Time to Roam Magazine Issue 11 - October/November 2014 | Page 21

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upfront feature

From the Viscount Owners Handbook cover
John and Maureen Carr

1970s meeting. 3rd from left, MD of Viscount Garry Dunn

Buyers did come and quickly appreciated the quality and
workmanship of John Carr’s caravans. Viscount grew quickly,
moving to a new purpose-built factory and a few years later to NSW.
The Carr family also grew, with four daughters and a son following
in close succession. Maureen says it was initially tough for the
family as every spare dollar was ploughed back into the business.
“We lived with Gordon Cairnsdale and his family who came up
with us from Adelaide. We were all in the same house on the Hume
Highway, with the office up front and factory out the back. Workers
were constantly tramping through our house. Even today I take my
hat off to anyone who starts their own business, it’s not easy.”
As Australians became more prosperous in the 1960s, Carr found
success by delivering lightweight luxury caravans almost a generation
above anything else on the market. By the latter half of the decade
he’d perfected mass production of strong aluminium frames.
In July 1965, the company moved to a huge new factory complex
at Orange Grove Road Liverpool, famed for being “the biggest
> continued on page 23

Issue 11 Oct/Nov 2014

21