Cool Australian Campers and RVs

One of my best friends just came back to West Virginia after spending 8 years in Australia. There’s a lot of coal mines over there and the companies recruit miners from WV to work on contract for a couple of years over there, all expenses paid plus a handsome annual salary. If they like it, they extend the contracts. If not, they come home. Needless to say, he loved it over there!

Of course, I asked him about manufactured housing in Australia. He said they used them for mining and other industrial housing whenever the work site is in the middle of nowhere and there isn’t enough housing for the workers. He hadn’t seen any outside of that but he had seen a ton of RVs and modular homes. Housing is very expensive in Australia so the RVs would be a good way to live affordably.

I researched manufactured housing in Australia online a bit and found some pretty neat information.

They use 3 main terms: caravans, relocatable homes, and manufactured homes.

What we consider campers or mobile homes they call ‘caravans’ and there are caravan parks. Caravans and caravan parks can be classified into 2 sub-categories: tourists parks and retirement parks, just like here in the US. There are a few caravan parks for lower-income tenants, mostly singles and elderly. Like the US, those caravan parks have a stigma and stereotype.

Industrial Housing Caravans in Australia

The photo below is a new mining park being set up. It shows modern single wide manufactured homes being placed in a way that utilizes the land so that each home has a decent yard and are placed in smaller pods within the park. I like it!

Caravan Parks in Australia

This next photo shows a typical caravan park for tourists. There are a lot of caravan parks for tourists in Australia! Here are a few photos I found from Caravan Park Photography.

You can search through their houses for sale in Perth and find several single wide and double wides being sold in their developed communities. You can buy land and place your own manufactured home or pre-fab, too. They all seem like great communities and their renewal plans include beautification projects and preservation projects as well as restoring and remodeling the homes. To me, it seems like a great place to live.

This is what I would love to see happen in the United States. Communities being built that place emphasis on the people, not the homes. A family of 3 does not need a 6000 square foot home. We should accept each other’s decisions to live in whatever type or size of home they want and stop labeling each other. There are benefits and advantages to living in smaller homes.

Australian Campers and RVs

Australian campers are very popular. A great way to travel the Outback or any part of Australia for that matter is with an RV or camper or caravan. An RV has a motor and living area, a camper can be a pop-up type or a smaller pull behind camper and a caravan is considered the medium to large sized mobile homes that can be towed with a standard vehicle with a large motor. I am amazed at the different shapes and manufacturers of popular RV’s in that country. Here are a few that I thought would intrigue you. They are all through a website that posts caravan sales.

First is the Grand Tourer Adventure Off Road Camper. Look at this beauty! You could take this anywhere and be traveling in style. I haven’t seen anything like this is the US yet but I sure hope it gets over here soon!

Here’s a standard looking caravan called a FlexiHome. These are used for camping mostly not permanent living. The interior is what will amaze you:

Here’s the modern, clean interior. You could haul your dirt bikes or your recliners in this and be set up for easy vacationing anywhere.

This final home is a Creative Caravans Tanami Off-Road Designer Series. It is a gorgeous camper! The tires are beefy enough to go anywhere you want and the interior is fit for a king. I am in awe!

Another pull camper that I like is called the Kimberly Black Caviar Kruiser. It’s very different from what you  see in the US.

I wanted to show you a couple of motorhomes I found, too. The first one is vintage and gorgeous!

This is a 1954 REGAL MARK III that was for sale for $27,000. It was once a Melbourne Tramsway that became a disaster ambulance and is now a motorhome. I found it on a site that has motorhomes for sale.

Last but not least is a 1979 Denning Motorhome. I love the vintage motorhomes, there’s more character to them.

Do you know about manufactured homes in Australia? We’d love to hear about them in the comments below.