digitised by Trove. I was mucking around last night testing it out with searches for some of the WA brands, eg. Baravan, etc. Well, silly me! That ended up being a dumb thing to do because it discovered other brands that we've not got much info on yet...

Swan Caravans: Roydhouse and Station Sts., near St. John of God Hospital, Subiaco. Caravans first mentioned in June 1948 as being built, but by 1954 or thereabouts they are focussed on hiring vans out. This manufacturer is in our DHL section from when they moved to Shenton Park a couple of years or so later.

Caple Caravans: Built by M. Caple, caravan builder. First shows up in early 1947, where he was advertising that all vans had been booked out for Easter. In December 1948, he was advertising, "CARAVANS. Don't pay high prices for used Vans when you can buy a new van cheaper. Consult M. Caple, Caravan Builder. 208 Beaufort St, Perth. phone B2276."


If any of you West Australians are interested in researching your brand of van, have a play around with the digitised newspaper section of Trove.

cheers,
Al.

[Daggsey]

Thanks for the heads up Al....there is a lot of material there to peruse. The old adds (not just caravan related) especially from the early 1900's are always interesting to read

Daggsey

[Franklin1]

You have to love the way some things are marketed. I noticed in one of the search results that an advert about the Romany Road caravans said they were "imported". That made me raise my eyebrows a bit because I'd always thought the Romany Road vans were made in Australia. It turns out that in 1938, Romany Road vans became available for sale in WA, and I guess anything that crossed the Nullabor back in those days was 'imported'.

The RR vans must have been pretty good in their day. This quote from a 1938 edition of the Perth 'Mirror': "At the recent Melbourne motor show over 100,000 people inspected the new Romany Road caravans; over 300 orders were taken, and those for hire are booked up months ahead. Perth is following the lead." 300 orders!!

And did you know that in late 1937, Romany Road specially made a motorhome by building a van on a 1937 Ford V8 car chassis, with the wheelbase extended to 155 inches?

Western Australia was in the fledgling stages of caravanning in the late 1930s, as this clipping from early 1938 shows: "And we're doing that — at least some of us are. There are at present 20 privately owned caravans in this State, and hundreds in the Eastern States. What's more, most of those available for hire in Perth are booked up months ahead." 20 caravans! We've certainly come a long way - doesn't Mark Taylor have that many on his own now??!

Fascinating stuff, these archives...

cheers,
Al.