Leyland Brothers

[numpty]

Sunday morning and up at 5 am as you do and 7 Two has Leyland Brothers World showing their Cape York trip from 1972. Naturally I saw this when originally released, as would most of the older brigade;), but boy have a lot of things changed since then.

[easo]

Last year on Pay TV (can't remember the channel or day) but I stumbled on a Leyland Brothers marathon a whole Saturday of Leyland Brothers.

Easo

[ugu80]

They're on early AM just about every day. No GPS, no air lockers, no giant balloon muddies, no power chips, no satellite dish, no lap top, no power converter, no sat phone, no DVD player, no PLB; how did they manage; silly, mad, irresponsible fools.

[CraigE]

Yep, how did they do it? Thats right same as we did before we could all afford te ad ons. Recover used stuff like chain blocks.
Have a couple of DVDs at home I watch from time to time.
Smae as my cousin and a family friend when the left and filmed World Safari on their tours, very basic stuff, but great adventure.

[Bundalene]

This was us in 1978. In those days it was all about crossing the Jardine. We were the first across the crossing in that year – at the end of June and posted a plaque on a tree on the southern bank as was done in those days. That year an enterprising chap from Vic opened a ferry, made out of 44 gallon drums and used an outboard.


Checking out the river – crocodile problems were unherd of in those days. We basically emptied out camp gear etc into the boat, ferried this across and then drove across. We took enough wire rope to go across and back, just in case. It took a whole day to prepare with raised air and exhausts done there and then as well as waterproofing the petrol engines. Yes, we had those bar tread army tyres as well.







http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/6200/68675563.jpg (http://img593.imageshack.us/i/68675563.jpg/)




Approaching the exit of the crossing. This is our vehicle – an ex workshop. I wonder if it is still around. Water inside got to the top of the seat base.
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/4095/image1oa.jpg (http://img13.imageshack.us/i/image1oa.jpg/)





In those days you could drive along the beach at the top. This is our camp at the top end of the beach, near the tip. We then camped at the first inlet to the left, about 1km along the beach, for a full week and didn’t see another sole.





http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/4572/85056305.jpg (http://img96.imageshack.us/i/85056305.jpg/)







Another pic along the way – not sure where?



http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/4093/13695608.jpg (http://img689.imageshack.us/i/13695608.jpg/)







I must try and dig up spme more pics
Erich

[numpty]

Cheers for that Erich. Great pics.

Have a mate who did it in '82 in ex mil 11A and No 5 trailer. They floated the trailer across and drove the vehicle over. When I was there in '94 the river was about 2 metres deep on the northern exit. Needless to say we went back to the ferry:cool:

Perry

[wagoo]

I recall too many years ago. reading an old LandRover Owners Club of NSW newsletter of the brothers testing aircraft tyres on the series 2 swb that they subsequently used together with the series 1 wagon(on Michelin Saharas).for their West East crossing of OZ.From a mechanical viewpoint that expedition was a disaster, with countless broken diffs etc.
I don't know what their financial resources were like in those days, but the fragility of Landy diffs were well known, so the wagon at least should have been equipped with at least an ENV diff in the rear which was an available optional .Even after they became famous and presumably wealthier, they still persisted with troublesome Rover diffs on overloaded vehicles right up until they changed vehicle brands.
Wagoo.

[UncleHo]

G'day Wagoo :)

There was/is a good reason for the percieved fragility of the series Rover axles, that is, that you break an axle before you break a diff,universal joint,gearbox or engine, as it was easier to replace an axle than to rebuild a diff centre, remember that these 2.25 motors were not an overly powerful only developing 77bhp for the petrol. the usual thing was to carry spare axles both short and long along with the felts gaskets and gasket sealer :)

Note also the lack of Crocs,that was before the touchy feely do gooders had hunting them banned,the Australiasian Salt Water Crocidile is not an endangered species, as it has a very wide ranging area that is why there are sightings as far south as Bundaberg.

[ugu80]

The Jardine is now dredged after the wet season so you can't drive across. Makes it even more special for those who have done it.

[circlework]

Damn! I had forgotten just how much I loved 'hot pants'!!! :D :D :D


Cheers.

