caravan

Very interesting design, resembling a container.

Neil Chesney was born into a caravan family and for as long as he can remember he always wanted to build them. His father Alex was a successful caravan salesman, establishing what grew to become “Chesney Corner” at the busy intersection of Gympie and Rode Roads in Brisbane’s Chermside. Alex Chesney initially sold kit caravans that were popular in the early 1950s and was also the Queensland manager for Carapark caravans. Neil left school at age 14 to do an engineering apprenticeship and five years later he began making parts for his father to sell. His first factory space was underneath the family’s Queenslander home, however, demand increased quickly to the point where he had to find bigger premises and moved into an old boat shed at Breakfast Creek in Brisbane. It was there Neil Chesney built the first complete Chesney caravan, which proved to be a little too ahead of its time. In 1960 production moved to a new factory at Stafford as Chesney moved away from timber construction and started building stylish lightweight aluminum caravans. In 1965 Chesney received the biggest order of his career when he was commissioned to build 500 caravans to be used as temporary housing for workers at the new aluminum smelter at Gladstone. He later bought the vans back for a fraction of the sale price, refurbished them and held one of Queensland’s biggest caravan sales of all time. Source: www.timetoroam.com.au/neil-chesneys-60-years-caravans/#:~....

1937 was a transition year for Oldsmobile and that was certainly the case here in Australia for the locally assembled models. There were several key changes that took place in 1937, the most significant being a shift from timber-framed bodies to an all-steel structure. The Holden Body plant at Woodville, South Australia also transitioned to an all-steel turret top on Sedan & Sloper Coupe's to follow what Fisher Body had introduced in 1935 in the U.S. for the G.M. range there. Detroit executives apparently underestimated GM-H, they didn't initially believe that the Holden plant was capable of producing the All Steel Turret and was quite surprised when Laurence Hartnett - Managing Director of G.M-H confirmed that not only could the Holden Body plant produce the all-steel turret top, but they had been doing so for the Chrysler, Dodge, De Soto & Plymouth bodies that Holden's had built throughout 1936 for the Chrysler Corporation. Source: www.oldsmobileinaustralia.info/37hist.html