Arthur and his wife Pat started caravanning around 1940. Their original caravan was named “The Joker”.

Arthur & his family used “Joker II” for 42 years, mainly with the RACV Caravan Club, until sold in 1999.
Arthur and his wife were both 93 years of age at the time and were selling the old caravan to make way for a brand new one!
The caravan was transported to Western Australia by truck.

It is a very well constructed caravan made with boat building like workmanship. The frame is made from 2” x 1” Meranti and all plywood has been glued & fastened with small brads. According to Arthur, none of this has ever moved since construction.
Internally, all the screw heads have been evenly & neatly aligned.

“Joker II” has a very 1950’s appearance, with big spats, a beautifully rounded door, an awning that spreads across the front windows, early 1950’s Vanguard hubcaps and RACV Caravan Club stickers on the front & sides.
The taillights & number plate light resemble those of English cars from the 1950’s.

The caravan has an outside light plus a “clipsal” power input & power outlet, which were added later. I was going to remove these for the sake of originality, but decided against the idea for the sake of practicability.

The caravan was built with many features, some of which were innovative for 1956, including an ‘inverter’ and three way lighting. In fact, “Joker II” has more features than many of the manufactured caravans of the day.

The inverter converts 12 volt power to 240V allowing 240V lights & appliances to be run from a car battery placed inside the caravan. This was hi-tech stuff for a caravan in 1956!
The interior dome lights have two light settings as to minimise the power drawn from the battery, plus there a front & rear fluorescent lights that run off either the inverter or 240V power.

There also two bed lamps on the walls above the single beds. The inverter and power supply are all controlled from a really neat power box, fitted in the top cupboard of the pantry, which is like the meter box of a 1950’s house, with Bakelite switches, power inlets & outlets, plus an amps gauge.

The caravan was fitted with gas at a time when the majority of caravans were still being fitted with Kerosene stoves.
Arthur Pullin had a plumbing supply business at the time he built the caravan and was the distributor of “Blue Ray” gas.

A gaslight has been fitted over the stove, but according to Arthur, was never used due to providing inadequate lighting.

It has a three-burner stove (most were two-burner) and a two-way gas/electric “Electrolux” fridge that replaced the original fridge in 1975.

The caravan also has twin hatches with fly wire covers, fly screens to all windows, and a neat door with a sliding metal panel to cover the flywire section.

Cupboards are plentiful with no less than 17 overhead cupboards.

The laminex table is a beauty, as solid as any kitchen table of the era.
The mattresses are the original “Dunlopillo” mattresses. At the front they form the dining seats, then the double bed when the table is folded down.
They are 5” thick & consequently make very comfortable dining seats, and an even more comfortable bed!

The interior of “Joker II” is the 1950’s “green & cream theme”, consequently I colour code the collectables where possible!!

The curtains are the originals and are made of typical 1950’s fabric. The carpet is like the carpet you remember seeing in your Nanna’s house many years ago! Underneath the carpet is the original lino, all in good condition, obviously protected by the carpet.

The caravan was built with vacuum brakes, if you look at the photo of the interior of my FC Holden, you will notice the chrome lever attached to the steering column. The lever is pulled towards the driver to operate the brakes, and very effective they are too!
It is comforting to know that if the car & caravan are travelling too fast downhill, or when approaching stop lights, the whole rig can be safely pulled up using the caravan brakes, particularly when towing with a “drum brake” early Holden. The car’s brakes leave a lot to be desired!

Interestingly, the chrome lever and many of the brake parts fitted to the FC are the originals used on “Joker II’s” first tow car, a “Vanguard Spacemaster”. The caravan had 6 tow cars in total being the Vanguard, an Austin A95, a Valiant VC, a Chrysler CL, a WB Statesman and a Ford LTD.

The caravan also had turn indicators from new. Cars were only just starting to be fitted with turn indicators as standard equipment. Most caravans of the era had a single separate tail light and brake light. The driver used hand signals when turning, whereas “Joker II” was built with brake, park and indicator lights on both rear sides of the van, plus a separate No plate light in the centre.

“Joker II” came complete with a detailed log book of every trip it had done since December 1957 including destination, mileage, gas consumption etc, plus many slides of caravanning holidays, including its maiden trip.

“Joker 11” has been displayed regularly at car shows around Perth complete with the collectables and the FC Holden wagon …..it’s a popular display wherever it goes.
Many times at car shows, the car and caravan are regarded by show patrons as the most interesting display at the car show.