Thread: the leyland brothers

Remember seeing that when it first came out.
I was amazed at the amount of gear that they carried with them.

There was a trip run a couple of years ago in our club (LROCV) covering the same route to commemorate the original crossing. Mike Leyland and his wife actually joined the convoy for part of the trip, and he also attended a meeting of the club at a later date......nice bloke.

Murray

Originally Posted by rijidij

There was a trip run a couple of years ago in our club (LROCV) covering the same route to commemorate the original crossing. Mike Leyland and his wife actually joined the convoy for part of the trip, and he also attended a meeting of the club at a later date......nice bloke.

Murray

...and what vehicle was he driving? I hope it was an Isuzu Stage1

I have got the book " Where dead men lie. " of there east west crossing, . When was their west east crossing?

Sorry it was west east

Didiman.

Originally Posted by justinc

...and what vehicle was he driving? I hope it was an Isuzu Stage1

he was driving a patrol

Originally Posted by rijidij

There was a trip run a couple of years ago in our club (LROCV) covering the same route to commemorate the original crossing. Mike Leyland and his wife actually joined the convoy for part of the trip, and he also attended a meeting of the club at a later date......nice bloke.

Murray

yeah that trip was on the dvd too

Originally Posted by rijidij

There was a trip run a couple of years ago in our club (LROCV) covering the same route to commemorate the original crossing. Mike Leyland and his wife actually joined the convoy for part of the trip, and he also attended a meeting of the club at a later date......nice bloke.

Murray

I remember seeing the film, but it was so many years back I have trouble recalling much of the details.

Was it difficult finding enough details to be certain it was the same route?

I have done some overlanding out there and it can be very rough (it is luck as to what the next swale is like) compared to the usual tracks. I wouldn't like to go where I went in a leaf sprung vehicle).

AFAIK, the French line had been constructed at the time and was being used for supplying the oil seach crews, but I am under the impression that the Leyland Bro's made their own route.

On the re-enactment, I am interested to know if there were any series of same type (as Leyland Bro's used) involved?

Edit: I remember the Leyland Bro's broke a few diffs/axles. In either Reg or Griselda Sprig's book that described their crossing (the 1st crossing by motor vehicles), one of the vehicles was (IIRC) a new Scout that broke a large number of axles (something like 24 axles from memory).

Originally Posted by Bush65

I remember seeing the film, but it was so many years back I have trouble recalling much of the details.

Was it difficult finding enough details to be certain it was the same route?

I have done some overlanding out there and it can be very rough (it is luck as to what the next swale is like) compared to the usual tracks. I wouldn't like to go where I went in a leaf sprung vehicle).

AFAIK, the French line had been constructed at the time and was being used for supplying the oil seach crews, but I am under the impression that the Leyland Bro's made their own route.

On the re-enactment, I am interested to know if there were any series of same type (as Leyland Bro's used) involved?

Edit: I remember the Leyland Bro's broke a few diffs/axles. In either Reg or Griselda Sprig's book that described their crossing (the 1st crossing by motor vehicles), one of the vehicles was (IIRC) a new Scout that broke a large number of axles (something like 24 axles from memory).

Where dead men lie describes a west->east crossing. I was working in the Simpson at the time, and actually get a mention in the book. They neither used the French Line nor made their own track for most of the crossing, but used survey lines which were bulldozed for the crew I was in charge of except for the last 50 miles or so into Birdsville, where they did make their own track.

In addition, they refurbished and carried out substantial repairs in my camp about 100km east of Old Andado, as seen in the attached photo. Most of their problems resulted from gross overloading of both vehicles.

I worked on this survey for the better part of two years in 1965-6.

John