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THE Gall brothers from Kedron Caravans have become the poster boys for a once troubled Queensland manufacturing industry and YouTube sensations in the process.
Almost 400,000 DVDs of their outback adventures road-testing their company’s vans, have been sold and their exploits attract half a million YouTube views a month.
The increasing popularity of Kedron’s off road vans, manufactured in the company’s Brendale factory, tracks a general revival in the popularity of caravanning holidays.
Kedron Caravans has come a long way from its humble origins 50 years ago in north Brisbane.
In the early 1960s, Barry Gall moved from country New South Wales to Kedron where he opened a yard on Gympie Rd selling caravans.
Kedron Caravans soon became a landmark on the busy thoroughfare and business took off as caravanning became the popular holiday of choice for many families.
Barry and his young family themselves always took time out for caravanning holidays, fuelling a lifelong interest by the Gall clan that remains to this day.
Glen Gall remembered his father, now 82, would think nothing of putting a closed sign on the front gate and taking off for several weeks on another trip to a beauty spot or national park.
When Kedron Caravan’s distribution agreement with a Victorian manufacturer ended in 1999, Barry and his sons decided to take the leap into manufacturing. Kedron attempts to buy most of its components from local companies.
“We try and help local suppliers as much as possible. The chassis is built in Brisbane while the water tanks come from Bundaberg,” he said.