Rowvan (York, West Croydon & Enfield, SA)

[Don Ricardo]

Rowvan

Manufactured by Bill and Mary Rowe
William Street, York, South Australia

Later 83 Robert Street, West Croydon, South Australia
followed by 372 Main North Road, Enfield, South Australia

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Following is a compilation of information about the history of Rowvan from various threads on the forum.

On 1 September 2011, Franklin1 wrote:

The following article appeared in a Caravan World magazine, Oct 2005, and helps with the early history of Rowvan Caravans...

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EARLY HISTORY OF ROWVAN

Contrary to the information provided in the above article, other information collected by forum members indicates that the Rowe's owned and built Rowvans from 1949 to sometime between 1958 and 1960, when they sold the Rowvan name to Keith Odgers after a failed partnership, as per the article. It is not known at this stage whether Keith Odgers was the partner involved. According to Cobber, the original Rowvans ranged in size from 9 ft to 16 ft, although only photos of vans approximately 10ft and 12 ft have been posted on the forum (see below). The internal layout of the vans differed with some having the dinette at the front of the van, and others having a rear dinette. This may be related to the size of the van.

The signage on early Rowvans indicates that the Rowes operated from William Street, York, a suburb of Adelaide. This suburb is now known as Beverley (thanks to Raym for this information).

On 24 February 2008, Trodler posted:

The van vou have is actually a Rowvan built in SA by Mr and Mrs Rowe.
They built vans under their name and they also built vans unnamed and shipped them out to their suppliers who gave them their own brand. ( Mr Rowe wasn't really concerned about the naming as long as he was paid.)
If you have a look in the cupboard and up under the sink there should be a date written in chalk of when it was built, it may even have the builders signature.

Subsequent research has revealed that caravans built by Rowvan were sold as Playtime in Victoria, and as Farrell Caravan Centre caravans in South Australia. (Click on the links for further information about these on-sellers of Rowvan caravans.)

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Rowvans built between 1949 and the mid to late 50's followed the same basic design, although changes and updates were made over time.

The Rowes do not seem to have been into advertising their caravans. There are no examples of newspaper advertisements of pre-1960 Rowvans, and Rowvans are not mentioned in Keith Winser's annual Australian Caravan and Touring Manual publications prior to 1962 (although Playtime, Hawthorn and Farrell vans were included in the latter). It may be that there was sufficient demand from Rowvan's on-sellers that there was no need to advertise.

Consistent early Rowvan characteristics (pre-1958?) included:

• Double cambered roof
  
• No external wheel arches
  
• Tudor style ceiling
  
• Distinctive stove alcove with angled side walls

It should be noted that the first three characteristics are common to a number of South Australian built vans from the 30's through to the 60's and are not exclusive to Rowvan. However, the last characteristic is exclusive to Rowvan.

Following are photos of Rowvans posted in order of what I think is approximate build date.

The earliest Rowvans had wooden framed windows with 90 degree angled corners.

Rowvan - history unknown


Trodler's Rowvan:




Further photos of this caravan can be found on the Our Touring Past website here.

Neilncheryl's Rowvan:


And the same van after being refurbished:















Later Rowvans used Bosse and Eunson style wooden framed windows, with the curved inner corners. These windows were commonly used between 1953 and 1957, so it is safe to assume that these vans are from the mid-50's. Note also the full width front and rear windows.

10 ft Rowvan from Mt Gambier - photos posted by Roehm3108 in 2007:




Roehm3108's own Rowvan acquired in 2011.
The internal photos show the characteristic Tudor ceiling and distinctive stove alcove. Note also that this is a longer van than the 'pink' van above. This van has a longer section between the door and the front of the van and the porthole window which was incorporated into most Rowvans pre-1958:








Further photos of this van including some great historical photos can be found here.

Rowvan seen at Pinnaroo in 2010 by Urkel1965
Note that this van has rubber seals around the side and front windows (in contrast with the previous vans shown) and has an external wheel arch.






