It appears the brand name Millard was first introduced by John Darlington, whose middle name was Millerd (with an e). A check of family history websites shows this Irish name to be interchangeable with the name Millard (with an a).
By the mid-1960’s, the Millard business had grown so big that a new factory was setup at Smithfield, an outer western suburb of Sydney. By 1969, the factory employed 250 people, with a monthly output of 100 units. Through a network of dealers, Millard marketed a range of 60 models, from 13ft to 40ft.
At the peak of the caravan boom in the mid-1970s, Millard was one of Australia’s top caravan brands, along with Chesney, Coronet, Franklin and Viscount. At one point it was building up to 74 caravans a day, as well as averaging more than 4000 vans a year.
In 2019, Gary Willer decided to sell the business and hand over the iconic brand recognising new ideas and fresh minds were needed to reinvigorate the Millard brand to the market. The Millard brand remains Australian owned which was part of the sale criteria. From 2020 Millard restructured the business, worked closely with their dealership network to develop new design concepts, select new materials, colourways and introduce a new range-MFlow. The end result has brought new upmarket caravans to the market but retaining the Darlington’s philosophy “Affordable, top quality and the renowned Millard DNA – Hot Dipped Galvanized Chassis, Aluminium Internal Walls and Full Piece Roof”. Millard currently builds the MFlow, Toura and Breakaway caravans as well as Millards Slideon in its factory site in Sydney’s south-west.