{"id":9072,"date":"2026-10-01T15:56:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T05:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/home\/?p=9072"},"modified":"2026-10-01T15:56:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T05:56:50","slug":"mal-leylands-82nd-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/home\/mal-leylands-82nd-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Mal Leyland&#8217;s 82nd Birthday: Celebrating Dad&#8217;s Lifetime of Adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"939\" src=\"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260523_171827-2-1024x939.jpg\" alt=\"Mal Leyland's 82nd Birthday\" class=\"wp-image-7750\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.0905373168238102;width:630px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260523_171827-2-1024x939.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260523_171827-2-300x275.jpg 300w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260523_171827-2-768x704.jpg 768w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260523_171827-2-1536x1408.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260523_171827-2-2048x1878.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260523_171827-2-600x550.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-rank-math-toc-block\" id=\"rank-math-toc\"><h2>Table of Contents<\/h2><nav><ul><li><a href=\"#an-extraordinary-life-that-became-normal-to-me\">An Extraordinary Life That Became Normal to Me<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#dad-had-already-lived-an-incredible-amount-of-adventure-before-i-came-along\">Dad had already lived an incredible amount of adventure before I came along.<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#dad-gave-me-australia\">Dad Gave Me Australia<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#the-man-behind-the-adventures\">The Man Behind the Adventures<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#at-82-i-still-have-questions\">Mal Leyland&#8217;s 82nd Birthday, and I Still Have Questions<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#the-greatest-journeys-arent-always-measured-in-kilometres\">The Greatest Journeys Aren&#8217;t Always Measured in Kilometres<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#happy-birthday-dad\">Happy Birthday Dad<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#faq-question-1790496475967\">How will we celebrate Mal Leyland&#8217;s 82nd birthday?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#faq-question-1790496900719\">Why is Mal Leyland&#8217;s 82nd Birthday special to us his family?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Mal Leyland&#8217;s 82nd birthday<\/strong> is on 2 October, and as the day approaches I&#8217;ve found myself thinking about the extraordinary life Dad has lived and just how much of that life has been spent travelling Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s a strange thing trying to write about Mal Leyland&#8217;s 82nd Birthday when he is your own father and so many other people feel as though they know him too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">To generations of Australians, he&#8217;s <strong>Mal Leyland<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">One half of the Leyland Brothers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The man who travelled across Australia, pointed a camera at places many people had never seen before and helped inspire families to pack the car, unfold a map and discover this enormous country for themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">But to me, of course, he&#8217;s simply <strong>Dad<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">When you&#8217;re part of a family like ours, extraordinary things have a habit of becoming normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 id=\"an-extraordinary-life-that-became-normal-to-me\" class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-5fe1f52cc0281117a91d383a776e28fb\" style=\"color:#c2452d\"><strong>An Extraordinary Life That Became Normal to Me<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<h5 id=\"dad-had-already-lived-an-incredible-amount-of-adventure-before-i-came-along\" class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Dad had already lived an incredible amount of adventure before I came along.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">There were the early expeditions with his brother Mike, including their journey across Australia in 1966 that became <em>Wheels Across a Wilderness<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">There were years of filming, travelling, exploring and telling Australian stories. Of course mum; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm7130528\/bio\/?ref_=nm_ql_1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Laraine Leyland<\/a> came along in 1969 to join him on all of his adventures. Then, years later, I found myself travelling Australia with Dad too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">In my early twenties, I spent around four years living on the road while we travelled and filmed <em>Leylands Australia<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Sometimes you have to get a little older yourself before you understand what you were given.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"750\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Mal.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7577\" srcset=\"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Mal.jpg 750w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Mal-300x140.jpg 300w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Mal-600x280.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h5 id=\"dad-gave-me-australia\" class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-840601f2b946c73a619b2442ee378104\" style=\"color:#c2452d\"><strong>Dad Gave Me Australia<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;ve written before that I didn&#8217;t fully appreciate some of the places Dad took me until I was older.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">I think that&#8217;s true of the experience as a whole. Dad didn&#8217;t just show me Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>He gave me Australia<\/strong>, A passion for travel, writing, photography and somewhere along the way food. (I love discovering cafes with great coffee, using local produce, making amazing products that I take with me to enjoy further down the road).