Two plumb “Dons” purchased from Vic

[Deleted]

Well folks, I’ve just returned from Victoria where I’ve spent the last few days attending the Bendigo swapmeet, and purchasing old caravans .

I’ve purchased two Don caravans, one out of Mooroolbark (Melbourne suburbia) and the other out of Ballarat. The two vans are “plumbs” and excellent examples of the quality build and features of Don caravans. Both vans are rich in history, and both came with period accessories.

The first van is a 14’ Don Cadet purchased from an elderly owner (93) whose husband is deceased. They used the van for many years with the RACV caravan club, and were caravanning friends of Arthur & Pat Pullin, from whom I purchased my green van named “Joker 11”

Whilst I don’t know the exact year of manufacture, it appears to be mid fifties. Its apparently one of the first of the new shape Don caravans after the Don Caravan Company obsoleted the round shape vans with leadlight windows (al-la Jim Maskell’s caravan).

The van has been carefully maintained, garaged and well loved, its condition is excellent. The only variation from original is an Electrolux gas/electric fridge added in 1963. I queried the daughters on the whereabouts of the original ice chest, only to find that it was converted to a dog kennel, and is long gone !!! don’t dogs have any appreciation of vintage vans

Everything works on the caravan, with the only work being needed now is some paint tidying up, (cracked) as it was stored in an open front shed. It’s rich in family history as daughters Susan & Kathleen (now in their 60’s) recalled many fun holidays in Dad’s van.

Many thanks to Tony & Dina Galea from the FE FC Holden car club (vic) for their assistance with transporting this caravan to the Jayco factory. I’ll do a separate story on Tony’s car collection and caravan.







The second van I purchased is just simply amazing, the passage of time for this little van has stood still !!

It’s a 10.5’ Don (the baby model) and is believed to be pre war. It still has its original cream paint with green pinstriping, sits on its original Olympic “air-ride” tyres, and is totally unmolested and changed since new. Even its original kapok mattress is in excellent condition. The build No is around No 250.

This one was purchased by its current owner from a farm clearance sale about 25 years ago, and was shedded by the new owner and not used. He had an appreciation for what it was, and just stored the van.

Prior to that, it was stored in a farm shed by its original owner, who had passed away by the time of the farm clearance sale.

The story goes that it was hardly ever used for holidaying, and this is clearly evident by its current condition…..maybe the war spoiled planned caravan useage?

Inside the van is a green portable toilet from the 40’s, an antiquated beach umbrella with the wood base, two spare tubes in their original Olympic boxes, and two period fold up chairs used to sit at the fold down kitchen table.





















Both these vans will be trucked to Perth in the next couple of weeks.

Yes folks, I’ve gone vintage caravan mad ……Ditzy has threatened to shoot me if I purchase anymore old caravans

[Roehm3108]

IS DON IS GOOD ;D ;D ;D
What a find Mark, and a double header as well. I reckon VIC must be the home of old vans, especially in the country. My Superb came from Ballarat as well.
Only trouble for you now is finding the time to take all these van on holidays!!
Congratulations!!
Ray

[earlee]

Well done Mr T ;D ;D

Country Victoria must be the place to go, if there are any vans left!

Hopefully yoy will have enough room - how many in your collection now? always room for one more eh!

envious earlee.

[cobber]

WOW Mark!!!

Those lil old Don’s would have stole the show at Motorfest--to bad nominations closed on the 11th November..
Do either of yours have a bath and fold down wash basin like Jim Maskell’s or is that something that came later.
You one lucky bugger me thinks.

Cobber.

[Deleted]

Hi Mark

Lost for words. ( Not like Reddo eh!!!)
The best i can come up with is..... YOUR BLESSED.
Amazing, simply amazing!!!!.

I call it " Poobah privillege" . You owe whoever give you the inside mail on these vans a kings ransom. Dont care what you paid they are worth every cent.... Hear that Ditzy .... EVERY CENT of it. I reckon the swap meet was just a front. You lucky Bastard.


Ditzy you HAVE TO forgive him.

The bad news is Mark.... you can only tow one at a time.
Reddo

[ditzygypsy]

Hi guys,

so I can see that Mark's "coup de ta"............... has won some hearts.

I have not seen either of these vans in the flesh so to speak but have seen the photos..................... he has really done well in finding these two gems.................and he is , to be basic, "AS HAPPY AS A PIG IN. %&$#.)...................

Luckily the shed is almost finished............ and has the space set aside for these vans. They now have pride and place.

Reddo, I forgive him........................................... :-Xso don't worry.

[Deleted]

Thanks guys for your comments ........

Cobber, neither of these two vans have baths .....the baths were unique (from what i can gather) to the large model Don of the 30's,40's and early 1950's.
I do own one of these vans, but it is a future resto project:

vintagecaravans.proboards30.com/index.cgi?board=photo&action=display&thread=1104763414

[Nascohunter]

Hi Mark,
The baby Don looks great, would have loved to have seen it when you were down Victoria last week. Bet you cant wait to have your 2 new Dons at home with you. Also thanks for the kind words and we might catch up at Easter time next year?
Cheers Tony Galea.

[Deleted]

more pics of the Don Cadet purchased from Mooroolbark:





Susan & Kathleen & yours truly





Thanks to Tony & Dina for the pics.

[humpty2]

Mark, Have you seen the article in Caravan World, Nov 1993. It has a feature on the Don cadet, the exact van you bought...right down to the RACV pennant on the sides!,once owned by Bill & Kit Roscoe.(the couple were in their 80's when the article was done)
The article also makes mention of some Dons stored at a farm near Cranbourne Vic

[Deleted]

No I haven't Humpty, but would love to get a copy if anyone can help.

