The Dark Story of Franklin Caravans: How Australia Destroyed Its Greatest Caravan Empire

The Dark Story of Franklin Caravans: How Australia Destroyed Its Greatest Caravan Empire Christmas 1947. A 17-year-old jobless rabbit-hunter builds a caravan from timber and Masonite in his father's Ballarat pub yard for a Lorne holiday. Franklin Caravans wasn't just a factory. It was the family van on every tow-bar from Sydney to Yeppoon. But in 1974, at the peak, 500 workers, 200 vans a week, Geoffrey Robertson sold up and left. Five years later the second oil shock rose Australian fuel prices fifty per cent in one year. The Wendouree works fell silent. Today, 281 Learmonth Road is a Franklin dealership. Seven vans a week are built in Melbourne. This is the story of how Australia destroyed its own family caravan ritual, and what that says about industries built on a way of life. This is not just a caravan story. It's the story of a national ritual that never came back. #FranklinCaravans #WendoureeFactory #AbandonedFactories #LostFactories #IndustrialDecline #AustralianManufacturing