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Australia from a brochure is not the same as seeing it yourself. Thats why I wanted to start operating <a href=\"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/home\/trip-search-result-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tours<\/a>. So I can share my passion with others. Dad showed me the Australia you discover when you spend months and years on its roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">And perhaps most importantly, he gave me curiosity and a thirst to see more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 id=\"the-man-behind-the-adventures\" class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-c1a38f0fc9bd0a2e237a2ad1cf5d9ace\" style=\"color:#c2452d\"><strong>The Man Behind the Adventures<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">People naturally remember the adventures, the television programs, Mal and Mike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">When it&#8217;s your dad, you remember different things too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">I remember dad doing his silly dance in the mornings or when he pulled silly faces to get me smile&#8230;..especially as a cranky teenager&#8230;.lol<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/5657-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7491\" style=\"width:489px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/5657-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/5657-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/5657-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/5657-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/5657-600x800.jpg 600w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/5657-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h5 id=\"at-82-i-still-have-questions\" class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-85416b2807b807200d91833f3beec980\" style=\"color:#c2452d\"><strong>Mal Leyland&#8217;s 82nd Birthday, and I Still Have Questions<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">When I recently asked Dad over breakfast what his favourite trip had been. He didnt have to think about the answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/home\/wheels-across-a-wilderness-60th-anniversary\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Wheels Across a Wilderness<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">That journey with Mike in 1966 still holds that place for him all these years later.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Wheels-Across-a-Wilderness-Logo_CMYK-01-1-1024x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6698\" style=\"width:206px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Wheels-Across-a-Wilderness-Logo_CMYK-01-1-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Wheels-Across-a-Wilderness-Logo_CMYK-01-1-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Wheels-Across-a-Wilderness-Logo_CMYK-01-1-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Wheels-Across-a-Wilderness-Logo_CMYK-01-1-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Wheels-Across-a-Wilderness-Logo_CMYK-01-1-355x355.png 355w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Wheels-Across-a-Wilderness-Logo_CMYK-01-1-370x370.png 370w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Wheels-Across-a-Wilderness-Logo_CMYK-01-1-170x170.png 170w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Wheels-Across-a-Wilderness-Logo_CMYK-01-1-1536x1536.png 1536w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Wheels-Across-a-Wilderness-Logo_CMYK-01-1-2048x2048.png 2048w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Wheels-Across-a-Wilderness-Logo_CMYK-01-1-600x600.png 600w, https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Wheels-Across-a-Wilderness-Logo_CMYK-01-1-100x100.png 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h5 id=\"the-greatest-journeys-arent-always-measured-in-kilometres\" class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-01a694d0cfdd7516c886fa5d75d5e99c\" style=\"color:#c2452d\"><strong>The Greatest Journeys Aren&#8217;t Always Measured in Kilometres<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Dad has travelled an extraordinary number of kilometres in his lifetime. He&#8217;s crossed deserts, followed remote tracks and visited places that were once little more than names on a map to most Australians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">But perhaps a life of travel isn&#8217;t ultimately measured by kilometres its the journey that he got to share with my mum Laraine that was most important to him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">I understand how precious those ordinary moments really are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 id=\"happy-birthday-dad\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Happy Birthday Dad<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">This is simply a daughter wishing her dad a happy birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">And saying thank you. Thank you for the stories. Thank you for teaching me to be curious about what&#8217;s beyond the horizon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-link-color has-large-font-size wp-elements-634721f5c31be355b2426a83d7a1b69a wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"color:#c2452d\"><strong>Happy 82nd Birthday Dad. \u2764\ufe0f<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Carmen Leyland<\/strong><br><em>Leylands Travel Australia<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"rank-math-faq\" class=\"rank-math-block\">\n<div class=\"rank-math-list \">\n<div id=\"faq-question-1790496475967\" class=\"rank-math-list-item\">\n<h5 class=\"rank-math-question \">How will we celebrate Mal Leyland&#8217;s 82nd birthday?<\/h5>\n<div class=\"rank-math-answer \">\n\n<p>We will most likely celebrate Mal Leyland&#8217;s 82nd birthday by taking him out to his favourite meal of Fish and Chips down at the Esplanade in Cairns, followed by a scoop of Gelato.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"faq-question-1790496900719\" class=\"rank-math-list-item\">\n<h5 class=\"rank-math-question \">Why is Mal Leyland&#8217;s 82nd Birthday special to us his family?<\/h5>\n<div class=\"rank-math-answer \">\n\n<p><strong>A Lifetime of Australian Adventure<\/strong> is more than a celebration of Dad&#8217;s television and travel career. For our family, it&#8217;s a chance to celebrate the man behind the adventures, the memories we&#8217;ve shared and the love of Australia and curiosity about the road ahead that Dad passed on to us.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mal Leyland&#8217;s 82nd birthday is on 2 October, and as the day approaches I&#8217;ve found myself thinking about the extraordinary life Dad has lived and just how much of that life has been spent travelling Australia. It&#8217;s a strange thing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","travel-monster-post","latest_post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9072"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9093,"href":"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9072\/revisions\/9093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leylandstravelaustralia.au\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}