Lylack caravans (Regent, Vic)

[Don Ricardo]

LYLACK CARAVANS

Sold by Jack and Lyla Kelly
717 High Street, Regent, Victoria,
and manufactured by Huntsman Caravans in Ballarat

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Dave wrote on 19 July 2009:

Just purchased this old gem it has LY LACK on the front above the front window, not sure of age will post some photo's when i get home. has no fridge or spot for a fridge has gas cooker and oven. It looks similar to a photo i have seen of a 1958 Franklin 12' but there a few differences.








Further information and photos of Dave's Lylack van can be found here

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Jennison responded on 1 August 2009:

No listing for LYLACK caravans anywhere in the history section - I wonder where they are from?
The lylack nameplate certainly looks like a proper makers logo as opposed to a sales outlet sticker or plaque...
jennison

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Firefighter commented:

Hi jennison

Looks a little bit like the early Franklin I had ....could it be a franklin rebadged
f/f ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

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Franklin1 added:

This van definitely has the appearance of a Franklin, eh? The forward-sloping wheel arches are usually the first thing to catch my eye in pointing any van towards being a Franklin. Dave's van is a little interesting in that respect, as his wheel arches have relatively sharp angles above the wheels, whereas the other Franklins in the DHL thread from that time period have a more curved cut-out. But overall Dave's van looks a lot more like an early Franklin than any other brand.

The Lylack name is proving to be a bit mysterious. I can't find any mention of it in the Sydney archives (not even a 2nd-hand van), so it doesn't seem like a brand that ventured very far. A search of this forum doesn't throw any light either. We've got a forum member with the name Lylack but she hasn't posted since 2008, and I can't find any posts of hers that say whether she's got a Lylack van or not. Maybe somebody with a Keith Winser book from the late 1950s could say if Lylack get a mention at all...

cheers,
Al.

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On 2 August 2009 Cobber advised:

G'day U ALL,

In the 1961 and 1962 Keith Winser "Caravan Trade Directories" "Lylack Caravans" are listed as being at 717 High St. Regent Victoria.

They are classified as being only hirers and servicer's of caravans and there is no mention of them prior to 1961...

Cobber.

[Don Ricardo]

G'day everyone,

By the looks of it, the Lylack sign on the front of Dave's caravan consists of red plastic reflective lettering glued on to a white background. This type of sign was used by a lot of van manufacturers in the late 50's/early 60's. Roma (Vic), Re-Lax (NSW) and Fairway (Qld) are some examples which demonstrate that the practice was fairly widespread.

However, the interesting thing about Dave's van is that it looks like the examples of Panorama vans we have seen. Panorama used similar signs/badges, and previous discussion has suggested that these vans were also re-badged Franklins. The Lylack van seems to provide further evidence that Franklin produced vans which were sold by a variety of re-sellers or dealers who re-badged them.

Given Cobber's information, perhaps Lylack put their sign on the vans they hired out? Of course this is just supposition until further info comes to light...

Don Ricardo

[huntsman]

LYLACK was made by Huntsman Caravans in Dana Street, Ballarat for Jack and Lila Kelly from Preston. The Kelly's never manufactured any vans but had a sales yard on Sydney Road.

They did use a couple of other small makers to build vans for them but the van pictured is almost certainly a Huntsman.

[huntsman]

Correction. After checking with Dad, he made all of the vans for Jack Kelly, so any Lylack out there (Lyla and Jack - Lylack) was made by Huntsman.

Jack had a two storey house on Sydney Road and sold vans from the concreted front yard whilst maintaining a residence upstairs.

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

At the recent Melbourne Caravan Show publicity event at Southbank, the Don257's had their newest van on display:













The van has been painted externally by the Don257's in similar colours to the original, but is original and untouched inside, apart from cleaning..

If you look carefully at the first photo, you will see that the nameplate on the front says 'Gypsy' and the most recent registration sticker on the side window says 'Gypsy'...BUT a 1983 rego sticker says 'Lylack', and the van is clearly built by Huntsman who built all Lylack vans. (I will write more about this on the Huntsman thread.) So...it looks as if Don257's van was originally branded 'Lylack'.

The Don257's have told me that they are the third owners, and that the second owner only had it for a short time before selling it to them. So the first owner obviously had the van for around 40 years.

Don Ricardo

[sportsman 1]

Hi Don,

the "Gypsy" was a particular model within the Lylack range.

This was confirmed during a conversation with Huntsman at the Caravan show yesterday.

Another mystery solved!

Leigh.

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Sportsman1,

Interesting to hear that 'Gypsy' was a Lylack model name. It's good to gradually fit the jigsaw together as we find each piece, isn't it?

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

Aug 3, 2009 22:33:31 GMT 10 Don Ricardo said:

Dave wrote on 19 July 2009:

Just purchased this old gem it has LY LACK on the front above the front window, not sure of age will post some photo's when i get home. has no fridge or spot for a fridge has gas cooker and oven. It looks similar to a photo i have seen of a 1958 Franklin 12' but there a few differences.

Dave (posting as Fatboy71) - referring to his Lylack caravan above and higher up this thread - later posted:

Sept 7, 2009 20:55:37 GMT 10 fatboy71 said:

Hi guys just found on the draw bar what seems to be HL5 but that is all i could find it is welded on and looks a bit like chooks poop as my grand father used to say.

Hi all,

Given that we now know that Lylack caravans were built by Huntsman Caravans, I am speculating that the serial number 'HL5' represents 'Huntsman Lylack 5', and that other serial numbers commencing with 'HL' may identify a Lylack van.

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Photo of a Lylack caravan built by Huntsman, posted by forum member Huntsman here on 5 February 2012:

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

Back in 2009, Dave posted photos of his Huntsman-built Lylack caravan, and later told us that the serial number for the van was 'HL5' (see posts higher up this thread).

Recently Wanderlust888 provided some photos of his Hawthorn-branded van with the serial number 'HL14':





More photos of this van can be found here.

The appearance of Wanderlust888's van and the serial number, indicate that it was also almost certainly built by Huntsman, and that it may have been built to the same design as Dave's Lylack. It is also possible that Hawthorn sourced the van from Huntsman through Lylack.

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Lylack caravan listed for sale in January 2018:











Unfortunately the inside was partially gutted, but there is some indication of the layout and fittings:





This is the first Lylack that we’ve seen with wrap around front and rear windows. According to forum member Huntsman all Lylack caravans were built by Huntsman (see post higher up this thread), but that would make this van the first Huntsman built with this styling.

Don Ricardo