Mal Leyland is on the road again, making new memories, driving from one side of Australia to the other, just like he and his big brother Mike did 60 years ago, when they were starting out.
Mal, 81, knows it will probably be his last great outback adventure, and he’s cherishing every moment, knowing that the dementia he was diagnosed with two years ago could rob him of even these new memories.
“I remember so many things about places I’ve been to, and to go back and see them again and go through the same country is going to be pretty exciting for me,” he tells Woman’s Day.
“I’m sure it will help.”
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Mal revealed earlier this year that he’s suffering from dementia, and facing a future where he may not even remember those iconic outback trips that made him and brother Mike two of the biggest stars on TV in the 1970s and 1980s.
He and Mike captured the imagination of the nation when Ask The Leyland Brothers aired on Nine between 1976 and 1984, becoming unlikely superstars sharing their family adventures in an orange kombi.
The brothers fell out for years after their tourist venture, Leyland Brothers World, went bust in 1992, wiping out most of their $6 million fortune, but happily they did reconcile shortly before Mike died of Parkinson’s disease in 2009.
Mal says even though he knew Mike was dying, they talked about their past adventures and agreed it would be wonderful to do one more trip all over the countryside.
You have to think Mike was there in spirit as Mal re-enacted the incredible journey that was just the start of a decades-long partnership that made them legends to generations of Aussies.
Mal’s face lights up when he starts talking about life on the road, meeting the many fans who have jumped at the chance to meet their idol since he set out on this trek with daughter Carmen and her husband Jon.
“Everything about this whole trip is great,” he grins.
“Everything has changed a lot, of course. There will be a lot of memories that come back when we go to different places we’re going to. I still don’t mind camping out, and I like being outdoors.”
Carmen, 56, says the trip has given her dad a new lease on life.
“Dad has really expressed joy with the fact he’s on the road again. He’s smiling again and engaging with people outside of his normal daily routine.
“We think it is going to be really good for his mental health. I can already see him a lot more sparked up and he’s smiling a lot. I just hope he remembers some of the trip when we get back.”
Mal, Carmen and Jon set out from their home in Cairns earlier this year, driving to the westernmost point of mainland Australia at Steep Point, 670km north of Perth, to begin a 60th anniversary re-enactment of their documentary, Wheels Across A Wilderness.
RETRACING OLD ROUTES
This time round, it’s a far more comfortable trip than when Mal and Mike did it in their battered and basic Land Rover in 1966, making history for the first ever west-to-east vehicle crossing from Steep Point to Cape Byron, Australia’s most easterly point, in northern NSW.
“It’s not like camping out in the old days!” Carmen says of the trip, which involves 26 people travelling for 28 days.
“The swag he’s got is pretty luxury. It’s more like a tent with a really comfy bed, and because it’s on the stretcher it’s up high.”
Some Leyland Brothers fans from Mal’s hometown of Newcastle, who own ARB 4×4 Accessories, stumped up the Toyota LandCruiser complete with “everything you could need to make the trip comfortable”, and other fans have joined the adventure.
Carmen says the chance to revisit places like Uluru, where Mal took the first ever photos of waterfalls coming off the rock all those years ago, filled him with joy and brought back memories of a life lived large.
“They went everywhere – worldwide and National Geographic took them up,” says Mal, who is taking photos with his camera along the way, although not with the “fancy one” he used to have.
The one missing piece on this beautiful trip down memory lane is his beloved wife Laraine, who died in 2018.
“She was a very big part of what I did back in those days, and she will be there in my heart,” Mal says.
