The Changing Face of Caravanning in Australia

Out on the coast a different story, the caravan park operators quickly realize these 'new grey nomads' have a quid or two...their site costs quickly take advantage,  massive kid friendly playgrounds and  huge family orientated 'camp kitchens'  with 100" TV screens and rows of pin-ball type machines appear, things the average 'oldie' won’t use.

The old and common ‘Stay for 7 nights pay for 6’ schemes so liked, perhaps even banked on by the old Grey Nomads now quite difficult to find.

The kids are often left to their own resources while mum and dad meet up with fellow travellers in the camp kitchen…no one has much of an idea of caravan park etiquette.

We have had kids running and riding their bikes right through our campsite and under our awning.

 

The Housing Crisis Creates a New Traveller

And if that is not enough there is another class of RVers emerging now as well, and it is a by-product of the housing crisis. 

The huge jump in the cost of housing has resulted in some becoming millionaires, this newfound wealth a boon for the ‘Use your homes equity and enjoy your golden years’ money lenders. This lot is very similar to the WFH’ers.

I am aware of a number of  instances where mum and dad have willingly taken in the son or daughter and their families to their homes, where mum and dad happily leave their beloved family home in the hands of the children, they can then head off in their new caravan for their 'Big trip' and have no worries about the home, very often charging no rent and thus allowing the offspring to save for their own.

This, of course is a good thing as it will allow the young ones to save for their own home and that might be the only way they will ever do it…In our opinion successive governments should hang their collective heads in shame for allowing this to happen.

So, the Australian Caravan scene has indeed changed and sadly, not all for the better, in our eyes anyway.

 

And lastly - The Chinese Influence

There is one more new issue having an impact on the Australian caravan scene....I refer to the huge numbers of imported, mostly, if not all ,from China. Firstly we need to identify what exactly is a made in Australia caravan.

Not all “Aussie” caravans are equal. Some brands import pre-fabricated chassis, cabinetry, or even whole shells from overseas and finish them locally. Others claim “Australian designed” but manufacture offshore.

True Australian-made vans are built from scratch on local soil, using domestic labour and supply chains. The Caravan Industry Association of Australia (CIAA) offers an Australian Made certification for brands that meet strict local sourcing and production criteria.

Australia’s caravan import market shows a 10.55% growth trajectory, heavily anchored by China’s 80.99% market share ($825.7M).

The most recent full-year trade reporting available shows caravan and camper trailer imports sitting at around 20,000 units nationally, up approximately 5 per cent year-on-year.

While complete 2025–26 figures are not yet publicly finalised, industry observers say imported product remains a growing share of the market.

So, are Chinese caravans good?...or put another way; are they equal or better than locally produced caravans?

To answer this I need to pop back to my teenage years…my interest in cars was full on, my first car was a 1939 Austin 10…a nice little car but one that had travelled a lot of miles, I learnt so much about cars from that car…to fix them I needed tools, good quality tools are expensive.

It was about then that Japan had started exporting products of almost every kind.

Odd, little cars, we thought, small radios, kitchen gadgets, everything, and of course, tools.

Very quickly I realized that Japanese tools were not good value. This applied to a lot of Japanese merchandise, the term ‘Made in Japan’ was widely communicated as meaning cheap or shoddy.

A slippage with a badly made shifting spanner can result in more cost, not to mention damaged knuckles!

Not so today…’Made in Japan’ will likely mean that what you buy will be of good quality.

So, is it possible we can apply the same thinking to Made in China or, Made in THE PRC, (removing the word China actually says a lot!)?

 

Lets look at a major difference, in my eyes anyway.

Japan started this mass increase in production and export as a means to improve the situation following the devastating war, good on them I say.

China however has followed a different path…worldwide manufacturers soon realized that anything could be made in China at a very low cost, much lower than here. Much of the lower cost comes from lower labour costs, massive production scale, and highly automated factories, making it difficult for Australian manufacturers to compete on price alone.

And that is the important difference.

 

We often hear of Australian companies, usually quietly, moving manufacturing facilities to China, we will also often hear that their products can be better made their due to the Chinese manufacturing facilities being ‘state of the art’ and that everything made there is made to ‘company specifications’, believe that if you wish.

 

My experience, back in the 1960’s or in the 2020’s remains unchanged…bring on the ‘Made in China’ moniker that matches ‘Made in Japan’ I say.

In finishing this section I’d like to give a ‘real life’ experience I was exposed to with ‘Made in China’

During my working life I was involved in Quality Control with a national packaging company…we produced fibreboard cartons for most of the companies in Australia, from small toothpaste boxes to large heavy duty multi-walled cartons suitable for the likes of heavy items, motor mowers, for example.

Part of my job involved the visiting of our customers to determine if any there were any quality issues with the or cartons to see if we could improve anything.

 

One such customer manufactured motor mowers, I won’t name them but at that time their mowers were second only to Victa, we supplied them with thousands of heavy duty cartons each year.

One day, out of the blue, the production staff, numbering close to 250 as I recall, were all called together for a company announcement.

They were closing down the Brisbane plant and the mowers would now be produced overseas, the company will offer assistance to anyone wishing to find other employment.

And that was it…by about three months the factory was closed and I had said my goodbyes to the friends made over the years.

The entire manufacturing plant, lock stock and barrel was sent to Jiangsu province, China.

It was some time after that that I got to see one of these mowers for sale at a mower shop nearby…I was appalled, gone were the rubber tyres, replaced with extruded plastic things, the height adjustment lever gone, a rotating knob (Plastic and tricky to us) in its place, the grass catcher now a flimsy feeling ‘canvas’ thing and the chassis no longer made of cast iron, now a metal stamped thing.

Today, Google tells me that that brand is not even listed in the ’10 most popular mowers in Australia’ today.

 

So…to answer my question: So, are Chinese caravans good?...or put another way; are they equal or better than locally produced caravans?

I suggest readers take  a look at the comments on Youtube to get some idea.

Another issue buyers should seriously consider is the ongoing availability of spare parts and service support.

This is very similar to a situation some EV buyers are now beginning to experience, where parts availability, specialist servicing, and long-term support can become just as important as the initial purchase price.

 

A caravan is not just a once-off purchase; it is something that will require maintenance, repairs, and occasional replacement parts over many years. A low purchase price can quickly lose its appeal if a damaged hatch, suspension component, window, or appliance part has to come from overseas, involving long delays and uncertain warranty support. For many Australian buyers, the real value of a caravan is measured not just by its price, but by how easily it can be serviced and supported once it is out on the road.

 

The Australian Caravan scene has indeed changed and sadly, not all for the better, in our eyes anyway.

We would of course like to hear your opinions and any comments you may have on what I have typed above...please email us at paulfgreig@gmail.com