G'day From Down Under............

[jerryd]

Hi folks, I live in Queensland Australia and I own a 1976 series 3 Landrover Dormobile. It is reputedly the last conversion done on a landrover by Martin Walter, there was an interesting story told to me by it's previous owner concerning the two companies so I have no reason to doubt her story.

It's a well traveled vehicle having been all through europe, africa, india before traveling to Australia . It's done the big lap here too and then had a reasonably quiet life in the mine fields. While earning it's keep there it was involved in a "murder mystery" It's an ongoing investigation so I shall say no more, only that the vehicle got trashed internally and slight damage to the exterior. Hopefully they didn't find the treasure but I will as I do the rebuild

The vehicle is completely rust free but is tired, so I'm currently doing a sympathetic restoration. I've rebuilt the back end, springs,shocks,brakes,bushes etc and am currently doing the front end. I've fitted Stage 1 V8 axles (3.54 diffs) and will shortly be fitting a 300tdi motor into it. At the moment it has a Holden motor fitted which is a 3.3 litre six cylinder, it's a lovely engine but it's too thirsty for australian touring.
My ambition for this vehicle is to create a reliable outback tourer so that I can get there and back with few or no dramas I'm not too worried about keeping it original, I'd rather have it upgraded so I can use it and enjoy it.

The original owner is now 75 years young and lives 2000 kilometers away from me, but we keep in touch and she is very interested in the vehicles progress. I'm hoping to drive down to see her next year and show her the results

I look forward to chatting to you all and will no doubt have lots of questions for you.

[overlander]

G'day mate,

Whereabouts are you in Queensland? A few years back I opened up Bloomfield Wilderness Lodge in FNQ, up the Bloomfield Track where the rainforest meets the Great Barrier Reef - not far from Wujal Wujal . Loved it out there.

cheers

John H

Old Age Traveller but still pullin'.........a Rapido Folding Caravan

[jerryd]

Hi John,
I'm approx 50 kilometres north west of Brisbane in a small town called Dayboro, it's a bit of an old fashioned town although now it's starting to be developed. When I say old fashioned, you actually see horses tied up outside the pub on the odd occasion

I haven't been to FNQ yet, I'm saving that until the "happy wanderer" is ready and we can do the "Cape York Trip" The furthest north I've been is up near Longreach. As you probably well know, australia is a big place with huge distances between towns

[RMS]

We've been a few times to Oz; mostly Adelaide, Cairnes/Port Douglas, Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart, but obviously, when you've only got 4 weeks, it's sensible to fly domestic. As you say, the distances are vast
I was brought up in Adelaide, (8 years as a child). I still love the place, especially the "She'll be right" attitude

The last time we were on the East coast we drove up from Sydney almost to Brisbane. We made it as far as Byron Bay, stayed in a tree-top chalet and joined the Hippy culture for a few days

We hope to be there again later this year, but probably just Sydney & Hobart so not much chance of getting heads under your bonnet

Cheers,
Robin.