Its the same van, I bought this van off Kit Roscoe, so a copy of the article would be great to have.

Cheers

Mark

[humpty2]

I will try to colour copy it for you and send it over. I dont think I can do it over the computer. I'm no technocrat!!

[Deleted]

that would be good thanks Humpty

Do you have my P O Box address?

Mark

[Dianev]

Hi

The excitment is contagious ! Contratualtions on your new purchases. I live in sydney and we were hoping to make it to the coledale get together but things got in the way. My brother lives in WA and has volunteered to be the "technical advisor" on our project of getting a vintage carvan. (He can bring anything back to life!).

My great uncle was a carvaning pioneer in Denmark (Europe not WA) in the 40's and I think its in the blood.

I am visiting family in WA over christmas (Perth & Busselton) and while I'm not just inviting myself over...was wondering if you had any ideas of where and how we would get information, view a van etc

Diane

[Deleted]

Thanks Diane ......I'm really nervous @ the moment ....the two precious "Dons" are somewhere out on the Nullabour rumbling along on the back of a truck on their way to WA .....lets hope they travel well & there's no tears (damage) when they get here

By all means look us up at xmas & we'll show you some vintage vans ......my No is 0427251204.

cheers

Mark

[dianev]

Hope the vans travel smoothly ! and look forward to taking up your kind offer to see them over Xmas.
I will give you a call sometime over the Xmas/new year break.
all the best
Diane

[Deleted]

The two caravans have made it damage free to Perth (not even any broken or "popped" windows) and have been tucked away in storage in Wanneroo & Gidgiegannup.

Many thanks to Mike Oliver and his business "Carahaul" for their care taken with the vans.

Mike took these pics for me:

[Deleted]

Hmmmmm Road Train!!!

I wander where the drive slept when he had a break? Plenty of options there

Will it be the on horse hair mattress in the Don or the slumberland innerspring and air conditioned comfort of the 2005 model .... decisions, decisions

Glad to hear the precious cargo made it to the far side in one piece Mark.

Reddo

Reddo

[pauly]

hi my name is Paula, i have a felling you maybe be the right person to ask about my globetrotter.

unfortunately my camera is stuffed, so i cant send any photos yet, but Ive decided its time i do something about the van, as she is sitting outside.
i have looked at allot of sites, but i don't no much about computers ether.
shes about 3 meters long, plywood and aluminum, slite carve on the front, and a bigger curve on the back. the door has another door in it for the screen. on the left of the door she has a aluminum window as well as one of the same size on the other side. on the tow end she has a longer window and vent next to it. there is also another one on its back side, but it doesn't open.
the roof has a sun roof and they were both coved in canvas, but that has all rotted and shes begging to leek, hence the worry as winter is coming.
inside as you walk in on the left there is the cold box on top of that is a old ion stove top, thats white with red dials.then the sink is next to that with cupboards under it.
on the side facing you is the wardrobe, with the spare wheel and old gas bottle inside. next to that is one of the single beds, with overhead cupboards. the back wall only has a table attached to it thats blue in color with a aluminum trim.
on the last wall is the other bed with the same overhead cupboards. all the windows including the sunroof has timber frames inside for the screens. there is also a aluminum trim around the edgers of the overhead cupboards. and her outside color is whit with a thick blue stripe with points on the ends. I don't no how original she is as i haven't had her that long. but i have started to fix her up, but I'm worried that i may stuff her up if i try to make her the way that i want her to look. i don't no how rare she is, if theres not many around i might have to let her go so someone that loves these vans and can look after her. so what I'm looking for is,
her age?
her model? (if they have one)
colors?
lots of photos?
blue prints?
how many are around?
if there are any in Adelaide that have been restored that i can look at?
where in Adelaide can i get supples for her?
what can i do about the roof to stop the leeks?
if you have any idea of how much shes worth?
And anything else that i may need to no?

if you also no of anyone else that may be able to help, can you please pass this info on or can you send me info on them.
thanks a bunch, from a new member Paula.
:)



ps do you no what dose this site mean when it says name? is it mine or the person im sending to?

[Don Ricardo]

Hi everyone,

Sad to say that Kit Roscoe, who with her husband Bill were the original owners of Mark T's Don Cadet 15 (serial no 2303) featured in this thread, died on 5 January, aged 94. Her death notice included a lovely reference to Kit and Bill's happy times traveling in their Don caravan. (Actually 'caravans' - they had more than one according to the Robinson family who I spoke to last week.)


(Source: Melbourne 'Herald Sun', Wednesday, 9 January 2008)

For a photo of Kit, and the story of the Roscoes and their Cadet, see the 1993 Caravan World article posted in the first item on the following thread:

vintagecaravans.proboards30.com/index.cgi?board=chat&action=display&thread=1195383883

Don Ricardo

[Deleted]

Sad to hear "Kit" has passed away ........thanks for letting us know Don R.

I never actually met Kit when I purchased the Cadet, but did have the pleasure of meeting Kit's daughters 'Susan & Kathleen', .......lovely people, and they did indeed have many happy memories of caravanning in Mum & Dad's much loved 'Don Cadet'.

For families to keep the one caravan for so many years, whilst change their tow cars frequently, as did the "Roscoe's" & "Pat & Arthur Pullin", there's something 'special' about their home on wheels......and when you enter either "Joker 11", or the Roscoe's "Don Cadet", you feel a sense of warmness, friendlieness, and that cosy "homely" feeling

Mark