Vintage van at Beaconsfield Mine and Heritage Centre ,Tas

[murray]

The Beaconsfield Mine and Heritage Centre (BMHC) has a caravan in storage which was deaccessioned from Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG) when they received a older van in better condition which is described by members akeepsake and DND 380   click here

I have contacted BMHC and the collections curator has sent photos and requested if members can add any more information on its age,  etc .


 " we have the caravan formerly held by QVMAG. It had been on a block at Green’s Beach, possibly from the time the block was purchased in 1956 until the land was sold in the 1990s. I’d imagine it was built in Tasmania, although as yet I haven’t found anything to identify the maker (although I haven’t undertaken a thorough inspection). it has a timber frame and the wheels are from a late 1930s Chrysler. While the exterior has suffered a little from exposure, it is still very intact and the interior is well preserved. We have undertaken some research into the owners of the caravan when it was at Greens Beach, but haven’t been able to ascertain if they purchased it new.



Unfortunately, we are unable to put it on display yet as we don’t have a sufficiently large access door into the gallery in which we’d like to display it! We have that earmarked for future works. It is stored in a shed. So at least it is safe and dry in the interim. I would enjoy hearing your opinion on its possible date of construction and origin.



I’ll attach a few photos for you – they aren’t of particularly good quality, but they will give you an idea. The first is of the van while it was still on the block at Greens Beach (shortly before it was removed). The second is it in storage at QVMAG."

[Roehm3108]

Hmmm It has the door on the wrong side!! Is the first interior pic a built-in radio? Could it be American/European or copy of one? Whatever its origins, it deserves to be restored.

[Mustang]

Amazing in this day & age how these barn finds keep turning up??

[Don Ricardo]

G'day Murray,

Great to see the photos of the Beaconsfield Mine caravan, and so good to see that they are preserving it for future display. Another good reason to organise that Tasmanian vintage van run so we can see it, eh?

The shape of the van with the rounded front, duck tail and lantern roof is typical of quite a few caravans built in the 1930's, so I think that's probably a pretty good indicator of its age, and fits with the comment about the wheels being late 1930's Chrysler. It's not unlike the photos of another Tasmanian caravan posted by JBJ, and on which you commented, that I copied to the Applebee thread here. I think we've now seen enough of Applebee's van to tell us that "JBJ's van" isn't an Applebee, but I think it is probably from a period similar to the Beaconsfield Mine caravan, ie 1930's.

The Beaconsfield Mine caravan does have a couple of unusual features:

The next question is who might have built it? A couple of possibilities spring to mind. The first is that it was commercially built by one of the caravan builders operating Tasmania in the 1930's. One of these was George Bridgborn's Glider firm in Launceston, who built some vans not dissimilar in shape (I haven't posted information about Bridgorn's Glider caravans yet, but I must), and another was the Victorian Rover company which had a Launceston representative. We don't know what the Rover caravans looked like externally, but the internal look is not dissimilar to the Beaconsfield Mine caravan, and Rover did offer an option of a radio!  (But then so did a few manufacturers.)

The other possibility is that the Beaconsfield Mine caravan was home built. It does have a couple of unusual features:  (1) the door on the off-side, as Roehm has pointed out; (2) no windows on the off-side; and (3) the little lip over the front window. Because of those features, I am inclined at this stage to think that it may have been home built. However, I have an open mind on that.  There are lots of early vans we have thought were home built which have turned out to have been commercially manufactured.  But, if in fact the van was home built, then that may push the build date a bit later, perhaps early 40's?  Home builders sometimes built vans using older, outdated designs. 

Either way - commercial or home built - I don't think the van is American as such, although the design may possibly have been American.  But the off-side door just may have seemed logical to whoever built the van, in the days when traffic was far less and road safety less of an issue, because it's on the driver's side and therefore more easily accessible to the driver.

Is it possible to get photos of the near-side and the front? That might tell us a bit more.

Don't you just love untangling these mysteries?

Don Ricardo