Time to Roam Magazine Issue 3 - June/July 2013 | Page 20

(Top Left) Blue Bus looks at home in downtown Nimbin, the Keens insist they’re ‘happy, not hippy’. (Bottom Left) Molly the Camper.
(Top Right) the immaculate interior of Blue Bus and (Bottom Right) engine compartment of Monty

end of the yard are two more VW vans – Ugly
Betty and her mate Happy were rescued from
rusty graveyards and are now continuing their
decline in full view of the Keen’s home. They
have no intention of doing much with them.
“They’d cost too much to restore. I just
enjoy sitting on the veranda and looking at
them,” Lorraine says.
Then there are the caravans, purchased
with the aim of providing more comfortable
sleeping quarters when they go to Kombi
shows.
“We spent three and a half years looking
for a suitable caravan and then found Mildred
at our nearest neighbours place just over the
road.”
Mildred, now Monty’s show partner, is a
Culbert Cruiser 10 bondwood kit van, built by
the father of their next door neighbour in the
early 1970s from a late 1960s plan. Possibly
one of the last kit vans of its type assembled.

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“The name Mildred came from the fact that
she was covered in mould and mildew. It took
several months to get rid of all the black.”
The newest addition to their collection
is Babe – a 1953 all-fibreglass van bought
from Grafton where she has been passed
around the family since new. They’re
still unsure of its origins. Weighing in at
just 250kgs, it cost just $57 to register.
“We need to do a lot of work to restore
her to her former glory and replace various
“improvements” with original fixtures,
a job we look forward to completing.”
Andy says the Kombis have been the best
value investment he’s ever made and predicts
classic caravans are heading the same way.
“Nothing else I’ve owned has increased
in value as much as the Kombis. And
since we’ve had Mildred accompanying
Monty to shows and camp grounds, it
seems as many people want to check out

the caravan as much as the Kombis.”
The Keens obviously love their Kombi
collection and showing them off to
admirers. They regularly travel to shows,
taking care to make plenty of stops
along the way to avoid overheating.
A highlight of their calendar is helping to
organise the annual Nimbin Kombi Convoy
– a festival re-enacting the arrival of hippies
to the former dairying town in the 1970s.
While they admit to being Kombi
lovers from Nimbin, they say it does
sometimes see them stereotyped.
“When you say you’re from Nimbin
and arriving in a Kombi, people just don’t
know what to expect. We prefer to describe
ourselves as more happy than hippie.”
As for Lorraine, she reckons she’s
discovered the secret of eternal youth.
“I love the fact that I’m 21 again
whenever I’m behind the wheel.”