A consolidated history of Sportsman Caravanettes and CaravansHi Caravan History Tragics.
This is a long post, but hopefully will be of interest to some Forum members.
In a post a little higher up this thread
Roehm3108 posted some pics of a Sportsman caravanette with a Safetee badge on it, and revived the question of whether there was some link between the caravanettes produced by
Sportsman Trailing Equipment and those produced by
Safetee Trailing Units in the bayside suburbs of Melbourne in the 1950’s. That sent me off down the rabbit hole trying to see whether I could find any new information to answer the question. It’s taken me several weeks, but in so doing I have been able to document the history of Sportsman caravanettes and caravans as set out below. In order to make the history easy and more coherent to follow, I will use some images that have already been posted higher up this thread by others, rather than just giving readers a link to another post on the thread.
Sportsman caravans were initially produced by
Eric Lewis Nicholson, who was born in 1905 and is listed in the Victorian Electoral Rolls in the late 1920’s and throughout the 1930’s as a motor mechanic living at 42 Barkly Street, Mordialloc. This appears to have been his family home because his father also lived there. Later, Sportsman production was undertaken by Nicholson's business which was called ‘Sportsman Trailing Equipment’ and later incorporated as ‘Sportsman Industries (Australia) Pty Ltd’. In the 1954 Victorian Electoral Roll, Nicholson is listed as a ‘caravan maker’ living at Rutland Avenue, Mt Eliza.
Pre-World War II?
In the post that commences this thread, forum member
Sportsman1 stated that he has been told that Sportsmans were first produced in 1938 or 1939 before World War II and production was then resumed after the War. In various posts he also identified a couple of telltale differences that he had been advised distinguished between the pre-War Sportsmans and those built after the War, namely:
- The location of the handles and locks on the doors and rear hatch, and
- Signwritten (painted) Sportsman branding vs chromed cast metal badges.
However, after many hours searching via Trove and Newspapers.com I cannot find any documentary evidence to confirm Sportsman1’s belief that Sportsman caravanettes were produced before World War II.
In October 2009
Cobber posted the following adverts published in the Melbourne
Argus newspaper on Saturday, 28 November 1936 (page 12) referring to 2 and 4-berth caravans and 'the SMALL SPORTSMAN'S MODEL' which were available from H R Bain Pty Ltd, 130 Exhibition Street, Melbourne:
We know from advertisements that, in the 40's and 50's, Eric Nicholson sold his Sportsman caravanettes through agents in Melbourne and interstate (see information below), and at first sight the wording of H R Bain's advert appears to be an example of the Sportsman being sold by an agent. And furthermore, the 1936 date of the advert appears to be confirmation that Nicholson's Sportsmans were being produced before World War II. Unfortunately, however, the Bain connection is a red herring.
The following news item printed in the Melbourne Herald on Monday, 6 May 1935 (page 22) tells us that H R Bain Pty Ltd was a motor dealer who sold Triumph vehicles, and from other news items, Pontiacs:
But that's not all. In 1936 Mr Bain also designed and sold a caravanette as reported in this news item from the
Herald on Monday, 30 November 1936 (page 19). The report does not describe the vehicle as a 'caravanette', but it is evident from the description provided that that is what it was:
_Mon_30Nov1936_p19_article244667730.png)
(Source: National Library of Australia
nla.gov.au/nla.news-article244667730 )
It is clear that it was a Bain caravanette that was offered for sale in the advert in the Argus on 28 November and described as the 'small sportsman's model', and also equally clear that, despite the 'sportsman' reference, it was not a Nicholson Sportsman.
Bain was not alone in designing and building caravanettes in the 1930's. Caravanettes were a very popular concept in that era and various magazines, including the
Australian Home Beautiful, included articles or sold plans on 'how to build a caravanette'. Several commercial caravan manufacturers produced caravanettes, and many of the adverts for the factory built caravanettes and the 'how to' articles were targetted (like Bain's) towards the 'sporting man' - the type of man that went hunting, fishing and shooting (and I have used the expression 'man' here advisedly). For example
Land Cruiser produced a caravanette that was variously described as the 'Sports' model or 'Sportsmen's Tourer'. Furthermore, in the 1930's it seems like a whole cottage industry of producing caravanettes sprang up - the newspapers of the time carried hundreds of adverts for caravanettes that appear to have been built in people's backyards. In the current context, however, the important detail about these pre-War adverts for caravanettes is that none of them referred to Eric Nicholson, to his pre-War address of ‘42 Barkly Street, Mordialloc’ or wartime address of ‘3 Powlett Street, Mordialloc’, or to caravanettes that were branded as Sportsman.
