Leyland brother for Big Red Bash

One of Australia’s most famous Outback travellers will join a bunch of ageing Aussie rockers at this year’s Birdsville Big Red Bash.

Mal Leyland of Ask the Leyland Brothers TV fame will take part in the popular desert festival (July 10-12) for the first time, joining a huge crowd of four-wheel drivers, campers and family adventurers at the iconic location.

Together with wife Laraine, the sole surviving Leyland brother (Mike died in 2009) will play archival footage on the big screen to celebrate more than 50 years since he completed one of the first off-road vehicle cross-continental, west–east crossings of Australia.

“We’ve been invited as special guests and we’re going to put on a presentation of our original crossing of the Simpson Desert back in 1966, which was the first time it had been crossed by vehicle, and that formed a very large part of the Wheels across the Wilderness film which really set my brother and I up,” he recalled.

“Because the 50th anniversary of that expedition just passed, they thought it was an appropriate time to have us there.”

Mal is hoping his second-hand Fiat Ducato-based Horizon campervan will cope with the often bumpy roads from his current home near Devonport in Tasmania to Birdsville.

“We’ve been told the track in (to Birdsville) is OK because they take semi trailers in there, but I think they’re predicting around 12,000 (Big Red Bash) attendees this year, so if we get stuck there should be plenty of people to get us out and have a good laugh at the same time!”

Before the Bash, Mal Leyland will also be a special guest at the Queensland Caravan Supershow (also celebrating its 50th anniversary), held at the Brisbane Showgrounds from June 6-11.

Showgoers will be able to sit down and watch the older Leyland films as well as some of his more recent TV productions, presented by Mal throughout the show. He will also have a stand at the show, where he will be selling his latest, recently reprinted book Still Travelling.

Now 73 years-old, Mal and Laraine recently relocated from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast to one of their favourite travel destinations, Tasmania. They still go on regular road trips (he was a Jurgens caravan ambassador a few years ago), in the Horizons campervan, which is a bit plusher than the orange Kombi vans made famous in Ask the Leyland Brothers.

He told Caravancampingsales that if finances permitted he’d love to upgrade to a Mercedes-Benz 4x4 Sprinter based campervan, like those sold by Trakka, for its superior off-road abilities.

He also said he regrets selling his 1944 ex-Army Jeep many years ago, and would like to own one again if not for collectors pushing prices of remaining examples so high.