Panorama campers began in 2015 as a result of my insatiable interest in camping in the great Australian Outback.
My first camping out was when I was very young travelling with my dad when he was a truck driver up and down the UK, and sleeping on the dashboard on overnight stays, even when newly arrived in Australia we camped for a week on the foreshore at Albany in 1968.
Then got a bit more serious back around 1976 when I was a tradie working with my dad on country homes and the vast distances travelled from home, this encouraged my dad and I to camp within the property, either in the sheep shearers quarters or the farmers house or even in the new house that’s still under construction saving time and travel expense.
I went from the velvety inflatable mattresses in the back bedroom with a primus stove to a Ute based slide on caravan where my first 4wd was an Isuzu KB40 ute, known in America as the Chevy LUV (Light Utility Vehicle) with 14” rims I drove out of the showroom, straight down to Hillarys and got bogged, most embarrassing as a “vee-dub” fibreglass beach buggy pulled me out.
During the same time I became interested in gold prospecting, bought a metal detector and made good use of my camping kit, since then I have had so many four wheel drives of every make and model and every type of camping equipment known to man, and gained much experience in my adventures and to this day I still have my first Engle fridge from some 40 plus years ago.
I went to Tafe at the age of 16 to get a diploma and registration in building and have been constructing residential and commercial projects for 47 years where construction knowledge, quality build and customer service has been paramount, putting this collective experience to use 3 years ago my dream for a new career journey in camping began in searching for quality campers to present to the country, I went to China twice, but didn’t purchase and then we travelled as far as Marseille and viewed brilliant products being produced.
Then in In August 2018 my partner and I travelled to Centurion in South Africa to meet Willie, family and the Echo 4×4 team, I had been researching the Echo range of products since 2013 firstly from a personal interest perspective then as a business venture back in July 2017.
We toured the factories for three days and observed all the manufacturing processes from robot welding of the galvanised chassis to the fibreglass body works to the tent manufacturing, no surprises that we were impressed and excited to be re introducing their great products back into Australia and here we are now proud importers of their camping equipment.
We hope you will enjoy many touring and camping journeys and making fond memories with these innovative and robust campers and equipment and we look forward to providing quality service for many years to come.
Steven