It must be accepted that, before the War, Nicholson may have been building caravanettes in his back yard or workshop and selling them privately, without the 'Sportsman' branding and without finding any need to advertise them. That is certainly possible, but in any case I have not been able to find any documentary evidence of him doing so prior to World War II. It should be added that whether or not Nicholson was producing caravanettes before the War does not invalidate Sportsman1's comments about the difference between the earlier and later caravanettes, just the possible time frame. I will be interested to hear more from Sportsman1's about the sources of his information about the possibility of pre-War Sportsman production.
1946
Information available on the Ancestry.com website tells us that Eric Nicholson served with the RAAF during World War II. The first documentary evidence that I have been able to find of Nicholson's caravan building activities following his war service does not appear until Saturday, 5 October 1946 when the following advert was placed in the Argus (page 35) inviting interested parties to call or write to '246a Como Pde, Parkdale' for information about the Sportsman caravanette, which was declared to be 'something special':
In the normal course of events, a business would have been operating for at least a few months (even several years) before it began to advertise in the newspapers. Thus it is reasonable to think that Nicholson had begun to build his Sportsman caravanettes some months before the October 1946 date of the advert, possibly even as soon as he was de-mobbed. In addition the words 'latest models' might mean that there was a previous Sportsman model, but sometimes caravan manufacturers just used those words to indicate that their product was the very latest, up-to-date design.
246a Como Parade is now a shop in a shopping strip directly opposite the Parkdale railway station, and in the late 1930’s and through the 1940’s was the office of Phillips & Nicholson, Auctioneers. One of the members of the firm who worked out of the Parkdale office was the auctioneer Reginald Richard Nicholson who was Eric Nicholson's older brother. Reginald may even have been a senior member of the firm in 1946, but judging by when Phillips & Nicholson's name started appearing in newspaper real estate adverts, the auctioneering business seems to have been founded a generation before Reginald and Eric's. In any case it is apparent that when Eric Nicholson began advertising his caravanettes, he was distributing Sportsman publicity through his brother's office.
Later adverts published in the Argus on Saturday, 14 December 1946 (page 31) did not mention the Sportsman name, but advised that the caravanettes could be purchased fully complete, as a body, or hired:
1947-1949
The first mention we find of Nicholson's adoption of the business name 'Sportsman Trailing Equipment' occurred in an advert printed in the Argus on Saturday, 6 December 1947 (page 18), still giving the address of 246a Como Parade:
Judging from the number of newspaper adverts and the adoption of the new business name, it seems that about this time Nicholson might have decided to take his business to the next level - perhaps from a part-time activity to a more formally organised, perhaps full-time enterprise. Furthermore, very shortly after the advert on 6 December 1947, Nicholson moved his address from Parkdale to 153 Beach Road, Mentone, as recorded in this advert appearing in the Age on Saturday, 31 January 1948 (page 11) below:
The 1949 Victorian Electoral Roll lists ‘153 Beach Road, Mentone’ as Nicholson’s residential address. So it seems that at this point he was operating his business from his back yard. The new address was also included in the Sportsman entry in the first edition of Winser's Caravan & Touring in Australia published in 1948, which stated that the Sportsman was 'made at' 153 Beach Road:
(Source: D Nixon, S Tooth and K Winser (eds), The Caravan & Touring in Australia, 1948, page 11)
I am wondering whether the establishment of Sportsman Trailing Equipment and the move to Beach Road, may have happened at about the time that the changes were made to the caravanettes referred to by Sportsman1, ie the change from signwritten to cast metal badging, and the change of location of the handles on the doors? (That is sheer speculation, though.)