The following photos are of a later Rowvan with aluminium framed windows purchased by Ditzygipsy in 2006.
The design of the van has been significantly changed and a number of the Rowvan characteristics found on earlier vans are no longer present. (Note that the rear window is not original.):












Editorial note - September 2017: This van was identified as a Rowvan when it was purchased in 2006 by Ditzygypsy, however in the intervening years we have developed a pretty good understanding of the styling of Rowvan caravans. Based on that, it is clear that Ditzygypsy's is very different to any of the Rowvans shown on this thread. The identification of the van as a Rowvan must therefore be questioned.

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LATER HISTORY OF ROWVAN

The article posted by Franklin1 which commenced this post states that the Rowes sold the Rowvan name in 1960. Based on the following advertisement from an early 60's edition of Keith Winser's Australian Caravan and Touring Manual, the name may possibly have been sold to Keith Odgers who seems to have been involved in various aspects of caravan sales and supplies in the early 1960's:



This advertisement appears to show a Rowvan model very close in design to the van shown in the Caravan World article.

Keith Odgers' name also appears in this listing for Rowvan caravans from the 1962 edition of Winser's Australian Caravan and Touring Manual posted by Cobber:



Very late 50's and 1960's Rowvans appear to have adopted what appear to be fairly universal design cues for Australian caravans of the period. Following are some examples of Rowvans from the 1960's.

Rowvan sighted by Dave01 at Indented Head, Victoria in May 2011:








Note that the Rowvan signage above gives an address of 372 Main North Road Enfield, South Australia. However, a Rowvan discovered (and now owned?) by Olfarts, which appears almost identical, has signage which gives an address in 83 Robert Street, West Croydon, South Australia. West Croydon is adjacent to Beverley (formerly York, and close as the crow flies to William Street, York which was the Rowes' original location).

One obvious difference between these two vans is the shape of the wheel arch. The wheel arch on Olfarts' van (below) is similar to the shape of the wheel arch on a couple of the late 50's Rowvans and may indicate that it has an earlier build date than the van seen by Dave01 (above):





Rowvan rescued by Olfarts and young friend Zac in March 2010, but sadly to no avail (it fell apart during the rescue):






Note the address on this signage is also 372 Main North Road, Enfield, South Australia.

Rowvan acquired by Dragonfly in April 2010 - serial number 805:
Dragonfly was informed that this van was built in 1965.
















The sticker on the back window says "Supplied by Keith Odgers Pty Ltd, 372 Main North Road, Enfield SA". This is further evidence of the connection between Rowvan and Keith Odgers, and it appears that the Enfield address was his business address.

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As demonstrated in the photos posted above, the Rowvan logo remained relatively consistent throughout the 50's and 60's, consisting of the word Rowvan, usually on a 30 or 45 degree angle, and underscored by a line which in almost all cases was the tail of the 'R'. However in 2006, Retro1 reported seeing a Rowvan in Burra, South Australia with the following logo:



This logo is similar to the one on the 1959 Rowvan shown in the Caravan World article at the beginning of this post.

Don Ricardo

[Roehm3108]

Great work updating this thread DR, thanks so much for doing that. That pink Mt Gambier van is the one that sold for $750 at auction, complete with current rego!!

Ray

[Don Ricardo]

Thanks Dave and Ray,

The previous Rowvan thread had been bugging me for a while, so now we have one with some order (and photos) to it!

And Dave, you are a cultured chap - you speak French! Very impressive.

Sept 10, 2011 22:34:09 GMT 10 @olfarts said:

Awsum stuff Don ;D

And yep,its owned by Moi and sitting on Moi's block under cover

Moi.

Thanks for confirming that you now own the Rowvan you posted about some time ago. Seeing it's on your block under cover...can you help me out by popping across to it and telling me what the address is that's contained in the Rowvan logo, please? I sort of guessed that it said 'Bourke Street' by staring at the logo until I was cross-eyed and then looking at a map of West Croydon and finding a street name starting with 'B' and the right-ish number of letters. If you can tell me if I am correct, and also the street number which I couldn't read either, I'd be very grateful.

