A Canberra inventor's folding caravan that goes from compact to liveable at the touch of a button will feature on ABC television's The New Inventors, a series that showcases Australian innovation.
Peter Buscombe of Curtin, a retired civil engineer, created his invention over three years. He jokingly describes it as ''a Tardis''.
According to Buscombe, the two-person caravan's ability to automatically expand from its collapsed state to full size in 60 seconds sets it apart from other folding caravans.
''This one does things better than any others I have found,'' he says.
''Others I've seen take five to 10 minutes to set up and it's not a push-button thing ...''
His creation, a caravan called the PeterBee Industries EziVan XTV, ''expands from 100 to 170 per cent in volume''. It includes a 3m wind-out awning, an under-counter microwave and optional overhead flatscreen TV. There's a wardrobe with a place for socks and a good-sized kitchen. The whole thing can be folded down, towed and stored.
Before the caravan could be realised full-scale, Buscombe had to make a number of working cardboard models of 1:10 scale to be sure everything fitted.
He is keen on camping and had observed that people found their caravans cumbersome to manage.
His steel and aluminium caravan with plywood lining is expected to sell for about $35,000. He is hoping to make it commercially available.
For more on this story, including details of another Buscombe invention, see the Today page in the print edition of The Canberra Times.
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