Many travelers desire the comforts of home during their journeys, regardless of how long they’re on the road. For those with the means, custom-made rigs have been a popular choice for a long time. Among these, the Highway Palace stands out as an exemplary testament to luxurious travel on the road.

If the Highway Palace name doesn’t ring a bell, it’s because it’s an obscure custom, one-off fifth-wheel rig from Australia. Chances are you have seen one or two photos of it online, and maybe you wondered at its size or about the interior. For whatever reason, the Highway Palace never reached wider, international fame, unlike any of the U.S.-build Curtiss Aerocars.

It still deserves time in the spotlight, so this is what this story aims to do.

The Highway Palace lived up to its moniker by offering the kind of amenities you would probably struggle to find in an actual brick-and-mortar home, let alone in an RV at the time. Even today, it’s an impressive motorhome, not only for its massive size but for the features it offers. Those same features seem even more luxurious if you take into account the fact that it was only meant to accommodate two people.

Put simply, if you thought the RVs that celebrities buy or rent to use as their personal trailers while working on a project are insane, the Highway Palace is a “hold my beer”-type of build. Delivered in 1949 and designed on commission, it slept two people and featured an upstairs level with a lounge and dining area, a sunken soaking tub, and custom cabinets made especially for the owner’s custom plates.

That owner was Harry “Pop” Parr of Pinnaroo, SA, a very successful local businessman who planned to travel the country when he retired, with his wife Daisy. With this plan in mind, in the mid-‘40s, he commissioned the Grace Brothers of Adelaide, a small construction company that also built a limited range of caravans, to design and build him a fifth-wheel rig.

The company only had two models on offer, the Highway Cabin, with two berths, and the Highway Castle, with four. Mr. Parr asked for the premium version of the premium model, which had to be custom done since, duh, it did not exist: the Highway Palace. Using a ‘40s Dodge Fargo truck as tractor, the Palace was completed after 12 months with direct styling input from Mr. Parr himself, and came with a total price tag of $2,000 – a huge amount at the time, enough to buy a large house.

Details on how much the Parrs used the rig are uncertain, but they did take at least a handful of trips with it. Mr. Parr passed away in 1951, and the rig was sold off. Sometime in the late ‘50s, its wood body was covered in sheets of aluminum and the interior “updated,” no doubt in a bid to make it more appealing with a more modern appearance. It would not get out on the road that much anymore, and eventually ended up as a holiday shack, before it was taken to Murray Bridge and, for the first time, separated in two.

The trailer was turned into a stationary kids’ playroom, while the tractor was bought by a farmer who was only interested in its tires, and abandoned the rest in a nearby swamp after stripping them off. Tracing and bringing the two parts together again was an incredible challenge – and stroke of luck – for Dick Hart and a team of vintage truck restoration aficionados. Hart told the local media that he’d grown up with stories of the “dreamboat” RV and was determined not to stop until he found it; he finally did in 1994.

It would take him and his team five full years and incredible effort to bring back the Highway Palace to its original condition. The video below, shot at the 2009 Caravan and Camping Show, where the restored rig was put on display, offers a good appreciation of the kind of task they had on hand, by showing the amazing results.

Measuring 13 meters (42.6 feet) in length, the Highway Palace has all the necessary stuff for a comfortable life on the road, starting with a home-sized kitchen with a gas stove, a gas refrigerator, a large farm sink and stainless steel countertops, and the aforementioned custom cabinets for Parr’s custom plates, which also acted as a dividing wall. Also in the kitchen was a folding table that could serve as a small dinette or a desk for Parr, and a hidden safe for the businessman’s money and documents.

“Upstairs,” on a slightly elevated platform, was the lounge slash formal dining area, built around a beautifully polished dining table and a gorgeous U-shaped leather couch, and offering commanding views outside. The table in the video is not original to the rig, but it is one of Parr’s original tables, as his grandchildren contributed to the restoration, at Hart’s request.

The bedroom was at the rear, and it’s perhaps the least impressive part of the build. It’s small and rather cramped, with just two single beds and a separating nightstand (Mr. and Mrs. Parr weren’t much for cuddling, apparently) and additional storage.

Between the kitchen and the bedroom was the bathroom, rightfully described as the most luxurious one ever on an RV of the time, because it featured a steel bathtub sunken in the floor but that could be easily hidden with two slabs of wood that matched the flooring. The tub had a foot-pumped shower, and there was also a small sink and a most basic stowaway potty.

The Palace had hot and cold water from two tanks, one in the kitchen and the other in the bathroom, and an evacuation system that pumped the steam out of the bathroom area to prevent moisture buildup. It also had a 12V system for the lights and the hot water, with gorgeous, custom light fixtures.

Once the restoration complete, the rig went on display at a few trade events, including the Caravan and Camping Show and The Shell Rimula Rig Parade on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Australia’s Road Transport Hall of Fame museum in Alice Springs. Hart once told the local media that he’d driven it himself on several occasions but that he wouldn’t do it again because it handled terribly in modern traffic.

No word on the current whereabouts of the Highway Palace, but Hart was the last known owner. From the looks of things, this massive and very luxurious fifth-wheel rig has once more slipped away into obscurity