Big change in home away from home

FORGET the vinyl and laminex: the caravan is now a luxury item.

Jayco's new fifth-whe...

AUSTRALIA, what's your favourite sport? (Football!)

Snack? (Pies!)

Animal? (Kangaroo!)

Recreation vehicle? (Jayco!)

Let me see: football, meat pies, kangaroos and Jayco caravans, huh? Well, you sure sound like Australia to me!

Yes, we have seen the future of the Australian car industry and it's a recreational vehicle or, as we used to say at the BIG4 Easts Beach Holiday Park Kiama (Australia's oldest), a caravan.

In those days, Bruce East would give you fresh milk, butter and ice free of charge, and it cost five shillings to stay a week, or one shilling for the night. Anyway, it was huge at Easts, particularly in a Propert. Tom Propert was the Ferdinand Porsche of the caravan world. Ferdy designed the VW, Tom designed the Propert.

Tom's piece de resistance was the three-fold model. It went from a small trailer to a luxurious home for 10 with spa and a bar for lost companions in three simple moves. Well, maybe not 10. And maybe not the spa. Anyway, you can see a non-folding model on display at the National Museum in Canberra. If you love lino, laminex and vinyl, seeing the Propert will be like looking at your old home.

We had more caravan makers in Australia than VW had rollovers. NSW was caravan central and the big national brands were Viscount, Millard, Franklin, Coronet, Chesney Tru-Line. Today, Victoria has stolen the rec-vehicle mantle. Eighty per cent of the 20,000 travel trailers and vans made in Australia come from companies such as Gerry Ryan's Jayco in Dandenong. Gerry's factory employs more than 650 staff and controls 50 per cent of the market. And these days a good land yacht can cost the same as a Ferrari.

Caravans, or travel trailers, as they are called most places in the world, are such an important part of Australia history that our own Peter Beilharz and Sian Supski have written a sociology of them.

"Why do caravans matter?" Pete and Sian ask. "Australians holiday in them, travel in them, cook, eat, drink, play, sleep and have sex in them."

Apart from that, I don't understand much of their thesis but it seems to go like this: the caravan is a site of domesticity. Inherent in the notion of 1950s domesticity are strict gender relations in which "static home" domestic roles are replicated and performed by men and women - men drive the car and hitch the caravan; women maintain the caravan, cook, clean and wash.

The Bugatti of the caravan world is the Airstream. Designed by aeroplane architect Bill Bowlus and promoted by lawyer Wally Byam, the all-aluminium Airstream (now built in Australia) remains one of the most beautiful vehicles ever made. Expect to pay about $130,000 secondhand.

All of this caravan talk is due to Jayco bringing out its first fifth-wheeler range. You get an orthopedic bed, air-conditioning, a large fridge-freezer, wine cooler, LED TV and DVD player, a 2.5kg washing machine and five wheels. Tommy Propert would be turning in his laminex-coated vinyl bed in the big holiday park in the sky.