Inside Bushtracker's rise from family business to $10m caravan giant
While most people his age settle down, Ken Kennedy sold everything at 60 to become a full-time nomad roaming Australia's highways in a Bushtracker caravan.
At 80 years of age, Ken Kennedy has no permanent address, no mortgage, and no regrets.
For the past two decades, the former Telstra technician has called a Bushtracker caravan home while he travels the country – one of thousands of Australians embracing the grey nomad lifestyle in vans built by a Queensland family business that survived near-collapse to become a $10 million empire.
“Why would I settle down when I’ve got a good caravan life with wheels on it, so I can hook up and have a new bit of scenery whenever I feel like,” Mr Kennedy said.
Originally from Victoria, Mr Kennedy spent four decades working for PMG, Telecom, and Telstra, often serving as a remote area technician travelling across the Northern Territory.
His first taste of caravan life came when he lived in his previous van during the construction of his NT property.
That’s when he discovered that living in a caravan “wasn’t such a bad thing”.
In his 60s, Mr Kennedy took a leap of faith to adapt to a nomadic lifestyle, selling his 5-acre Northern Territory property and quitting his 40-year full-time career.
Now he travels between Western Australia, Kalgoorlie, Alice Springs, north Queensland and Tasmania, visiting his sisters in Victoria in his 21-foot Bushtracker.
He said the connections he has made with people across the country have been the best part of his two decades on the road.
Mr Kennedy said he had made some mishaps on the road, including when he travelled to Longreach in northwest Queensland, during the wrong season and weathered extreme cold.
When not on the road, Mr Kennedy spends his time in Sea Lake, Victoria, where he does volunteer work and engages with local sports clubs.
His upcoming travels include a trip to a Bushtracker Caravan Club muster in Mareeba, Queensland, next year followed by meeting old friends in Ravensthorpe, Western Australia.
He hopes to enjoy “quite a few more years of life yet,” maintaining that his current good health gives him hope to keep travelling, especially seeing others much older than him doing it well.
The Bushtracker empire
One of Queensland’s oldest family-owned caravan brands, Bushtracker, has travelled Australian roads for the past 30 years, but the global Covid pandemic almost forced the family business to close.
“It was getting close to that point, particularly in the initial stages of the shutdowns and all,” Bushtracker managing director and owner Matthew Kurvink said.
“There was very little inquiry for a while and we did slow down the factory.
“I think at one point we actually took the staff back to probably three or four days a week, and we did really slow it down, because we were worried that we’d build ourselves out of work.”
But as the restrictions eased, Mr Kurvink said a switch flipped for the company, with a sales boom that pushed their caravan construction waiting time to over a year from their usual six months.
The iconic Bushtracker was started in 1995 by Tracey Brunes and his friend Steve Gibbs, out of the frustration of not being able to find a caravan to offer a comfortable lifestyle.
With Mr Brunes’ builder background and Mr Gibbs’ engineering expertise, the duo took matters into their own hands to build their first caravan which took more than nine months.
It included setting up the workshop, making benches, and procuring equipment like overhead gantry cranes, welding gear, and other necessary items.
Mr Brunes said the first caravan was more of a cross between a trailer camper and a caravan and the duo took it for a test drive on a trip through WA.
“From before day one, Steve and myself were both involved with four-wheel driving, four-wheel drive clubs, going out camping in the bush,” he said.
“That was one of our passions from day one.”
The Sunshine Coast factory can make nearly 100 caravans a year, with staff that have grown from just two to 50.
Mr Kurvink is now the face of the business, running its day-to-day operations following the retirement of Mr Brunes and Mr Gibbs.
Joining the organisation in 1997 from high school, he initially worked part-time in accounts and administration while at university.
He left Bushtracker in 2000, but returned in 2004 and hasn’t looked back.
Mr Kurvink said the goal was for Bushtracker to continue to be the market leader.
“Look, our goal is to continue to be the market leader in off-road caravans,” he said.
“We were one of the very first ones, and we are still one of the pioneers in terms of offering the latest and greatest products, particularly in that off-road market.
“So the vans are fully independent, and it’s just a matter of pushing that and really trying to evolve the product and keep it competitive, because there’s an awful lot more coming in from overseas now, a lot of cheaper imports.”
He said Bushtracker had a focus on Australian-made products.
“It’s a matter of maintaining that Australian-made product, obviously, keeping local people employed, but being able to compete on a basis where we’re not twice the price,” he said.
Bushtracker Flippers
Dave and Maz Seton bought their first Bushtracker in March 2010 and have been loyal fans ever since.
Now onto their fifth Bushtracker, the couple have become accidental “flippers”, acquiring second-hand vans and refurbishing them.
Their journey into refurbishing Bushtracker caravans began “by accident”. After briefly co-owning a van with friends, the couple looked to buy another Bushtracker but, unable to afford it, they bought an older model.
They took the caravan to the Bushtracker factory for mechanical upgrades, including suspension, before Mrs Seton “completely changed the inside” and applied a raptor coating to the exterior.
The couple initially intended to keep it, but after attending a muster, they realised its high value when others mistook it for a brand-new model and advised them it was “worth a fortune”.
The van sold within a couple of days and despite this quick turnaround, they said they are not doing it for profit and don’t see themselves as “flippers,” considering it purely a hobby.
They are currently on their fifth Bushtracker, bought in 2023, with Mrs Seton handling the internal redesigns (colours, upholstery, fridges, floors, and adding “bling”), and Mr Seton managing the electrical and outside work.
Founding Members
Brian and Margaret Fox have been exploring the country in their Bushtracker caravan since 2001.
As of late 2025, they have accumulated a massive 348,000 km on the road, with their assistance dog, Utah, joining them on recent adventures.
They meticulously track their travels on a map displayed inside the van.
The couple are heavily involved in the caravanning community, being founding members of the Bushtracker Owners Group.
They say the best part of caravan life has been the connections they have made in the last 24 years across the country.
Mr Fox, now 79, said age is not slowing them down, with their sights set on another adventure in Mareeba, North Queensland, for a caravan muster next August.
Originally published as Inside Bushtracker's rise from family business to $10m caravan giant
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