AUSTRALIA´S Second CARAVAN.

A Second Dodge Bros. "Mobile home". By Pop Kessler..

You would have noticed an icon of an old caravan, or what we now call a mobile home, on the Dodge Brothers 2010 National Tour entry form. That old caravan still exists at the Barossa Tourist Park where the tour headquarters will operate.

The caravan was originally built by Gerhard (Pop) Kessler who was born at Tanunda in 1885.�He had 5 years schooling, then worked as a wheelwright and undertaker.

In 1912 he set up his own business as a coachbuilder and blacksmith located in Nuriootpa. In 1914 he built a single seater car and later a 4 seater tourer with a willow tree frame. In 1929 he built his first caravan that he named "Home on Wheels" which is housed at the Goolwa Museum.  He sold it to the Mayor of Goolwa on the first trip he and his family did with it. [see Aussie First "Caravan" ]

The second caravan, the one at Nuriootpa was built around 1931.   It is on a light 1 ton lengthened truck chassis and the power unit was a 6 cylinder Dodge engine. The second van weighed 2 ton 13 cwt (20cwt to imperial ton), Weymouth Motors Adelaide was the supplier. "The Cottage" as it was known had a settee that converted to a double bed at night.   There were two single bunks and the front seat doubled as a bed. They carried 17 gallons of petrol which gave about 260 miles, 2x 12 gallon water tanks, spares, tool box, axe, spade chains, blocks, jacks, compass, altitude meter, clock, 6valve radio, a gradometer, rifle, fishing rods, as well as a collapsible rear step doubling as a shoe scraper, all the things necessary for long trips on unmade roads and very few depots for petrol supplies.

So on 1 September 1931, Pop, his wife and children aged 14, 11, and 7 commenced their journey from Nuriootpa.  The eldest lad 24, stayed behind to run the business. The first part of the journey was to Clare for lunch, then Burra for the night, 83 miles all up. And so they continued on their way to Broken Hill, Wilcannia, Bourke and Cobar en route for Brisbane which took 16 days. On the way at each town they stopped so the locals could come and see "The Cottage".   Pop gave out Seppelt wines and met with Dodge Distributors and Vacuum petroleum agents.

They loved the east coast, stopping at towns on the way and doing about 90 miles a day. They got to Sydney on day 30. The Sydney Harbour Bridge was not finished and the family could not get over how beautiful the Sydney Harbour was.

The next major stop was Canberra, arriving on the 39^th day out.   They drove to Parliament House and met the Prime Minister, Mr. Scullen, who inspected "The Cottage".   After a rest the family set off for Mt Kosciusko and drove to an altitude of 5000 feet to the hotel and walked the rest of the way to the snow line. Then they returned to Cooma then set off for Sale, Bairnsdale and Lakes Entrance then on to Melbourne arriving on 44^th day where they visited Dodge Dealers and Goodyear Tyres. At� this stage they had the radiator pointing toward home and they went to Portland, Mt Gambier, Tailem Bend then to Adelaide on 29 October 1931.

"The Cottage" was seen by thousands of people.   There had been flat tyres, broken springs, damaged water tanks and getting bogged, but the Dodge Brothers product did a wonderful job and certainly provided great publicity for those days.

On their 25^th Wedding Anniversary trip the Kaeslers used 273 gallons of petrol costing 32 pounds 12 shillings and 4 pence at an average of 15 miles a gallon.

Pop Kessler died in 1987 at the age of 102 years.

Information supplied by Ken Barnes (South Australia)