Afternoon all,
As some of you will have noticed from my posts recently, I have been tracing the history of the various Rambler branded caravans built prior to 1970 using newspaper adverts, accessed through
www.newspapers.com. This post is about the Rambler branded caravans sold by Rambler Caravans Pty Ltd in Preston and later Kilsyth in Victoria.
As now indicated in the post commencing this thread, the Preston firm was one of three caravan manufacturers that built and/or sold caravans under the 'Rambler' name in the vintage era. Given that one of the firms was located in NSW, and that the two Victorian firms were located in different places in Melbourne and produced vans more than a decade apart, it seems almost certain that the three firms were independent of each other without any links between them.
The first advert in
The Age for Rambler Caravans Sales was published in June 1966, and reveals that at that point Rambler Caravan Sales were the 'Used Caravan Specialists' offering vans from £95, and mentioning one second hand, 4-berth van in particular at £195:
(Source:
The Age, Saturday, 18 June 1966, page 15)
An advert a week later was also for a two-berth, second hand van:
(Source:
The Age, Saturday, 25 June 1966, page 75)
However, an advert placed in November 1966, mentions for the first time a 14 ft 'Rambler' caravan. It is unclear from this particular advert whether the van was new or second hand, and whether - if new - there was only one of them, or it represented a model range:
(Source:
The Age, Saturday, 12 November 1966, page 40)
But an advert published three months later in February 1967 makes it clear that Rambler Caravan Sales was now definitely offering a range of Rambler branded caravans:
Based on the information provided by
Hughdeani above, these caravans would almost certainly have been produced by some other caravan building business, such as Hilandale or Evernew. Or perhaps they were even sourced interstate since the advert indicates that Rambler Caravans Sales were "...the sole Victorian agents for these units".
Rambler Caravan Sales continued to sell new Rambler caravans and a range of used caravans. A series of adverts for Rambler Caravans Pty Ltd (as it was now called) placed on 6 December 1969 offered a used 14 ft Travel Home caravan, as well as a new 11 ft 9 in Rambler Lightweight 'with sliding windows' (wonder what they looked like?), and a 15 ft Rambler Regent with 'white acrylic enamel' exterior:
(Source:
The Age, Saturday, 6 December 1969, page 50)
The above adverts also mentioned that Rambler Caravans Pty Ltd has "...many other new and used vans in stock". One of these, advertised in another advert on the same day, was a 9 ft
Trail caravan:
(Source:
The Age, Saturday, 6 December 1969, page 50)
A week later Rambler Caravans was advertising a 31 ft caravan which was a 'new concept in living' with a 'Complete 4 room layout, in latest possible trim':
(Source:
The Age, Saturday, 13 December 1969, page 45)
It isn't clear whether this huge van was branded as a Rambler, or whether or not was was part of a regular offering. The fact that it was described as 'a new concept in living' makes it sound as if it was part of a new range of caravans. But the comment 'First to see will buy at $4500' could mean that it was a one-off.
The following advert was published in
The Age in August 1971:
(Source:
The Age, Saturday, 28 August 1971, page 15)
Although the advert was published after the end of 1969, and therefore outside the vintage caravan era, I have posted it for three reasons:
- It indicates that Rambler Caravans was still selling caravans branded under the Rambler name - the one featured was the 'Rambler Special Deluxe'.
- It mentions 'Newlands Traditional Luxury', which indicates that at least some Rambler branded vans at that stage were built by Newlands. This confirms the advice provided by Hughdeani above. The livery on the Rambler caravan in the advert also matches that on Frankidownunder's Newlands caravan shown on the Newlands thread.
- Sometime between December 1969 and August 1971, Rambler had moved its sales yard from 671 High Street to 679 High Street Preston (or perhaps had just expanded its premises?), and had also opened a second yard at 520 Mount Dandenong Road, Kilsyth.
Remember those facts for your next vintage caravan trivia quiz. I'm sure they'll come up!
Don Ricardo
