Dad, of All the Trips You’ve Done, Which One Was Your Favourite?
Considering how much of Australia Dad has travelled over his lifetime, I thought he might have to think about it.
He didn’t.
“Wheels Across a Wilderness.” 1966.
Of all the adventures, all the kilometres and all the places Dad would eventually visit, it was that journey across Australia with his brother Mike that stood out.
And when you think about what that trip represented, perhaps it isn’t surprising.
Wheels Across a Wilderness
Long before I came along, long before Leyland’s Australia, and before the Leyland name became so closely associated with travelling this country, there were two young brothers with an enormous sense of adventure.
In 1966, Mal and Mike Leyland set out to cross Australia from west to east through the centre of the continent.
The film that came from that expedition was called Wheels Across a Wilderness.
That’s the strange thing about sitting down and talking with Dad now.
As I get older, I’m increasingly conscious that there are questions I want to ask him.
Not simply, Where did you go?
I want to know what it actually felt like.
Were you frightened?
Was there ever a moment when you thought you weren’t going to make it?
What did Australia feel like out there in 1966?
What made that journey different from everything that came afterwards?
So I asked him.
“Was Mal Leyland Frightened During Wheels Across a Wilderness?”
The simple answer was yes.
But Dad explained that the overwhelming desire for discovery and exploration outweighed the fear of what could go wrong.
They tried to think through every possible situation that could cause them trouble and put contingencies in place so they were as prepared as they could possibly be.
One of their greatest fears was a mechanical breakdown that could leave them stranded in the desert, particularly if they began running out of water.
They carried a Royal Flying Doctor Service radio for emergencies. A modern EPIRB certainly would have come in handy back then.
Thankfully, no emergency occurred that they couldn’t eventually get themselves out of.
But there were certainly moments of concern.
“Was There Ever a Moment When You Thought You Weren’t Going to Make It?”
Dad told me there were times when they had to get very creative with mechanical repairs just to keep moving.
But one particular memory has stayed with him.
During one breakdown, while the others were working on the vehicle, Dad walked away from camp and climbed onto a sand dune.
He stood there and looked out.
Nothing.
Just endless sand dunes stretching into the distance.
And for a moment, a thought crossed his mind:
What if something goes horribly wrong and this is it?
From where he stood, there wasn’t another soul in sight.
Just him and the sand.
But then he realised he wasn’t surrounded by complete silence.
He could hear the wind.
He could almost see it in the tiny grains of sand swirling through the air.
He heard the rustling of a small lizard scurrying from beneath a bush growing near his boots.
And as he looked across the vastness of the desert, he had the extraordinary feeling that he might be the only person there.
The only indication that he had ever been there at all was the trail of footprints in the sand behind him, showing where he had come from.
I can picture him standing there.
A young man in the middle of Australia, with no idea that the journey he was on was about to determine the direction of the rest of his life.
“What Did Australia Feel Like Out There in 1966?”
Dad didn’t need many words for this one.
Amazing. Exhilarating. Breathtaking. Inspirational.
Australia was enormous, remote and largely unknown to them.
And they wanted to see more.
“What Made Made Wheels Across a Wilderness Different From Everything That Came Afterwards?”
“It planted the seed,” Dad told me.
The seed that he wanted to do more.
See more.
Spend his life exploring this country and experiencing Australia at its very best — and, hopefully, somehow find a way to make a living doing it.
Of course, we all know that he did.
From Dad’s Adventures to Mine
I wasn’t there for Wheels Across a Wilderness in 1966.
But I’m incredibly grateful that earlier this year I had the opportunity to experience the 60th anniversary expedition of that journey.
More importantly, I got to do it with Dad.
Sixty years after that original adventure, we were travelling through some of the same country together.
“Why Is Wheels Across A Wilderness Still Your Favourite?”
There was one final question I wanted to ask.
After everything Dad has done, why does Wheels Across a Wilderness remain the trip he remembers as his favourite?
His answer was simple.
Because it was the trip — and the film — that made everything else possible.
Dad and Mike realised they could actually do what they had set out to do.
But perhaps even more importantly, when they showed the film in theatres, they discovered something else.
Australians loved it.
People wanted to see more.
They wanted to experience places they might never have the opportunity to visit themselves.
And Dad and Mike realised they could give them that.
They went on to spend years showing Australians their own country through the lens of a camera.
The remote places.
The country towns.
The characters.
The outback.
And the extraordinary landscapes that existed beyond the places most people knew.
That journey in 1966 wasn’t simply another adventure.
It was the beginning.
More than sixty years later, Dad still remembers standing on that sand dune, looking out across what seemed like an endless wilderness.
At the time, the only evidence of where he had been was a line of footprints disappearing into the sand behind him.
Neither he nor Mike could possibly have known just how far those footprints would eventually lead.
And I certainly have plenty more questions to ask him.
— Carmen Leyland
Red Dirt and Beyond