It was also in 1948 that Nicholson seems to have started using agents, as mentioned above. An example is the following advert published in the Age on Saturday, 31 July 1948 (page 10) which advised that Sportsmans could be inspected at an address in Camberwell. It is evident that this was not just someone selling their own second-hand Sportsman because it urges prospective buyers to 'Order now and ensure delivery':
The 1948/49 edition of the Winser Caravan and Touring in Australia included a full page article about the Sportsman:
(Source: K Winser, Caravan and Touring in Australia No 2, Summer 1948-49, page 31)
The wording of the article has been commented on higher up this thread, but it makes it clear that Nicholson had definitely moved to a new level of production which would be reflected in future Sportsmans: "Production Line Assembly means low cost for new Sportsman Caravanette"; "These will be prefabricated on mass production lines, but every Caravanette will be precision built...There will be a drop axle..."; "The springs of the 'Sportsman' will in future be fitted..." (emphasis added).
In addition to this article, the 1948-49 Winser also included several adverts from distributors of the Sportsman caravanette. This is one of them:
(Source: K Winser, Caravan and Touring in Australia No 2, Summer 1948-49, page 44)
Note another new address for Sportsman's Trailing Equipment - 193 Point Nepean Road (now Nepean Highway), Aspendale. Since the advert indicated that 'free leaflets' could be obtained from the manufacturer at the Aspendale address, we can perhaps assume that it was a factory or sales yard now occupied by Nicholson. However, this Point Nepean Road property is now in a residential area. This advert also tells us that the 3 Prospect Road, Camberwell address included in the July 1948 advert from the Age (above) was the location of the Victorian Sales Representative, Mr R Kidby.
As an aside, the Sportsman Caravanette in this last advert is being towed by a post-War Morris Eight Tourer. It is an interesting piece of trivia that the adverts for several caravan manufacturers in the late 40's, including
Caravanpark and Chesney, showed their smallest caravans or caravanettes being towed by a Morris Eight. Was the message being given that 'if our van can be towed by a 918cc Morris Eight, it can be towed by anything'? Perhaps the message was correct!
Apart from the appointment of Mr Kidby as the Victorian Sales Representative, 1949 saw Sportsman caravanettes being made available through distributors in a number of Melbourne suburbs, but also further afield. Young's Garage had the Sportsman on show in Horsham, Victoria, according to an advert in the Horsham Times on Friday, 1 April 1949 (page 8). Note the statement that the caravanette was ideal for 'that Fishing or Shooting holiday':
In Albury, NSW the distributor was Baker Motors, which advertised the Sportsman frequently in the Albury Border Morning Mail in the early months of 1949. This advert is from Wednesday, 23 March 1949 (page 11), and states that the caravanette was 'Designed by a sportsman for sportsmen':
The Sportsman distributor in the St George district of Sydney was J W Marshall in Bexley who advertised often in the Hurstville Propeller with adverts similar to this one published on 31 March 1949 (page 6):
Then towards the end of 1949, we see that the Sportsman was being sold in Adelaide by Motors Ltd, as shown in this advert from the Adelaide Advertiser published on Friday, 18 November 1949 (page 22):
It seems that an important part of Nicholson's strategy for selling the Sportsman caravanette was to set up a strong network of dealers in southeast Australia.
Back in Melbourne, an advert appearing in the Age on Thursday, 14 December 1949 (page 4) - apart from featuring the ubiquitous Morris Eight Tourer - tells us that the Sportsman could be either two or four-berth, the latter configuration including two people sleeping in an annexe...so perhaps a clayton's 4-berth? But the other thing to note is that there has been another change of address for Sportsman Trailing Equipment. This time to 145 Park Road, Cheltenham:
(Source: http://www.newspapers.com)
145 Park Road, Cheltenham is now a relatively new residential property, close to the Cheltenham station and across the road from a commercial area consisting of office blocks, etc. It may once have been a light industrial area.