And, oh, while your at it...is there any reference anywhere on the van to Keith Odgers? I'm wondering if the West Croydon address was pre- or post-Keith Odgers.

Thanks,

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for that info...

Bourke Street...Robert Street...Bourke Street...Robert Street Just goes to show what happens when you look so long at something you go cross-eyed. ;D ;D ;D

A photo would be great, thanks.

And no sign of Keith Odgers? Maybe your van is pre-Odgers then? I think you call that a "working hypothesis". That's when you make a guess without any evidence at all to back it up! ;D ;D ;D

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

I have come up with a bit more information that throws some further light on the later history of Rowvan, as well as possibly telling us something we didn't know about Rowvan's beginnings:




(Source: Keith Winser, 1967 Caravan Manual & Tourist Park Guide, pp 190 & 191)

As indicated these excerpts are from 1967. So that confirms that Rowvan was still operating as a separate brand at that point. However, the excerpts also show that:

1. The Rowvan owned by Dragonfly with bondwood sides (shown in the post that commences this thread) was apparently on sale simultaneously with the fully aluminium clad - and differently shaped - Rowvan seen by Dave01, and the Rowvan recently acquired by Olfarts (also shown in the first post). Both of them are shown in the publicity photos.

2. The supplier of Rowvans is shown in the advert as Keith Odgers Pty Ltd, and the Rowvan entry in the list of Australian caravans elsewhere in Winser's 1967 Manual reads 'ROWVAN (S.A.) Keith Odgers Pty Ltd'. I think this removes any remaining doubt we may have had that it was Keith Odgers who bought the Rowvan name from the Rowes in or around 1960.

3. The wording:



seems to suggest that besides Rowvan, Odgers also sold Goldstar, Fleetstar and Panoramic brand caravans. We know Goldstar and Panoramic from general V V history. But underneath this list it then states "Remember...'there's no van like a Rowvan'...and there's one to suit you."

I wonder if this indicates that Goldstar, Fleetstar and Panoramic were Rowvan model names at that time rather than separate caravan brand names? If this is not the case why would Odgers refer to other caravan brand names in the middle of a statement about Rowvan in a Rowvan advert? There is no other reference to Goldstar, Fleetstar or Panoramic in the 1967 Winser.

And most interesting of all...

The advert claims that Rowvan was established in 1946, not 1949 as we've previously thought. Now, we know that some caravan manufacturers were a little...what shall we say...elastic with the truth about when they commenced building vans, but if the Rowes commenced building vans in 1946 that would be very interesting. I wonder what the earliest Rowvans might have looked like...

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Evening all,

I am commencing this post by stating up front that it is purely speculative. It is an attempt to try to join a few dots together. Maybe the dots are not there to join, but I am interested in other people's thoughts.

I ended my last post on this DHL Rowvan thread as follows:

Sept 27, 2011 22:49:52 GMT 10 Don Ricardo said:

The advert [in the 1967 Winser] claims that Rowvan was established in 1946, not 1949 as we've previously thought...if the Rowes commenced building vans in 1946 that would be very interesting. I wonder what the earliest Rowvans might have looked like...

We have established that one of the constant features of Rowvans up until around at least 1958 or so was an 'above bench' stove alcove with angled side walls which looked like this one in Roehm3108's recently acquired Rowvan:



I am open to being proven wrong, but as far as I know this style stove alcove was unique to Rowvans.

When Dona Ricardo and I were in Mildura for the V V Nationals in 2010, we had the good fortune to be introduced to a local 'blockie' (fruit grower) who had a couple of interesting old vans. One of his caravans was a fair size - 14-15 feet in length. The roof had been overlaid with galvanised tin, as had the lower front. Otherwise the cladding was bondwood. The layout consisted of single bunks at the front and a dinette at the rear which folded down to a double bed.





