Owner Awards 2025

Meet Australia's 2025 Owner of the Year Runner-Up: Chris from Dirt Gear

The 2025 Camplify Owner Awards celebrate the people who make our community brilliant – and this year's Runner-Up for Owner of the Year has built something remarkable in just three years: a 21-van fleet, over 500 bookings, and a reputation for legendary service.

Chris started Dirt Gear in April 2022 with a single caravan and a simple goal: get some return on a van that was sitting idle. Today, he runs a full operation from a 750 square metre commercial shed on the Mid North Coast of NSW, complete with a marketing person, full-time mechanic, and part-time detailer. He's just signed on as an authorised Havoc dealer, with plans to migrate his entire fleet to brand new vans over the next three years.

"It's pretty crazy and pretty full on at the moment," Chris admits. But you can hear the satisfaction in his voice.

On how it all started...

Chris had a Hipcamp on 40 acres right on the river. He bought a caravan thinking he could rent it out on his own property – but that didn't quite work.

"I needed to get a return on this caravan I'd bought," he recalls. "Hipcamp was very much like Camplify, so I jumped on and started hiring it out. I was quite successful at it."

He quickly "snuck another caravan in there" – a Jayco Hawk pop-top that taught him some hard lessons about what works in a hire fleet.

"It was bloody hard to set up. You'd be bleeding sweat in the heat or it'd be pouring rain and you'd have to dry it out. I only kept it for a while."

Both original vans have long since moved on. The fleet now consists mostly of modern vans under five years old, with a major investment in the Malibu range – many picked up after the Lismore flood deployment, upgraded and cleaned to hire-ready condition.

On building legendary service...

With 534 bookings under his belt, Chris has learned that success comes down to one thing: looking after people's holidays.

"We're about creating legendary service," he says. "Sometimes that costs you money, but at the end of the day, it's making sure the customer's right to go."

Case in point: a truck and chassis caravan broke down during a family's big trip. It required a four-and-a-half-hour tow – an eight or nine hour round trip. The tow truck wasn't cheap. The repair wasn't cheap. But Chris had it picked up the same day, repaired the next, and the family was back on the road the day after with four weeks of holiday still ahead of them.

"They still had four weeks to go. I wasn't about to tell a family and their kids, 'Sorry, your holiday's over.' Some things we just can't help. Some things we can."

Another time, an awning blew off a van mid-hire. By that afternoon, Chris had a mobile caravan technician on site to sort it.

"They're customers' holidays. They're going on a break. I would like someone to do that for me, so I'm going to do it for them."

On the bookings that stick with you...

Two hires stand out from the 500+.

The first: a lovely mature couple in their seventies, off the farm, hiring for two months to do a serious outback trip from Taree to Broome and back. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on the side of the road – red dirt, road train thundering past, just the two of them and the van.

"I've got a picture. It's fantastic."

The second: a family of four who hired for three months and did a lap of Australia – Cape York to Darwin to Broome to Alice Springs and home again. No Starlink. Properly off-grid.

"The mum said the trip was fantastic because it broke down all that outside stuff. The kids and the family just got on so well. They'd sit down and play cards together."

The kids named the van "Van Man" and hugged it when the trip was over.

Their top tips for new owners...

Chris doesn't mince words: "Don't just list your van. Tell a story. People don't hire metal and wheels – they hire based on an experience and confidence from that hire."

Be upfront. Have real photos. Be authentic. Respond quickly.

And don't be cheap.

"We're probably one of the most expensive service fees out there – $150. But the cost of cleaning, maintaining, and prepping a van does come at a cost. If someone breaks a $40 window latch, I just cover it. I don't need to have that ugly conversation for twenty bucks."

His secret weapon? Systems. Templates go out at every stage of the hire – from booking confirmation to pre-trip reminders to post-hire follow-up. An 85-page van manual covers every vehicle in the fleet, with an online version customers can access anytime.

"When something comes up, it goes into the manual. It goes into the template. You're not doing the same thing over and over again."

Where he'd send you first...

Based in Taree on the Barrington Coast of NSW, Chris has access to caravan parks stretching from Forster to Port Macquarie to Coffs Harbour – plus a huge amount of national parks for those wanting to go properly off-grid.

His personal favourites? Hipcamps where you can get right down on the water's edge, away from everyone. Seal Rocks gets a mention. So does Diamond Head at Point Plomer.

"I've got another favourite – we're off this weekend to a Hipcamp in Walhol. New van turns up tomorrow. We're going to grab it and do a shakedown."

Research, he calls it.

On what surprised him most...

After years in IT – selling computers, getting polite thank-yous – Chris wasn't prepared for how it would feel to help people enjoy their holidays.

"Having customers come back and say, 'We just had the best time' – the smile on their face, everything worked well, and they're going to do it again. We've got repeat customers who've come back five or six times."

It might sound soft, he admits, but it's real.

"It's a good feeling to see people enjoy travelling Australia in our vans."

On what's next...

The move into a commercial premises has opened new doors. No more handovers in car parks. No more repairing vans in the rain on the driveway.

"We've got massive storage, the handovers are all done there, we're starting to sell caravan parts, we're looking at servicing caravans."

And the partnership with Havoc? That's about setting up for the long term – lower maintenance, better resale, better customer experience.

"In any business, you want to partner with people who are experts in the field. Camplify is an expert. Havoc are experts. If you've got good partners, that's going to help you grow."

Ready for an adventure on the Mid North Coast and beyond?

Whether you want a weekend escape to Diamond Head or three months tackling Cape York, Chris and the Dirt Gear team have you covered – with legendary service and 500+ bookings of experience behind every hire. Check out the Dirt Gear fleet.

Meet all our 2025 Owner Award winners here.

Interested in meeting the Owner who took the title of Owner of the Year? Meet Jono and Chris here.

Got an RV sitting idle? See how Chris turned one caravan into a 21-van operation in just three years. Learn how to list your van.