1950
1950 saw Sportsman announce two new caravanning products which were reported in the 1950 Winser Caravan and Touring in Australia. The first was the 9ft 3in long, 7 1/2 cwt, 2-berth, full height 'Sportsman De Luxe' caravan, which the blurb pronounced was a 'craftsman like job'. Note that the external cladding was waterproof ply covered by waterproof fabric, which was a bit unusual for a 1950's caravan built in Victoria:
(Source: K Winser, Caravan and Touring in Australia, No 3, 1950, page 63)
The second new product was the 7ft long, 3 cwt 'Sportsman Cub' caravanette which joined the existing 8ft long, 4cwt 'Sportsman De Luxe' caravanette. The blurb for the Cub tells us that it was 'Specially designed for fishermen and shooters':
(Source: K Winser, Caravan and Touring in Australia, No 3, 1950, page 74)
However, in addition to the introduction of the caravan and the Cub, other things were afoot at Sportsman Trailing Equipment in 1950. On Thursday, 10 August in that year, Sportsman advertised in the Argus (page 11) for 'body builders, trimmers, assemblers and testers' to work on the 'building of commercial motor bodies and assembly of chassis'. The big plus in working for Sportsman was that it was located 'right at the Cheltenham Railway Station':
The above advert tells us that the Sportsman business had been incorporated as a proprietary company under the name 'Sportsman Industries [Aust] Pty Ltd'. And it also reveals that Mr Nicholson's first name was 'Eric', which has helped in finding information about him!
Then on Saturday, 7 October 1950 there was a further advert in the Argus (page 14) seeking motor trimmers and wood workers, which along the way reveals why all the new workers were required by Sportsman - to assemble English manufactured Jowett Bradford 10 cwt light commercial vehicles:
A couple of examples of Jowett Bradford light trucks are shown below, but there were also a light van and a deluxe utility car produced:
The Bradfords were powered by a 1,005cc flat twin motor, and were able to do the 0-80 kmh in a not so lightning fast time of 46.7 seconds. One person on the internet has commented that the sound of the Bradford motor reminded him of a Subaru WRX, which – while both have/had horizontally opposed engines - seems a bit doubtful to me!
It seems like a huge leap from producing caravanettes and caravans into assembling motor vehicles, even if the latter were CKD. In the history of the Australian caravan industry we have a few examples of motor mechanics moving on to build caravans, such as John Jennison (Jennison), Donald Robinson (Don) and Les Gough (Hawthorn), and examples of carriage and motor body builders going on to build caravans (such as the Propert brothers). But no other examples of caravan builders moving on to assemble motor vehicles. Eric Nicholson's move into assembling Jowett Bradfords no doubt arose from his training as a motor mechanic, and suggests that he possibly even had been continuing in that trade while he was building Sportsman caravans.
1951 - 1952
Through 1951 Sportsman continued to recruit tradesmen to work on the assembly of Bradfords, but at the same time continued to produce Sportsman caravans and caravanettes. The 1951-52 Winser Australian Caravans & Touring, No 4, contained information about the Sportsman caravan and caravanette much the same as the 1951 book, except that there was no mention of the Cub caravanette.
An advert printed in the Age on Saturday, 2 August 1952 (page 38) reveals that Sportsman Industries had moved again. This time to the Corner of Warrigal and South Roads, Moorabbin. One imagines that this have been to a larger premises, or a premises that was better suited to the assembly of motor vehicles and/or caravans:
The south west corner of this intersection is currently light industrial and probably also was in 1952.
1953
The Sportsman advert in the 1953 edition Winser
Caravan and Touring Australia placed an emphasis on 'Caravan Kits to Suit the Home-Builder', as well as promoting the fully built Sportsman caravans and the caravanette, which was still being towed by the faithful Morris Eight:
(Source: K Winser,
Caravans and Touring Australia, No 5, 1953, page 113)
'Build-it-yourself' was also the chief focus of a Sportsman advert placed in the
Herald on Monday, 9 November 1953 (page 6):
_Mon_9Nov1953_p6_article245026493.png)
In fact 1953 was probably a very difficult year for Eric Nicholson and Sportsman Industries, because after all the work of setting up the assembly plant for Jowett Bradfords in Melbourne, the Jowett company in the UK ceased vehicle production in that year. Presumably this meant that assembly of the Bradford vehicles by Sportsman ceased soon after, since no new parts, etc, would have been available. Production of the caravans and caravanettes however continued, as did regular Sportsman advertisments in the Melbourne newspapers.
