summer weekends on my grandfather’s
old cabin cruiser camping under the
stars along the river banks of their local
national park. She instilled in me a love of
the outdoors that had me only ever living
a short walk, bike ride or car trip away
from the ocean and rivers of our eastern
coastline. It wasn’t until my late teens
that I discovered the joys of camping
and when I married and had children
this pastime continued. It was not long
after the demise of marriage number two
that I had the idea of buying a pop-top
caravan. I thought it was a great idea but
my enthusiasm was not met by family
and friends who all thought it would be
a waste of money and too much for me
to handle as a single parent on my own. I
raised the subject a number of times over
the following years and it was always met
with as little interest as it always had.
It wasn’t until I met Shane eight years
ago that I was introduced to caravanning.
Shane had a modern 22-foot van that
we took away a few times before it was
unfortunately destroyed in a hailstorm.
We decided not to buy another and to
stick with what we knew and loved best:
boating and camping.
In June 2016, we happened across an
American TV Show about Tiny Houses. I
was hooked. As far as I knew, our councils
and state government departments would
not allow tiny houses to be erected on
private land let alone be travelling along
our motorways without a million permits
to do so, but by golly we were allowed to
have tiny caravans …and I wanted one! So
my secret search began.
Initially I took to Pinterest and when I
found the size and shape I liked, I stalked
Gumtree, eBay and all the other sales
sites. By January 2016, I was ready to
share my secret with Shane. I just spat it
out one morning over breakfast: “I want to
buy an old caravan and do it up”. He was
a little hesitant but took it quite well and
I showed him a few that I was interested
in. As I travel all over for work, I was able
to fit inspections into my daily schedule. I
looked at three by myself and took video
footage to show Shane and we looked at
one together: All 11 Foot York’s ranging
from 1970 to 1980 and in various stages
of decay or demolition. Hmmmm…
On the 29th January (Shane’s birthday) I
entered “11ft York” into my online search
as I did on a daily basis (well twice maybe
three times daily) and up popped the
most perfect 1977 11ft York, located in
Callala Bay on the south coast of New
South Wales –- five hours away. I said to
Shane: “Wanna go for a drive?” I rang the
number and organised an inspection with
Carol the owner. I knew in my heart that I
would have my tiny caravan by the end of
14 | vintagetrailermagazine