{"id":891595,"date":"2026-09-14T10:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T10:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/891595\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T10:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T10:56:16","slug":"caravan-maker-australian-off-road-shuts-its-gates-leaving-customers-in-limbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/891595\/","title":{"rendered":"Caravan maker Australian Off Road shuts its gates leaving customers in limbo"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Queensland caravan manufacturer has shut its gates leaving hundreds of customers, staff and suppliers in limbo less than a year after the sudden collapse of Zone RV.<\/p>\n

Sunshine Coast’s Australian Off Road (AOR) campers ceased operating late last week, with customers saying they had been unable to make contact with the company.<\/p>\n

AOR’s phone line has been disconnected, its website is down, its social media accounts deactivated, and its factory and office space in Caloundra is empty.<\/p>\n

\"roller<\/p>\n

There was no movement at AOR’s Caloundra base on Monday. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Josh Dye)<\/p>\n

Zone RV, also based on the Sunshine Coast, went into administration in December last year owing $42 million<\/a> and leaving hundreds of customers out of pocket.<\/p>\n

New AOR customers who have paid deposits for caravans say they are in the dark about when or if they will get their vans or money back.<\/p>\n

Existing owners are also worried about what the situation means for their warranties and servicing.<\/p>\n

\"long<\/p>\n

The ABC understands customers have not heard from the company since last week. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Josh Dye)<\/p>\n

Left waiting<\/p>\n

Ron and Winsome Vernieux raced nearly 2,000 kilometres from Victoria to pick up their caravan that had been at the Caloundra base for repairs for several months.<\/p>\n

They arrived on Monday morning to find the gates locked and no-one around.<\/p>\n

“I expected to see a line-up of cars here and people at the gates, but there’s nothing,” Mr Vernieux said.<\/p>\n

“We want to use it in November to do a trip.<\/p>\n

“We’ve had it for 14 years and they’ve been very good to deal with and it’s just one hell of a surprise to see it go like this.”\"shot<\/p>\n

The Victorian couple are now waiting to hear when they will be able to retrieve their caravan. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Josh Dye)<\/p>\n

Ms Vernieux said it was frustrating, especially given they could see their van in the car park about 20 metres from where they were standing.<\/p>\n

“It’s surreal \u2026 I just want to climb over and get it, but we’ll do the right thing [and wait],” she said.<\/p>\n

If you know more about this story, contact Josh Dye at dye.josh@abc.net.au<\/a><\/p>\n

Sunshine Coast customer Lester Jerman arrived at the factory to collect his caravan which had also been in for repairs.<\/p>\n

“I’m worried. There are a few caravan manufacturers struggling a bit,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know whether that means AOR is struggling because they’ve got lots of orders for months in advance, so I don’t know what’s happening just yet.”<\/p>\n

\"man<\/p>\n

Lester Jerman said he was surprised to arrive to find the factory empty. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Josh Dye)<\/p>\n

Award-winning company<\/p>\n

A social media group has been set up by affected AOR customers and has grown to almost 800 members in just a few days.<\/p>\n

The company has won a string of accolades, including being named people’s choice manufacturer of the year in the 2021 Caravan Industry Association of Australia awards.<\/p>\n

AOR is still listed as registered on the ASIC website, with no mention of whether administrators have been appointed.<\/p>\n

The ABC has attempted to contact the business, founded in 2000 by Steve Budden, who remains a director.<\/p>\n

Russell Evans is also a director of AOR.<\/p>\n

Mr Budden was not home when the ABC visited on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queensland caravan manufacturer has shut its gates leaving hundreds of customers, staff and suppliers in limbo less…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":891596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[303127,64,63,461322,461323,99,461324,116015,181482],"class_list":["post-891595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-aor","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-off-road","tag-australian-off-road-campers","tag-business","tag-campers","tag-caravans","tag-zone-rv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}