Millard Caravans: The Story Behind One of Australia’s Oldest Caravan Brands
If you’ve spent any time around the caravanning world in Australia, you’ve probably heard the name Millard. It’s one of those brands that’s been part of the industry for so long it’s practically part of the furniture, and it’s also one of the ranges we’re proud to stock here at Cannington RV Centre. But what actually makes a Millard a Millard, and why has the brand stuck around for more than 70 years while so many others have come and gone? Here’s the full story.
A brand that’s older than most caravans on the road today
Millard’s roots go back to 1947, when Jim Darlington started building caravans out of a small factory in Mortlake, in Sydney’s south. His son John took over the business in the mid-1950s, and the story goes that John got into caravan building after looking at someone else’s van and figuring he could build a better one himself. That’s a fairly Australian way to start a company, and it turned out he was right.
The Millard name itself came from John’s own middle name, Millerd, an old Irish family name that eventually became Millard. His wife May had a hand in shaping the brand too, pushing the early vans beyond their limited silver and green colour scheme and introducing the warmer, more homely interior touches the brand became known for.
By the late 1960s, Millard had grown into a serious operation, employing 250 people at a factory in Smithfield and turning out around 100 vans a month across a range of 60 different models. At the peak of the Australian caravan boom in the mid-1970s, Millard sat alongside names like Viscount, Coronet and Franklin as one of the country’s top caravan builders, at one stage producing close to 4,000 vans a year.
Like a lot of businesses of that era, Millard’s fortunes shifted with the fuel crisis of the late 1970s, when rising petrol prices made big cars and caravans a harder sell. The Darlington family sold the business to Viscount in 1979, and the brand changed hands a few more times over the following decades before being bought back and relaunched by Gary Willer and the late Stan Edwards in 2001, with the blessing of the original Darlington family.
In 2019, the brand changed hands again, staying Australian owned as part of the sale conditions, and has since gone through a genuine modernisation. New design concepts, updated materials, fresh colourways, and the introduction of the MFlow range have brought Millard firmly into the present day, while keeping the same build philosophy the Darlingtons started with.
What actually makes a Millard well built
A lot of caravan brands talk about quality. Millard’s approach has stayed fairly consistent for decades, built around a few core elements that the brand refers to as its DNA:
- Hot dipped galvanised chassis (model dependent), which holds up far better against rust and corrosion than a painted or powder-coated chassis, especially once you start covering serious kilometres on dusty, unsealed roads.
- Aluminium structural wall frame, giving the van strength without unnecessary weight.
- Full piece composite roof, a single continuous panel rather than multiple joined sections, which cuts down one of the most common places a van can develop a leak over time.
Millard also offers a smooth aluminium composite cladding option across parts of the range as an alternative to the traditional ribbed aluminium panelling that’s been standard across the Australian caravan industry for decades. It adds a small amount of weight but noticeably increases the rigidity of the body, which some buyers prefer for a firmer, more solid feel on the road.
Every Millard is backed by a 5 year structural warranty and a 2 year manufacturing warranty, and the brand holds RVMAP accreditation, the caravan industry’s official recognition that a manufacturer consistently builds to Australian design rules and safety standards. Millard vans are also 100% designed and built in Australia, at the brand’s factory in Sydney’s south west, and the company remains Australian owned.
The current Millard range
Millard currently builds four core ranges, each aimed at a slightly different kind of traveller:
XRider is built for those who want to get off the beaten track without compromising on comfort, aimed at buyers planning more adventurous touring.
Toura X is the brand’s long-running touring range, well suited to extended trips and serious lap-of-Australia travel, and one of the more popular choices among Millard buyers who want a dependable all-rounder.
MFlow is the newest addition to the range, introduced as part of the brand’s post-2020 refresh, bringing a more contemporary look and updated interior design to the Millard lineup.
Breakaway is aimed at buyers after a straightforward, well-built van without unnecessary extras, a solid option for weekenders and first-time caravan owners.
What Millard owners actually say
Millard has been on Australian roads long enough that there’s a genuine community of owners who know the brand inside and out, from newer buyers through to people still travelling in vans built decades ago. It’s common to see older Millards being lovingly restored rather than scrapped, which says something about how well the original builds have held up over time. That kind of long-term loyalty isn’t something you can manufacture with marketing. It comes from a brand consistently building vans that hold together for the long haul.
Millard caravans at Cannington RV Centre
We’re proud to be a Perth dealer for Millard Caravans, alongside New Age, and we currently have new Millard vans in stock across the range. If you’re weighing up whether a Millard is the right fit for your travel plans, whether that’s weekend trips around WA or a full lap of the country, we’d love to talk you through the current lineup and help you find the right layout and spec for how you actually travel.
Come in and see the current range at 1527 Albany Highway, Beckenham, or get in touch with our team. No jargon, no pressure, just honest advice from people who know these vans well.