The following information comes courtesy of the Classic Caravans forum:
From
philou:
Just a bit of info on an early caravan dealer in W.A.
I was seeking info on my hall of fame post millard which has a state energy commision cert dated 1978 in west aus. for Bi-Tone Caravan Sales.
So i received a reply from the Bi-Tone West Coast Caravan Club which i have attached below:
"Two brothers-in-law worked in the building contracting industry and in 1949 they built a small, sturdy caravan in the
backyard of a house in Victoria Park WA. When a building recession occurred soon afterwards they sold this
caravan to the principal of a firm, which later became known as Ravens Caravans. Little did they realise that this was
to be the beginning of a million-dollar caravan industry.
It was then decided to commence a caravan building industry for a living and Bi-Tone Caravans was established. The
name Bi-Tone originated from the two-tone colour of the caravans, quite an unusual feature at that time. Production
carried on for a time until complaints from neighbours forced them to find commercial premises in Welshpool WA and
from one caravan per month, production increased to four per week. Steel bows and karrie frames progressed through
to steel frames and then the first aluminium framed caravans ever to be built in Western Australia.
However the introduction of large Eastern States caravan manufacturing industries soon became so strong in
opposition that Bi-Tone decided to join them. In 1968 they sold their premises and moved to a more suitable one in
Welshpool, dealing first with Olympic Caravans, then Hillandale and finally Millard, one of Australia's largest caravan
manufacturers.
The brothers-in law who were trading as Bi-Tone Caravan Sales and Service Pty Ltd and running the Millard franchise,
sensed the need for caravanners to make more use of their caravan investment. In 1970 the Bi-Tone Westcoast
Caravan Club Inc. was founded."
The person who provided this info "had a 1977 Millard (sold by Bi-Tone Caravan Sales & Service WA) for 31 years and only last year up-dated to a new van."
And from
millard1399:
Back in June 1969, there was a huge fanfare about 65 Millard caravans being shipped by rail from Sydney to Bi-Tone at Welshpool, WA. Nineteen special train decks were used to carry the 65 caravans - one of each model made by Millard at the time. All of them were destined for that one dealer.
The train was 600 yards long (just over half a kilometre), and required five different rail gauge changes between Sydney and Perth. For each gauge change, they had to jack the carriage decks up and change the bogie wheels underneath, without removing the vans from the deck. A monumental effort for the times...