1954
An advert appearing in the Argus on Tuesday, 30 March 1954 (page 26) offered caravans and caravanettes for sale or hire, as well as frames and shells for the home builder:
(Source: National Library of Australia
nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26599847 )
Later in the year, the
Age carried an advert on Saturday, 4 September 1954 (page 28) offering frames and shells for the DIY person:
But after the 1953 edition, there were no more Sportsman items in the Winser caravan manuals, and one gains the impression that business was winding down for Sportsman. One can only imagine that the loss of the Jowett contract must have been a bitter blow. In addition the interest in caravanettes as a mode of caravanning which had begun in the 30's, lasted right through the 40's and early 50's, seems to have begun to wane in the mid 50's. This was probably due to several factors. A wide range of small and medium sized, full height caravans were available on the market, meaning that caravanners did not have to make the compromises in comfort that a caravanette entailed by its very design. In addition motorists had greater access to more powerful cars that could easily tow medium sized, full height caravans, an example being Holdens.
1955
A Sportsman advert printed in the Age on Saturday, 22 January 1955 (page 32) only offered a second hand Sportsman caravan and a second hand caravanette, possibly ex hire vehicles:
The end for Sportsman was near. An advert placed in the Age on Saturday, 4 June 1955 (page 11) advised of a Clearance Sale, with a new caravan, a second hand caravanette, a trailer and sundry caravan components on offer. The reason for the sale, the advert tells us, was because the CRB (the Victorian Country Roads Board) was taking over the Sportsman premises in Moorabbin:
An article in the Age back on Thursday, 9 July 1953 (page 4) indicates that the CRB was acquiring property to build a new highway to the Mornington Peninsula, south east of the Melbourne metropolitan area. The highway was to commence at the corner of South Road and Warrigal Roads, Moorabbin, the location of Sportsman's business:
The clearance sale at Sportsman Industries continued on for some months, with an advert printed in the Age on Saturday, 19 November 1955 (page 63) offering a range of woodworking tools, and office and other equipment for sale:
The final adverts relating to the sale of Sportsman Industries' equipment were printed in the Age on Saturday, 5 December 1955 (pages 27 and 48):
The reference to the 'Holden '53 Utility, very good order, wireless. No further use' is rather poignant, I think.
According to what we have been able to document above, Sportsman as a manufacturer of caravanettes and caravans lasted just on ten years from 1946 to 1955. For a period the business seemed to be going from strength to strength until changes in the overseas motor vehicle industry ended Jowett production, and most likely Sportsman's future in vehicle assembly soon after. Then changes in preferences for Australian caravans probably saw the end of Sportsman's caravanettes and caravans. It would be interesting to know whether Eric Nicholson retired after Sportsman Industries wound up at the end of 1955, or found other work. He would have been 50 years of age.
Was there a link between Sportsman and Safetee caravanettes?
This post began with the question of whether there was a connection between the caravanettes produced by Eric Nicholson and Sportsman Trailing Equipment, and those produced by Safetee Trailing Units. The history of Sportsman in the posts and the similar consolidated history of Safetee caravanettes and caravans
here allows us to consider the possibilities. On the face of it, it does seem quite a remarkable coincidence that the same type of caravanning vehicle was produced by businesses with extremely similar names, and with both businesses operating for at least four or five years in locations which were within several kilometres of each other.
The question then is, if there was a connection between the two businesses, what might it have been? There are several possibilities:
Business connection: One possibility is that both businesses were part of the same business or legal structure, for example operating as two divisions of a higher level organisation, or alternatively involving a change from one name to another following a takeover or merger. This possibility can be discounted however. I have not been able to find any reference to Eric Nicholson being connected to the Safetee Trailing Units business, which in fact was owned by a man called Ernest White. The two businesses never operated at the same address, or even operated in the same suburb of Melbourne at the same time.
Personal connection: A second possibility is that there was a personal connection between the proprietors of the two businesses, and indeed it turns out there was. In a 1949 advert, Eric Nicholson listed his business address as 193 Point Nepean Road, Aspendale and in the same year the home address of Ernest White, the proprietor of Safetee Trailing Units, was at 153 Point Nepean Road, Aspendale. This alone suggests that Nicholson and White very likely knew each other. However, the fact that they certainly did know each other is confirmed by the fact that Nicholson was married to White's former wife.
