Land Rover 60th anniversary – cross Australia journey
August 19, 2008 by Paul Maric
Land Rover crosses Australia for its 60th Anniversary.
- Story by Paul Maric, photographs by Paul Maric and Land Rover.
The 1948 creation of the Land Rover Series 1 came to fruition courtesy of Maurice Wilks, who was the head designer at Rover during the late ‘40’s. Throughout the company’s 60 year history, there have been a raft of ownership changes, ranging from Rover, BMW, more recently Ford and now Tata.
Despite the sale of Land Rover to Indian industrial giant Tata, Land Rover says it is still committed to continuing the trend of capable, versatile and stylish vehicles. The sale of Land Rover to Tata is not expected to hinder the continued growth of the British marque.
Land Rover’s break into the Australian market occurred during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Around 800 Land Rovers were commissioned as the vehicles of choice by the committee responsible for the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric scheme.
Fast-forward 60 years and it’s party time. Land Rover has decided to celebrate by travelling from Birdsville in south -west Queensland, through to Broome in north Western Australia. Unlike the other manufacturer who has undertaken this journey, Land Rover will cross the country using every model in its range.
Freelander 2, Defender, Discovery 3, Range Rover Sport and Range Rover Vogue will all play a part in this epic journey.
Leg 1 – Birdsville to Alice Springs
Day 1
The group of five journalists and several Land Rover crew, including Managing Director Roger Jory, weren’t sure what to expect of the flight from Brisbane to Birdsville.
Operated by Macair, our mode of transport was a Metro23, 19-seat twin-propeller plane. Located about 1600km west of Brisbane, Birdsville is a small town with a population of approximately 120. Birdsville’s population increases by more than 1000% during the famous Birdsville Races – held each year in September.
Our flight from Brisbane was on the mail run, so that meant making four stops along the way to Birdsville. This stretched the 1600km flight out to six and a half hours. Soon after leaving Brisbane airport, we arrived at a small town called Charleville. It wasn’t long before the mail was offloaded and we were back in the air.
Around an hour later, the second stop had us arriving at Quilpie. With a population of just 747, spread over a shire area of 67,842 square kilometres, there wasn’t all that much going on. After finally offloading mail, we jumped back into the plane, only to find the additional passenger and extra mail would mean a ‘wet takeoff’.
We were reassured that this was standard company procedure when extra weight was taken onboard. The only issue with this standard company procedure was that the plane refused to do the ‘wet takeoff’! We stumbled down a third of the runway before the takeoff was aborted. After trying two more times, we had to go back to the hanger for some bush mechanic style repairs.
After a quick fix, we were in business and on to our next stop – Windorah. We were greeted by some workers who were proud to show off the new building they had just installed at the airport, which included three toilets. It didn’t mean much to us city slickers, but it was a mighty achievement for them! It was back in the air for our final flight leg.
You can imagine our joint relief when we finally arrived to Birdsville.
Luckily the Birdsville Hotel was stocked full of beer and food, so after a bit of a refresh and cleanup, we met with the Land Rover support crew for dinner and drinks.
darkwater:
Freelander with its quality advanced 6spd command shift transmission that does 0-100kph in 8.9 seconds (0-60mph 8.4) aswell as being economical on the fuel would have to be the pick. WHereas the rubicon with its 4spd (if your going auto) is a bit sluggish and hard on fuel.
Big Jim:
Smack-on there with transmissions, also rubicons thirst has always been a major consideration. Standing at a pedestrian crossing yesterday a 4-door wrangler drove past (so it’s going to be a 2007 model), not sure if the driver has been servicing it regularly or it’s just been flogged to buggery, but all the wrong noises were coming from the engine bay. Sounded half a dozen rasps heading down a long metal slide. I’m earing on the side of lack of service or as some seem to think that a 4bie is just as cabable on the road as a beamer.
darkwater:
yeah the 3.2L i6 in the freelander is highly rated with good high torque.
“The DEFENDER is the shit when it comes to crossing through and around Aus and for going bush and hardcore offroading.”
^^^by that I mean its good. The 300 tdi equiped DEFENDER Im used to, has a top speed of about 135, that would be my only slight gripe. However its the type of indestructible engine that just keeps on going (a hard 310 000km without a problem). It cruises effortlessly at the speed limit. The new 4 would have to be better.
Big Jim:
If it was just me, myself, and I, a defender would be the only consideration – out asap smack down money for factory fitted modifications. However, I’ve got to tow a family of girls so comfort (road noise, egonomics etc) needs to be considered.
Believe me, I would really love a defender. Pity they don’t provide the swb. Could get that for fun.
Darkwater:
Post how the test driving and eventual purchase goes, Im interested to know. You should be able to talk them down a fair bit.
Big Jim:
Thank you for your interest and advice. I’m looking at a minimum of 6 to 12 month purchase time for either a defender or disco3, so please don’t hang on my post. When it comes around I’ll post on whatever forum associated with this or following articles or even on this site’s car review for the defender or disco3. Either way I’m getting a rattler. Sod a petrol – top end performance but bugger all down low where you need it when you need it for how long you need it.
Darkwater:
With the current new car market conditions- dealers doing alot of heavy discounting, its quite possible to get a big discount on a Discovery 4.0 V6 SE or the TDV6 Auto S.
Edaw: “Enjoy your X-Trail, one of only 2 soft roaders not made for girls.” Do you honestly think girls can’t drive offroad? Or are you saying LR and Nissan made vehicles purely for men?
GT2000: Just because something is popular, doesn’t make it good. Take Top 40 music, AFL, Neighbours for eg… Very popular, doesn’t make them good though.