[Bundalene]

I found a pic of the ferry. The guy who operated it was good eye candy for the girls. He kept himself occupied with his portable gym set-up on the banks of the Jardine.

From memory the ferry was much closer to the vehicle crossing than it is nowadays





http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/3792/30297739.jpg (http://img823.imageshack.us/i/30297739.jpg/)


This group were crossing when we were on our way back home.


Erich

[Narangga]

This was us in 1978.

Checking out the river – crocodile problems were unherd of in those days.


Erich

I don't know about Qld Erich but it was in 1972 that shooting was outlawed in the NT. Hence numbers had not regenerated by that stage.

Sorry I don't have pictures of our drive to Maningrida in 1983 when it was just a track between trees.

[Bundalene]

Now THAT would have been an amazing drive Dale.

Sheila is presently re-reading Ted Egan's book "Sit Down Up North" and he spent a lot of time around Maningrida & Arnhem Land generally - plus other areas in the Territory. It's a great read.

Having spent just a little time in some of the areas Ted writes about now gives us a totally different appreciation of his work with the Aboriginal people.

[Bundalene]

G'day Wagoo :)


Note also the lack of Crocs,that was before the touchy feely do gooders had hunting them banned,the Australiasian Salt Water Crocidile is not an endangered species, as it has a very wide ranging area that is why there are sightings as far south as Bundaberg.


That is very true...each year when we go into Arnhem Land, we see more and more salties. Some of them are getting very close to populated areas as well.

[wagoo]

G'day Wagoo :)

There was/is a good reason for the percieved fragility of the series Rover axles, that is, that you break an axle before you break a diff,universal joint,gearbox or engine, as it was easier to replace an axle than to rebuild a diff centre, remember that these 2.25 motors were not an overly powerful only developing 77bhp for the petrol. the usual thing was to carry spare axles both short and long along with the felts gaskets and gasket seale. :)

Note also the lack of Crocs,that was before the touchy feely do gooders had hunting them banned,the Australiasian Salt Water Crocidile is not an endangered species, as it has a very wide ranging area that is why there are sightings as far south as Bundaberg.

Nice fuse theory UncleHo,:) but that didn't stop a series 2 lwb deisel belonging to a group of German overlanders from snapping it's gearbox layshaft halfway across the Jardine when we did the cape back in August 1978. They were stuck there for several weeks til a new shaft and other bits could be brought in.

There was still the occasional croc there then. one was shot a couple of days after we headed back south.I remember slipping off the log ramp when wading back across to camp on the southern bank after leaving my vehicle on the northern side for the following days travel. The water was around 5ft deep and the current pulled me into the mangroves on the north side, and I was praying like hell that there wasn't a croc in there as I clambered through.
Wagoo

[Ferret]

There was still the occasional croc there then. one was shot a couple of days after we headed back south.I remember slipping off the log ramp when wading back across to camp on the southern bank after leaving my vehicle on the northern side for the following days travel. The water was around 5ft deep and the current pulled me into the mangroves on the north side, and I was praying like hell that there wasn't a croc in there as I clambered through.
Wagoo

I remember that log ramp well, I almost came to grief on that too.

It is croc territory so I suppose there could have been crocs there but I saw none when camping on the banks of the Jardine at the crossing point in 1980 and given the number of people in the water and camping around the crossing point at that time, I don't think anyone else saw any either or even considered it to be a risk at the time. Some of my old photos of the Jardine river I have posted before. http://www.aulro.com/afvb/general-chat/82158-some-photos-cccc-crew-jardine.html

It was normal to camp in or beside all the major river beds on the way to the cape at that time. Nobody thought otherwise.

Camping on the Wenlock, some Toyota clowns.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2011/02/1161.jpg

Camping on the Archer
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2011/02/1162.jpg

Camping on the Jardine. As an aside I still have and use that tent to this day.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2011/02/1163.jpg

[123rover50]

I bought my copy soon after their trip. This is on Ebay UK if anyone is interested.

330542452333

Didiman

[123rover50]

I copied and pasted that as a link. What went wrong?

[incisor]

WHERE DEAD MEN LIE - AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURE - HBACK BOOK | eBay (http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/330542452333)