A FAMILY BUSINESS
FROM THE BEGINNING

The Beginning

In 1963, a then 19 year old Bruce Bailey joined his father selling new caravans from the front yard of a rented house in Heidelberg Heights. They never dreamed that more than half a century later the Evernew brand would be one of the most well loved Australian caravan brands.

“My father had been in the car industry for many years since the War and was close to early retirement,” Bruce recalled, as we talked in his unpretentious, window-surrounded office. “He had started a business called Evernew Autos in the late 1950s, but with the growing interest in caravans in the early 1960s, he saw a new opportunity that would also allow me to get a start in business.”

Initially they bought complete new caravans with plywood  sides and aluminium roofs from a local Heidelberg manufacturer, branded them ‘Evernew’ and sold them to willing buyers for around £300 (pounds) – the equivalent of $600 – from a rented house in Bell Street.

By the late 1960s the caravan industry was growing rapidly, but the company supplying him with new vans got into trouble, Bruce decided to build his own under the Evernew brand, which by then had started to attract a loyal following. Caravans in those days were predominantly made from unpainted silver aluminium, but the first Evernew manufactured caravans built in leased premises in Heidelberg in the early 1970s were finished in white, helping them stand out from the crowd.

The advent of the pop-top caravan, new materials and the availability of a wider range of comfort features in the 1980s widened the choice to the caravanning public and helped the industry get back off its knees, but Evernew chose to remain a custom builder.