Panel van (Australia)

In Australia, panel vans were a development of the Australian "ute" (utility), a variety of pickup based on a car chassis. In the U.K., this body style is referred to as a "car-derived van", and in American as a "sedan delivery". The first panel vans were manufactured locally by Holden and Ford Australia in the late 1950s, but did not become popular until the mid-1960s. Other foreign brands of enclosed vans manufactured or assembled in Australia included Volkswagen, Morris Minor, and Chrysler. Panel vans enjoyed tremendous popularity in Australia throughout the 1970s, but by the late 1980s, they began to slowly disappear from Australian roads as demand fell and major manufacturers slowly ceased building them.

Most utes usually had an option of metal, then later rigid plastic, shells that would fit over the back of the tray of the ute, thereby extending the vertical space drivers could store in the tray, usually to just above the existing roofline of the passenger cab. Later shells offered plastic windows for ventilation along the sides and even pop-out or swing-out windows at the rear to aid the driver's rear vision. These were eventually integrated into the body of the ute itself to form a hybrid vehicle that, while based on a ute body, offered more rear space than a conventional station wagon with its rear seats folded down. These became known to the Australian public essentially as panel vans.

Initial models were fitted at the rear with swing-down and -up doors (like utes), but later models came equipped with "barn-door" configurations that opened out to the sides of the vehicle, rather than down, aiding the loading of bulky freight into the vehicle without (as badly) damaging the body. Passengers could climb from the interior passenger cab into the cargo bay behind them easily. Later the installation of safety cages which segregated passengers from the cargo area became popular to prevent freight from the back sliding into the passenger cab (and potentially injuring the driver).

Panel vans were first offered by Holden from December 1953 in the FJ model, and by Ford Australia from May 1961, based on the XK Falcon. Painters, electricians, and general labourers quickly found panel vans ideal for their trades, as the cargo bay offering extended capacity otherwise wasted in passenger space, and a highly customisable interior, without the bulk or extended dimensions of other longer-base vans. Australian police forces also purchased fleets of panel vans to use in a black maria, or paddywagon, role. These were known formally as Divisional Vans and in slang as Divvy Vans.

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