Jayco Visit

Tuesday, 18th May

Early to bed last night in an effort to catch up on some sleep but unfortunately the phone rang shortly before 10.00 pm – my father’s sister had passed away in Launceston.

Another lovely autumn day, quite mild but still rather smoggy, just like yesterday.

This morning we headed to the Jayco factory for a prebooked tour. We spent nearly two hours being guided around the factory – such an immense site! There are currently 6 large buildings, each the size of the MCG, set on 50 acres of ground and they are about to duplicate it all on another 50 acres. We followed the production right through, including the sewing room where the upholstery, campervan tents and cushions are made. The chassis are constructed at another site and transported to the factory for the campervans/caravans to be assembled. They assemble a campervan in 15 ½ hours and one rolls off the assembly line every 30 minutes. Caravans take twice as long – one is completed every hour. We were very impressed with the quality controls in place, as well as the organisation. They even have a health centre (ie gym) for the staff with state of the art equipment, as well as a special room which is set up at an altitude of 3000 metres. This is used by their sponsored sports clubs after staff have finished for the day.

It really was a fascinating morning, but we weren’t allowed take any photos.

There has been no change in my mother’s condition, so our plans are to remain in Melbourne until probably at least Friday.