Mac Don Caravans (Mitcham, SA)

[Don Ricardo]

MAC DON CARAVANS

Manufactured by J & A V McDonough
Melbourne Street, Mitcham, South Australia

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Vintage caravan history is full of surprises!

Akeepsake has provided the following advertisement for Mac Don Caravans, published in the South Australian RAA Camping and Caravan Guide for 1949:



You'd have to think that the McDonoughs took a number - no, let's say almost all - of the styling cues for their caravans from the 1948 Jennison Pathfinders, right down to the double windows at the rear and the shape of the mudguards...

Thanks to Akeepsake for providing us with info on a previously undocumented caravan manufacturer.  That's his thumb in the pic!   

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

No further information has emerged about Mac Don caravans since Akeepsake showed us the 1949 advert higher up this thread. However, it appears that Mac Don also produced boats. This is not particularly surprising because a few caravan manufacturers were also involved in producing boats, and/or the owners of the companies were themselves involved in boating and/or boat racing. Caravans and boats are both 'recreational vehicles' of sorts, I guess.

Getting back to Mac Don, the following extract of an article reporting on the 1954 Mount Gambier show published in the Border Watch newspaper on Tuesday, 12 October 1954 (page 14), tells us that a Mac Don boat with outboard motor was on display at the Stevens Pritchard stand (as was a Furness caravan):

(Source: National Library of Australia nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78689944 )

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Article about the origins of Mac Don boats published in the Adelaide News of Tuesday, 18 May 1954 (page 23):

(Source: National Library of Australia nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131396814 )

The article tells us that Mac Don boats (and caravans) were built by John McDonough, who was a joiner by trade.  Interesting to read that McDonough's first boat was a hydroplane capable of sailing at 60 mph.  That would have been diving in at the deep end I would have thought!

Unfortunately we still don't know much about Mac Don caravans that apparently predated the boats.

Don Ricardo