Front:



Rear:



Internal:











The van had a very unusual tow coupling:





More detailed pics of the tow hitch can be found on the Old Tow Couplings thread (see Reply #107).

This caravan is fairly clearly of South Australian origins with its Tudor ceiling. The roof is not double cambered like Rowvans of the 50's but I am fairly sure was originally covered in canvas. There was a suggestion at the V V Nationals that the caravan was built by Adventurer. However, the van has a couple of intriguing features.

One is that the van has a relatively steeply raked roof fore and aft, with quite a high 'hump' in the middle. In addition the top left hand corner of the door opening is placed very close to the roofline. On these points the Mildura van is very similar to this Rowvan:



Even more intriguing, though, is the Rowvan style stove alcove in the van at Mildura. If this style alcove is indeed unique to Rowvan then that would be a very strong indicator that this caravan could be a Rowvan.

A contrary indicator is that the front and rear walls of the Mildura van curve down under the van in an unbroken line to join the floor line. In contrast, the front and rear walls of Rowvans built in the 50's joined the floor line at an angle.

In my mind it all hinges on whether the stove alcove seen in Rowvans during the early to mid-50's was unique to Rowvan. Does anybody have any evidence one way or the other on this?

Maybe, just maybe this is what an early Rowvan looked like?

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

We know from information such as this illustration from the 1958 Winser, that Rowvan produced its original 1940's/50's vans in lengths of 10 feet, 12 feet and 15 feet:


(Source: Keith Winser, Australian Caravan and Touring Manual, Book 10, 1958, pp 98 & 99)

However, all the Rowvans of this type we have seen on the forum thus far - including the vans shown on this thread - have been either 10 ft, or more frequently 12 ft models. Most likely the 15 ft Rowvans were not very common.

With this in mind it was exciting to see a 15 ft Rowvan listed on Ebay in August 2014. The van was in need of a lot of repair work, but it is still interesting to compare it to the smaller models. Note that this van is clad in aluminium rather than bondwood, although the roof retains the painted canvas cladding:













Rowvan insignia on the aluminium cladding, which suggests to me that the aluminium is original rather than added some time later:



And some internal shots - unfotunately not sufficient to be able to properly see how the layout differed from the smaller models:



Note the characteristic Rowvan stove alcove:



And the Tudor ceiling looking to the rear:



Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Hi history buffs,

A couple of extra pieces of the Rowvan story have come to light recently.

First is this photo of a Rowvan Special 15 caravan from the 1960 edition of Winser:


(Source: K Winser, Australian Caravan and Touring Manual, 12th edition, 1960, page 156)

The caption states that this van was on display at the 1959 Melbourne Caravan Show, which indicates that it was at the latest a 1959 model, and possibly could have been earlier. The caption also indicates that Rowvans were available from Greensborough, a Melbourne suburb. That will be of interest to Victorian V V'ers.

Some of the interesting features of this van are the three-piece wrap-around front windows, and the rounded, extended bodywork below the front windows, both of which began to be seen on other vans in the late 50's. However close inspection of the photo shows that the side windows and the middle front window are the unusually shaped aluminium framed windows seen on the following Rowvan, rather than the more conventional 'Alfab' type windows we are used to on other vans:



A comparison of the body of the '1959 van' with that of Roehm3108's former earlier model Rowvan from just in front of the porthole backwards, shows that the later van retained the same basic shape of the earlier Rowvans. In other words the 1959 van seems to have consisted of a new modern front added to the existing shape:



The second piece of the Rowvan story which has come to light is this Rowvan Special which was advertised on Gumtree in September 2014:















The Ebay advertiser stated that this van is 12 ft 6 in in length, and dated it as 1958. Regarding the date, this van is similar in shape to the 1959 van. But the wrap-around front windows wrap further around around the sides, and the middle section of the front window is much wider than on the 1959 van. The windows are also more conventional 'Alfab' style aluminium frames. Based on the developments which we see in the designs of windows in Viscount vans, etc, around the same peropd, one would expect that the wider front window on the Ebay van indicates that it is a later model than the 1959 van.

