Big hArt display

[cobber]

For any enthusiast living near or in Melbourne you might like to duck down to Federation Square between now and Saturday the 28th to have a look at six vintage vans being used for demonstrating by Big hArt.... see the story at

svc057.wic028p.server-web.com/events/view-production/67/2792/radio-holiday/production.aspx

They have bought two vans off this forum that I know of (one was off me) it would be interesting to see what they are doing with them, I suspect they might be gutting the interior

Cobber.

[Deleted]

Hey Cobber

After a week on the tour and 3 days of Coledale camp cooking with backed beans, fried onions, boiled eggs and Tooheys new . I 'm headin' down to Melbourne and put on my own display.

Gunna call it "Big fArt display"

Waddya reckon old china... That should empty federation square .

Pro Fart
C/- Hienz factory

[Jim]

Here are some pictures of the vans that were at the Big hArt display in Federation Square

The display was all closed up when I was there and there was no way the security guy was about to let me inside the chained off area, so all the pictures are from the outside of the circle.

Maybe someone can supply some info about the vans?

Cobber
I was told the interiors are pretty much original, and from what I could see this seems correct. They've just had art and displays and lighting added inside.

Jim

[cobber]

Jim,

Real pleased you managed to have a look at those vans, and get photos.

The yellow one...QT 3543..is the one I sold them back in October 2004 and it would appear they are looking after it, they have even polished the aluminium cladding on the rear of it...it was painted.
Never did find out it's make but there have been a few similar to it appear on this forum since '04 so it most likely is a factory made model.

Cobber.

[melanco]

Hi all. Mel from Big hART here.

Yes indeed, we have looked after the vans, I promise! We ended up buying three through this forum and had very bad luck with two of them. The beautiful small ply one that was full of rot in fact disintegrated on the truck on the way over from SA, and the large ply one that I collected from Cobber near Geelong got vandalised in Tassie in the shed while it was waiting for the ply to be replaced on the front. We were devastated.

The idea for the installation at Federation Square was to have international artists come to the shack comminities in Tassie and paint what they wanted. Then to display their artworks inside the vans and homeless single mothers from Tasmania tell people stories about living in shack communities and the value of having holiday times and it's impact on quality of life. It worked, and ended up being a beautiful event. I have attempted to post some pics of the vans in show mode. All we really did was temporarily mount pictures in the vans and install some temporary lighting for them, other than that the vans have been "kept nice" in their own original style.



The beautiful Carapark Zest below has indeed had some work done, and I own her now! You guys have started me on something.... We replaced her draw bar and chassis, replaced all the rivetting across the roof join, replaced the internal ply roof sections, repainted inside and polished outside, repaired all the windows and their catches, re-did the 240volt wiring and have done a temporary fix on the 12v lighting until I can get the rear light cover moulds made and then vac formed, unless someone has a better idea....

Will send more detailed pics if anybody wants them. Thanks for all the help from this forum, and of course I am still looking for another small ply van to use in our 10 Days on the Island Festival display around Tassie in Feb.
Cheers. Mel.

[cobber]

G'day Mel,

Good to hear these old caravans are serving a useful purpose...and that you have become hooked on the hobby too.

I don't think the large plywood you mentioned being vandalized came from me, mine was collected from Leppington NSW.

Does Big hArt intend bringing the traveling road show to Sydney anytime ?

I recently saw a program on ABC television about the Northcott Estate in Sydney, and Big hArt got the very slightest of mention about it's involvement in the project.
Big hArt certainly does big things.

Have a look at --
www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20834514-5006784,00.html

(woops, sorry that link doesn't work very well..you'll have to copy and paste it in the address thingo)

Mel, would you please keep us informed about the whereabouts of the "Big hArt traveling vintage caravan road show"

Cobber.

[melanco]

Sure Cobber. Sorry about the confusion, it was actually Andrew but I get lost with the nicknames... And I seem to have posted twice, sorry for that too.... blast that back button.

The Northcott project actually got an award by the World Health Organisation for being the first ever housing estate to earn a safe community title worldwide, and since it was the scariest place to be in Australia only 4 years ago that's a huge thing. I was at the ceremony and it was magic.

Our next Radio Holiday (vans) outing will be the Ten Days on the Island festival in Tasmania, so 24th 25th March at Hobart Town Hall then to two of the shack communities. We will be having a slightly different feel with projection being used on the outside of the vans also.

Really would love a small ply van to complete the circle of love!

Mel

[belinda]

Dear Mel,

I don't know if you have any handypersons in your group, but one option would be to build a new plywood shell onto the chassis of your van that fell to bits.

There are lots of contemporary plans for vans in the Keith Winser "Plans for Caravans" books which came out in the fifties and sixties, so in building your own you'd actually be true to the genre of plywood van culture. Several of us on the site have Winser books, and you will probably find more in the collection of your State Library. As an example, here are some drawings and measurements for the "Trail Ten"



I gather what you want is an exhibition space on wheels and it's probably easier and cost-effective to build a new shell than to strip out and modify a fifty-year-old van that's done a lot of miles.

Of course, the big question would be getting such a thing registered. As you'll see from other postings this can be a real hassle and varies from state to state, though I don't know if it would be any harder for a new body on an old chassis than it is for a restored van.

If you'd like any more info, I'm sure the people on this site would be happy to help.

In terms of using a van as a projection screen, I can tell you it really works! For the last two Summers we have had "cinema under the stars" in our backyard. Various friends and relatives bring food, wine and deckchairs and we use a laptop and data projector to show movies against the side of the van. Magic! Last January we had "Aunty Jack" as the "shorts" (see below) and "My Neighbors the Yamadas" as the feature



cheers

Belinda

[melanco]

Thanks Belinda, looks great!
We did investigate building from the chassis up and it was seriously considered for a while, until we realised that we would have all new materials when we really wanted an old van to invoke the memories of people's happy childhood holidays.... I know it sounds wanky but that's the arts for you..... Don't want to loan out your gorgeous van do you??

Hey, a girl can ask....

Mel