Siesta Caravan

[tubbygra51]

Hi thinking of buying a Siesta Caravan maybe late 50s early 60s built in Mildura, would anyone be able to help with a bit of history, thanks in advance

[Franklin1]

Funnily enough, the only mention I could find about Siesta caravans on the forum was in a post back in 2010 about your collection: The Tubby Gray Collection

I've never heard of that name outside of your post.

cheers,
Al.

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Tubbygra51,

I think you may be referring to Fiesta caravans which were built in Mildura. The long flowing 'F' may look like an 'S'.  More information in the Down History Lane section here.

The 1969 edition of Winser commented that Fiesta was "a new brand, and a good one", so that may indicate that the van you are looking at is probably late 60's.

Not sure how all this relates to your van with Siesta name painted on it that Franklin1 referred to...

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Hi again Tubbygra51,

I did bit of a search via Trove and came up with a series of adverts in the Sydney Morning Herald for the Siesta Caravan Co, which was based at 106 Moore Street, Hurstville in NSW.  This one was published on Saturday, 17 November 1951 (p 23):



(Source: National Library of Australia nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18239891 )

The adverts ran from 1951 through to late 1954, and were all much the same in content. Based on the content of the adverts and the fact that they all appear listed under 'Caravans' rather than 'Siesta' suggests to me that they were a caravan sales yard which sold and/or hired out second hand vans rather than building them, but I don't know for sure.

I'm not suggesting this has anything to do with Fiesta/Siesta caravans from Mildura, but may be related to the older model 'Siesta' you have (had?) in your collection...maybe...

Don Ricardo

[craigandej]

Hi Tubbygra51, do you have any photos of your van, we own a Fiesta and may recognise some features.