In fact the Ebay van looks to be very similar in many respects (certainly from the door forward) to the Rowvan Special shown in the following extract from the 1962 Winser Caravan Manual, except that the walls of the Ebay van are clad in ply (Rescote) and the 1962 van is clad entirely in aluminium:



I think that indicates that the Ebay van was probably built sometime between 1960 and 1962.

The extract from the 1962 Winser is labelled as 'Rowvan (Keith Odgers)', so it seems that this model caravan was produced by Rowvan after Keith Odgers took over the firm in the very early 60's.

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Information about a Rowvan pick-up camper published in the 1967 Winser caravan manual:


(Source: K Winser, Caravan Manual & Tourist Park Guide, 19th edition, 1967, p 204)

Note the Keith Odgers signage on the door of the utility.

[Deleted]

That looks to me like a copy of an American camper,but its obviously an Aussie one due to the windows.
wonder how many they made?
Cheers
hughdeani

[Don Ricardo]

Photos of a mid-60's tandem Rowvan with bunk beds posted by Craigd on 31 July 2017 here:

[paullll]

I have just got a rowvan can anyone help me to identify it:)

[paullll]

SoZ I wanna post pics but I can’t work out how too so excited it’s been sitting in field for 20 years!

[kingswood308]

Hi mate.
If you ask Don Ricardo really nice he would be delighted to post the photo's up if you sent them !!


I am just about to ask him to post a few unseen Rowvan photos never seen before. I am a friend of one of his daughters and she was kind enough to give me a few photos of his vans and boats, he was a well known boat builder back in the day.

Dave

[Don Ricardo]

Jun 15, 2018 19:06:22 GMT 10 paullll said:

I have just got a rowvan can anyone help me to identify it:)

Hi Paullll,

I've just replied to your PM's (private messages) and your email regarding your van. Sorry for the slow response to your messages - I've been away for an extended period. However, I'll be happy to help you post some pics of the van. You can send them to me by email

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

In the last month or so I have been contacted by two forum members with post-1960 Rowvan caravans, who have been able to tell me the serial number on the A-frames of their vans:

Huntsmanbuild250's Rowvan, serial number 250:





Further photos of this caravan can be found here.

Paullll's Rowvan, serial number 399:





Paullll has also found the following date on the galvanised iron of a wheel arch:



This indicates that the caravan was built after either May or September 1964 (depending on how you interpret the date).

More photos of this caravan can be found here.

In addition to these two Rowvans, we also have a serial number for Dragonfly's van shown above, which is number 805:





Dragonfly was told that his van was built in 1965, however adverts from the Winser caravan manuals (see higher up this thread) indicate that vans like all three shown in this post were still being sold in 1967.

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

12ft Rowvan from around 1965 listed on Gumtree in October 2017

There are other Rowvans similar to this one shown higher up this thread, however I am posting these photos because they show what appears to be an absolutely original interior.



















Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Mid-1950’s Rowvan advertising flyer thanks to Hughdeany via the Vintage Caravans Facebook page, April 2020:

[Don Ricardo]

Photos of the 1959 Rowvan featured in the article at the top of this thread:













The photos were posted when the caravan was listed for sale in May 2019.

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Rowvan listed for sale on Gumtree in October 2017

This is another interesting ‘post-Rowe’, Keith Odgers era Rowvan that I don’t think we have seen on the forum before. It almost has a Harris Van/Sportline look about it which makes me wonder who might have built it.  Did Keith Odgers build his own vans or source them from other manufacturers?

.

  



  

  

  

Don Ricardo

[Rowvan Owner]

Wow Don, Great to see this Forum board is still going, Can you pm me if or if not I could get in touch with Bill and Mary row please.

