Mitsubishi blows out candles at Lake Eyre

The Mitsubishi brand celebrated its 30th anniversary in Australia in late-2010, but it’s only in the last few weeks that the company has been blowing out the candles in public.

First there was the release of some value-added 30th anniversary edition models last month. And now a convoy of Mitsubishi off-roaders has successfully completed a three-day, 1200km Outback drive through South Australia to help mark the milestone.

The 30th Anniversary Lake Eyre Tour consisted of a small number of Mitsubishi ‘low range’ four-wheel drives, including Pajero and Challenger SUVs and dual-cab Triton utes, driven by local media and Mitsubishi crew along mostly dirt tracks and through some of South Australia’s most historically significant and stunning Outback scenery.

According to Mitsubishi, the tour was “designed to celebrate Mitsubishi’s four-wheel drive heritage in this country… (and) thoroughly road test Mitsubishi’s newly released model year 12 low-range four-wheel drives on a variety of surfaces – including tarmac, gravel and low- and high-range four-wheel driving…”

Mitsubishi Motors Australian Limited was established on October 1, 1980, after the parent company completed the purchase of Chrysler Australia and took over its South Australian manufacturing facilities. Since then more than 2.2 million locally manufactured and imported vehicles with the three-diamond badge have been sold Down Under, including 400,000 dedicated off-roaders.

The Lake Eyre Tour kicked off with a charter flight from Adelaide to Balcanoona (about 600km north of Adelaide) in the Gammon Ranges National Park, followed by a short drive to a lunch stop at the Wooltana Station, which dates back to 1852 and was one of the first sheep and cattle grazing properties in the region.

Due to recent heavy rain forcing the closure of the Strzlecki Track, an alternative route was taken through the picturesque Flinders Ranges to the first overnight stop at Leigh Creek.

Travelling along windy dirt tracks with constant changes in elevation, the 200km detour was a chance to enjoy the stunning ridgetop views, changing vegetation and occasional wildlife including emus and ‘roos.

It would also prove one of the toughest tests for the 4WD vehicles, with plenty of low-range work through dry creek beds and some steep, slippery hills testing the vehicles’ traction and ground clearance.

Highlights of Day 2 included a stop-off at the Leigh Creek open-cut coal mine, which dates back to 1888, and a lunch stop at the Marree Hotel, where the rusted Leyland Badger truck of the legendary Tom Kruse, who delivered mail along the BIrdsville Track, sits out front.

Travelling along the well-graded Oodnadatta Track, provided the chance to view relics of the original Old Ghan Railway, including the striking Algebuckina Bridge (SA’s longest single bridge), railway stations and now crumbling sandstone houses where the hardy workers that maintained the rail line lived.

Lunch at the popular (and very isolated) William Creek pub was followed by a plane flight over the southern edge of Lake Eyre, Australia’s largest lake (when full); still with plenty of water and a few pelicans remaining after another good year of rainfall. The plane flew over where Donald Campbell in 1964 set a land speed record of over 400mph  (648km/h) in the gas turbine engined, wheel-driven Bluebird (when the lake was dry, of course!).

Camping in tents at Halligan Bay along Lake Eyre, the lowest point in Australia at 15.2 metres below sea level, would prove a very windy and sleep-interrupted experience. Overnight rain also made the now muddy 97km drive back to the main track a good test of the vehicles’ stability control systems.

On Day 3, a leisurely lunch at the Oodnadatta Pink Roadhouse (where even the old Volvo out front is painted pink), was followed by a drive through the awe-inspiring Painted Desert. The ever-changing colours of the mountainous mesas and formations composed of colourful sands, pebbles and rocks proving an irresistible backdrop for a group photo.

A final run into the opal mining town of Coober Pedy, along gibber roads made famous in the Mad Max movies, was the end of the road for the Mitsubishi adventure, with participants bedding down for the night in an underground hotel that started life as a working mine.

Throughout the trip the four-wheel drive vehicles hardly missed a beat, despite being loaded up with equipment and tackling reasonably tough terrain ranging from low-range muddy trails to 150km/h blasts down the gravelly Oodnadatta Track.

For the record, there were no mechanical mishaps or tyre punctures, with all vehicles running on standard tyres at normal road pressures.