Leyland Brothers

Phil "they said the put the small vehicle over the top and used it to pull the big one and trailer up the dune???"
They actualy showed this in the dvd where they had a strap between the two vehicles and did exactly what you have described and pulled it up over the top. Regards Steve M

Hi Phil just watched again and when they did the trip last year they took the French Line which is approximately 50k south from where the Leyland Brothers actually crossed. Regards Steve M

Thanks Stephen,

Would have thought they'd cross further north of the French Line. Its Crown Land, so theres no problem with access. Maybe Mike is happy not to go back there again?

I must get the DVD - haven't seen the original movie since we did a school excusion at the Hoyts Cinema in Manly in the late 60's! I just remember them breaking lots of diffs. I'd really like to look closely at the footage in the Simpson to see if it resembles where I've been.

Interesting Phil, I have never read any books or seen any dvd's of the Leyland brothers , but I do recall when I worked for Derek Knight in George Crescent in the Alice in the late 60's and can recall when I got into a discussion with the driver that brought a Leyland Hippo in to get some work done , an enormous rig , with big balloon tyres that I believe was owned by Andado station . I was told at the time that the Leyland brothers did the furtherer point west to the furtherer point east crossing in the 60's , and the discussion centred around this big Leyland rig towing the Leyland Brothers over some sand dunes at the time . At the time I think the discussion was about the claim that the Leyland Brothers said they did it all on their own . I never checked to see who was right and who was wrong , but it has stayed in the memory all these years :)

Pete,
interesting stuff. There's no mention in their book of any assistance by a truck. They did mention the existance of a large water truck with aircraft tyres that could cart 1000 gallons to supply the seismic camps that were out there at the time. That was at seismic camp2 which was about 12 miles E of Old Andado. From there they continued along a shotline south, and then said they turned east. Not much mention of anything else until they got to a salt lake on the Qld border. After busting 4 diffs, welding up a chassis and repairing broken springs near Andado, they seemed to have a straightforward run until the 5th broken diff at Eyre Creek.

Still, it was a pretty major achievement at the time. I take my hat off to them.

The Auslig 1 million Mosaic map shows the cleared lines that were referred to in the Leylands book. I reckon they would be mad not to have used them.

And the technique of one vehicle going down and pulling the other vehicle up was only referred to when they were almost all the way across, and broke another diff, leaving one vehicle with only 2wd.

The Leyland , I cant really remember whether it was a Hippo or a Buffalo , but I am sure it was a 6x6 with balloon tyres with a large tray , probably 25 foot . I dont think it had awater tank on it , but that could have been removed to come to the Alice for repairs . I was working on another vehicle at the time . It would have been great if digital cameras were around at the time eh!

But I agree with you , it was a remarkable achievement at the time :)

Haven't we all ??