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

As we know from the history provided in the post that commences this thread, Bill and Mary Rowe began building caravans in the late 1940's and continued until 1960 when they sold the 'Rowvan' name after a failed business partnership. We are still uncertain about who the partnership was with, but it may have been with Keith Odgers. Odgers bought the 'Rowvan' name. However, it appears that the failure of their business had serious financial consequences for the Rowes, judging from this insolvency notice that was published in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette published on Thursday, 16 February 1961 (No 16, page 677):


(Source: National Library of Australia nla.gov.au/nla.news-article241004378 )

Keith Odgers continued to build caravans sold under the 'Rowvan' brand name until 1967, when production ceased. The 1968 Winser Caravan Manual recorded that:

"Several well-known names have ceased production as from this year, as their owners have branched out into other fields - these include Rowvans of South Australia, for Keith Odgers has instituted a new West Australian Wild Flower Safari in addition to his popular Northern Territory Safaris and this takes up almost all his time now..." (K Winser, Caravan Manual & Tourist Park Guide, 1968 Edition, page 261)

The 1968 Winser included several other references to Odgers' caravan safaris, including this photo showing Odgers' utility with its Rowvan pick-up camper leading the way:


(Source: K Winser, Caravan Manual & Tourist Park Guide, 1968 Edition, page 164)

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

In some recent posts about the origins of a caravan that had been suggested to be a Rowvan, the discussion got down to what type of stabiliser legs the van in question had. Hughdeany commented that "Rowvan had sliding jacks in a sleeve that were in situ and you turned a knob and the inner sleeve dropped to the ground, where you then did up the knob to stabilise" and further that "on earlier Rowvans...you had to put your hand up under the body to access the thumbscrew".

When we looked for photos of Rowvans (such as the ones shown further up this thread) we discovered somewhat surprisingly that none of the photos showed the vans with their stabiliser legs down. Subsequently Hughdeany sent me the following photo of a Rowvan on Gumtree that did show one of the drop down legs:



The stabiliser shown in  this photo is clearly just a straight, drop down tube with a plate at the bottom.

Just for the sake of completeness, here are a couple of other photos of this van which show a standard Rowvan internal fitout:





It appears that Rowvan may have introduced a different type of stabiliser leg in later models. Here is a photo of a Rowvan formerly owned by Roehm3108 which appears to show a wind down stabiliser jack on each rear corner which would have been wound down from the side:



Similar wind down stabiliser jacks can be seen on this 15ft Rowvan:



It's possible that the wind down jacks were added to these vans at some stage to replace the original drop down stabiliser legs, but we don't have enough information to know whether that is the case at this point.

If anyone has information or photos of the stabiliser legs used by Rowvan to add to the above, Hughdeany and I would be interested to hear.

Don Ricardo

[sheppy]

Hi guys.. I found this thread while looking for information on Rowvans. I cant believe I am going to collect an old van tomorrow to renovate with my son. I build old cars mostly from scratch and decided to get a period van to go with my projects.. My son (15) has recently asked to help out in the shed......Score.. So i thought an old van would be ideal to get him on the tools. He will learn some basic mechanicals, metalwork, woodwork even upholstery.. So anyhow, can you imagine my surprise when i found the actual van on this thread that we collect tomorrow.. It is the Alleged Row van owned by Ditzygypsy further up the thread.. I have checked the licence and it was last registered in 2006 in SA. We are in Busselton WA. I was wondering if the vans heritage is in question how i might identify it? If it is indeed a Rowvan that has been dramatically altered, how would i restore it back to an as original as possible condition? Please note i am a Hot rodder at heart and may use a little artistic licence but would love an accurate base template to start with.. I will add some pictures when we get it home..
Thanks in advance guys....

[Roehm3108]

Interesting to find out where Ditzy's van has ended up. I remember the whole debate about it at the time she found it. Unfortunately, I think there won't be much more (if any) information apart from what you have here, about its origins. Good luck with the restoration.