Ernest Gregory White married Agnes Skinner McConnell in 1934, but they were divorced in early 1942. Later in 1942 Agnes married Eric Nicholson, and White married for the second time to Hilda May Barry in the same year. Of course we do not know how amicable the relationship was between the two couples, and whether their marital history made it more or less likely that Nicholson and White would cooperate at a business level once the two men became involved in the caravan industry at the end of the 40's. Did they cooperate together in their activities? Were they friendly rivals? Or were they intense competitors?
A further, more arms length link between Nicholson and White arose from the fact that when the factory occupied by White's Safetee Trailing Units was sold in 1955, the firm of auctioneers responsible for the sale was Phillips & Nicholson, the agent with whom Reginald Nicholson, Eric Nicholson's brother, was an auctioneer.
Transfer of components: Forum member
Mysafetee has raised the question on the Forum and Facebook about whether the two businesses were part of the same company (which it has emerged was not the case) and/or that Safetee acquired some components from Sportsman, including some unfinished shells and some Sportsman badges when Sportsman wound up in 1955. As evidence she posted the following photos
here which show a Sportsman caravanette and a Safetee Sports Minor caravanette, and the cast metal badges used by the two businesses:
_11Jan2019.png)
As we are aware from several of the adverts for the Sportsman clearance sale in 1955 posted above, some of the items for sale included ‘sundry caravan components’. These may possibly have included some incomplete caravanette shells and some badges. The Safetee Sports Minor does seem more similar in shape to a Sportsman caravanette than previous Safetee caravanettes, but it still has a distinctly ‘Safetee’ look and has a ‘cut off’ tail, so appears not to be just a modified Sportsman. In addition, the Safetee Sports Minor was released to the market in March 1955 which was three months before the Sportsman clearance sale began, and no doubt was subject to development by Safetee for at least a few months prior to the March release. For those reasons, my conclusion is that the Sports Minor was not just a rebadged Sportsman.
However, the badges are another matter. It is clear from Mysafetee’s comparison that the ‘Sports’ part of the Safetee Sports Minor badges is identical to the ‘Sports’ section of the Sportsman badge. So it is perhaps possible that Safetee acquired some Sportsman badges and then removed the ‘man’ section. The way the ‘Sports’ is finished on the right hand edge for Safetee Sports Minors may reveal whether this is the case. It also appears that the ‘Minor’ part of the ‘Sports Minor’ badging is in a different font from the ‘Sports’ part, and in fact is a carry over from the earlier Safetee Minor model. So it does seem possible that Safetee may have acquired some badges from Sportsman. However, given that the Safetee Sports Minor model was released in March 1955, this would depend on Eric Nicholson being prepared to hand over the badges before his clearance sale in June.
Given that Nicholson and Ernest White were known to each other - and assuming there was an amicable relationship between them because of (or despite) their respective marital histories - it seems possible that Nicholson provided some Sportsman badges to White for use on the Safetee Sports Minor caravanettes. The other possibility of course is that the Safetee ‘Sports’ badges were made by the same foundry as the Sportsman badges, which again is very possible.
However, going further, given the personal link between Nicholson and White, it is possible that the two businesses may have shared some components used to build their respective caravans and caravanettes. Not only badges, but items such as axles, chassis and other hardware. Only a very close comparison of a Sportsman caravanette with one built by Safetee will tell us if this was likely.
(As an aside, it should be noted that the conclusion above that the Safetee Sports Minor was not a rebadged Sportsman does not preclude the possibility that the Sportsman caravanette shown in the photos posted higher up this thread by Roehm3108 was purchased from the Sportsman clearance sale as a fully or partially completed unit and then rebadged for sale as a Safetee, as Mysafetee has suggested in a Facebook post about the caravanette in question.)
I will look forward to reading responses to the above history and to any additional information anyone may be able to provide.
Acknowledgement: The biographical information about Eric Lewis Nicholson was obtained from Ancestry.com
Don Ricardo
it's not a Sportsman TD...the photo doesn't belong in this thread 
_Mon_6May1935_p22_article244838751.png)
_Wed_23Mar1949_p11_article263807378.png)
_Thurs_31Mar1949_p6_article235273185.png)
_Fri_18Nov1949_p22_article35777914.png)
