Starline caravans (Vic?)

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

In a recent conversation with Hughdeany and Shesgotthelook regarding Starlite Folding Caravans, Shesgotthelook provided a link to a Starline caravan that had been sold on Facebook Marketplace around August 2021:

Note what appears to be a manufacturer's plate between the door and the left hand window in the photo below.  If only we could take a closer look at that!

The shape of the caravan and the aluminium framed windows suggests a late 50's or early 60's design, although it does not seem to be a particularly sophisticated design.  Given that the Starline was Victorian registered in the past, and at the time of being advertised on FB Marketplace was located in Victoria, there is probably a better than even chance that it was built in Victoria since a large majority of 'barn find' vintage caravans tend to be found in the state in which they were manufactured.

There has been no reference to Starline caravans on the forum to date, and I have only been able to find limited information via newspaper adverts. An advertisement placed by Lylack Caravans in the Melbourne Age on Saturday, 14 September 1963 (page 11) invited customers to come and see their new 15 ft Starline caravan with its 'luxury touch':

The Starline shown above does not strike me as a caravan with a 'luxury touch', but it is hard to tell from the photos given its dilapidated state.  It is not clear from the Lylack advert whether the Starline was the name of a Lylack model, or a caravan built by someone else and being sold through Lylack.  While Lylacks were originally built by Huntsman in Ballarat, it seems that they later began to sell caravans as agents for other brands, so possibly the Starline was one of those.

Another advert published in the Age on Saturday, 20 March 1971 (page 60) was evidently for a second-hand, 6-berth Starline with a private bedroom (perhaps that was the luxury touch referred to by Lylack?):

Another possible connection for Starline caravans is the following advert for Starline Industries Pty Ltd printed in the Age on Saturday, 19 November 1960 (page 13):

Starline Industries built boats of various sizes in the early 60's, and there were a few instances in the vintage era of boat builders also trying their hand at building caravans or vice versa.  Examples were Botterill & Fraser and Commodore.

Whether there are any connections between the above is a puzzle yet to be unravelled!

All adverts were sourced from www.newspapers.com

Don Ricardo