Hi all,
A couple of months ago I was able to fulfill a long held dream! Together with Wal and Anna Robinson, I was privileged to visit Neil Walsh who is the owner of the Don caravan with the serial number of 30. A variety of events - including the VV Nationals in Wangaratta, an overseas trip, forum administration, oh and work

- have meant I haven't had the time to tell you about the visit earlier. But it was definitely one of the highlights of my 'vintage caravanner' life.
Don number 30 is a 12 foot caravan (120 model), and was built in 1936, only a few years after the establishment of the Don caravan business in 1934. At this point it is the only Don caravan in existence that we know for certain was built prior to World War II. The story of the Walsh's Don was told in a
Caravan World article in 1993, which you can read in the post commencing this thread.
It was fascinating to see Number 30, both to see how many features remained constant throughout the production of the leadlight window Dons up until 1956, and how many features changed or developed over time. (Answer: Not many of the latter!)
Number 30 is stored in the back of a shed surrounded by a lot of other equipment, so it was not possible to get a photo of the whole van, so I'll start the 'show and tell' with a photo of the caravan from the
Caravan World article referred to above:

Neil Walsh (left) and Wal Robinson standing beside Number 30:

As many of you know, Wal is the nephew of Don Robinson, founder and designer of Don caravans. Wal and his wife Anna are friends of the forum, and attend quite a few vintage caravan events. Wal's father Syd, as a boy, holidayed with Neil's grandfather in Number 30. Syd also later worked in the Don Caravans business, and sold some subsequent Don caravans to the Walsh family.
The serial number plate confirming that the van is number 30:

Note that the plate says ' "Don" Caravans ' and indicates that the manufacturers were 'R H Robinson & Son'. Later on the serial number plates just referred to the 'Don Caravan Company'.
The outside of the van:

Note that the door is hinged on the left, as it appears all pre-WW II 10 ft and 12 ft vans were. Later vans - commencing somewhere between serial numbers 213 and 257 - began to be hinged on the right.

The side windows, as seen below, were glazed with smaller panes of glass than were later post-WW II vans - 31 panes of glass and smaller diamond shapes compared to 16 panes on post-WW II Dons:


The front window is constructed the same as all the later leadlight window Dons with large size, opening front windows...

...with 16 panes of glass:

However, the rear non-opening window is larger than those on later vans:

Standard Don leadlight van captive ball tow coupling:


Familiar corner jacks:


Going inside...bunks to the left of the door that we are familiar with in the 120 4-berth model...

...with storage underneath the bottom bunk:

Note the familiar shaped water tank lying on the top bunk above.
Galley cupboards...

...with icebox below...


...stove alcove above...

...and two drawers in between:

Sink with frame to keep the water tank in place at the rear:

The sink is a Diadem brand...

...and there are cupboards below:

Overhead cupboards...

...with the doors made of 'solid' ply rather than framed and skinned, as was the case in post-WW II vans:

The rear of the van consisted of a day-night slide down lounge which you can see part of in the photo below (can't believe I didn't get a photo of the full lounge!

)...

...with storage underneath:

On the near side of the van was a cupboard and drawer, with both opening to the rear instead of towards the middle of the van:


And of course the wardrobe with cut glass mirror...

...drop down handbasin cupboard...

...and slide-out clothes rack:

All the wardrobe fittings are familiar Don features.
Round from the wardrobe in the doorway, there are the standard three cupboards...

...with the lower cupboard housing the familiar battery box:

And the table, I hear you ask, where's the table? The table folds up against the offside wall when out of use, and then folds down in front of the rear day-night lounge when in use:

A photo of a Don caravan with the same layout, and the table down ready for use, can be seen in a 1937 article posted above
here.
This design was later adapted for the Don 10 ft 100 model, while later 120 4-berth models ended up with a dinette at the rear that folded down to a double bed, and the 122 3-berth model ended up with a two seat dinette at the front that folded down into a single bed.
Interestingly, Number 30 was single skinned. Neil's grandfather and father utilised that fact to build in some extra cupboards, such as this one beside the rear day-night lounge...

...and an extra cupboard over the sink and above the water tank. (The clock is also a Walsh addition.):

There is one electric light on the wall just inside the door...

...with the switch just inside the door jamb:

There is also a light at the rear on the wardrobe side above the day-night lounge (see photo above).
Flywire catch:

Underneath the carpet on the floor was a remnant of the original lino - green of course!

At some point, Number 30 had a gas bottle and gas stove installed. That definitely wasn't a factory option on Dons in the 1930's, in fact it wasn't made available as an option until the early 1950's. The stove installed in Number 30 looks quite modern compared to the van. It's Shields and is sitting on a shelf in the shed ready to boil the kettle:

Sharp eyed Don observers will have noted from the
Caravan World photo at the beginning of this post, that there is no Don badge on the front of the van. That's not a surprise, because it seems that the badge only began to be put on the front of the van as well as the back in the late 40's. And of course, I couldn't access the back to see if there was a badge...but that doesn't mean there wasn't one. And when Neil showed it to me, the biggest surprise was the colour:
RED! Not green!
I hadn't ever seen a Don with a red badge before, and at this point we don't know when the colour changed to green. However, Surf Tragic tells me that he once saw a Don with a red badge at a Victorian beachside caravan park. Must have been another early one?
There was another little surprise in Walshs' shed, but this has been a long post, so I'll leave that for another day.
Don Ricardo