to be quite a challenge with a few false
starts before a deal was done.
“We had sellers assuring us that they
would hold the van for us, only to arrive
and discover the van sold and some of
the descriptions of the vans in some
advertisements I read could have won
awards for creativity!” laughs Deanna.
“After browsing at a couple of fairly
ordinary vans that the owners must of
thought were lined with gold, my hubby
Rick stumbled across an ad on Gumtree,
listed for twelve minutes that simply
said: 40’s van for Sale. Long story short
he bought our first van as a project to
do up. He brought it home and sat it in
the corner of the workshop (full of good
intentions). I probably should mention
that one of his other projects: a 1973 CF
Bedford (he is the second owner) he has
owned for thirty-five years and has been
intending to restore it for the last twentyeight
years!”
The “project” van sat untouched in
the corner for another four years when
they spotted a cute 10-foot Sportline
Caravan that had been built by F.E. (Fred)
Schrader in Regency Road, Croydon,
South Australia in 1960 advertised for
sale online in Adelaide. Having been
advertised only half an hour prior, they
were the first to make an enquiry and
nervously agreed to buy the van sight
unseen based on the photos and phone
conversation with the current owners
who had used the van on several trips
travelling and painting around Australia.
They were told that prior to this, the
original owner of the van had only
ever used it twice a year to travel to his
favourite fishing spot.
Deanna’s hubby and her son drove
the four thousand kilometer round trip all
the way from their home in Toowoomba,
Queensland to Adelaide to pick up the
van and tow it home in a record-breaking
two and a half days. Despite losing
the roof hatch on the way, the van was
otherwise ready to use straight away. It
was promptly christened “Miss Adelaide”
and Deanna excitedly began getting
together the accessories she wanted to
make her new rolling abode retrolicious
in readiness to attend their first vintage
caravan event at Cooly Rocks On last year.
“The first step was to re-install
another roof hatch, then came the new
retro styled awning, the white picket
fence, new curtains and décor (I love
pink and purple) and the mandatory
pink flamingos. All of our display items
inside and out are all family owned and
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