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00:15Hello. The Leyland Brothers were household names in Australia in the 1980s. Their folksy
00:22TV shows explored the country with their families in tow. Brothers Mike and Mel were as close
00:29as two people can be, until a sad falling out at the height of their fame, one from which
00:34they never fully recovered. We first brought you Mel Leyland's story in 2015. 11 years on,
00:43he's facing daunting challenges, but with his adventurous spirit undimmed.
00:55Dad and I have always been very close. Dad's always been my hero.
01:00Morning, Dad. Morning. What have we got here? Oh.
01:04Medication. Righto.
01:07I am an only child, so it's just me that has the responsibility of taking care of Dad now.
01:14How are you feeling today? Oh, well, it's a good day because I woke up and I'm still alive. That's
01:19a pretty good day when you get to this age. Every day counts.
01:22The hardest thing has been watching this man that I idolised my whole life
01:31slowly disappear in front of my eyes. I can still have a conversation with him every single day,
01:37but he doesn't remember it half an hour later. It looks like you've got your bag and your hat
01:41out ready to go. You're going somewhere today? Oh, I'm always ready to go. Always.
01:47Having dementia is interesting because it depends a little bit on what it affects. If you've got a good
01:56memory of the good things in life, the good things are far more important.
02:05Urgently need Land Rover Clutch Plate Series 2. Require water also, if possible,
02:15and the signature Lowland Brothers. That's Lima Echo Yankee, Lima Delta Delta Brothers.
02:21Travel all over the countryside. Ask the Leylands, ask the Leylands.
02:26Their travel documentaries over the past 30 years made the Leyland Brothers household names.
02:32Hundreds of hours of television, tens of thousands of kilometres over the countryside.
02:38Come on, me in and I'm joining the fun. Travel all over Australia.
02:42A lot of people, when they're going to go on a road trip around Australia these days,
02:46they say, I'm going to go and do the Leyland Brothers. And off they go on their trip. So,
02:51they go exploring.
02:53Oh, that's good.
03:00He's still aware that he is Mal Leyland from the Leyland Brothers. Yes, definitely.
03:05We've got the Wheels Across the Wilderness 60 anniversary trip, which we'll be doing this year.
03:10Oh, you have been busy. The main reason for what we wanted to do is to honour what my dad
03:18did,
03:18and for people to remember what he did and celebrate what he did.
03:32All right. Two, four, six, eight. I think you're going to wait.
03:37Yeah. For first, it was just subtle things that made us believe that perhaps there might be something
03:43going on. He would be telling stories about things from the past, and all of a sudden,
03:50the stories weren't exactly right. He was getting them muddled up. Or I'll walk into his bedroom,
03:56and he's just staring at the ceiling. Do you remember that John and I weren't here last week?
04:02Yeah. You did notice that we were gone. Do you know where we went? No.
04:06No. So, a few times he would get lost, and I always thought it'd be ironic that Mal Leyland,
04:11this person who explored a lot of Australia, you know, police are searching for Mal Leyland,
04:16who's lost in the bushland, would probably not be very good headlines. I found a lot more stuff,
04:22Mel, for you to go through and have a look at and sort out. Righto. Yeah. Well, there's a lot
04:29of it.
04:30By the time we actually finally got into the specialist, I wasn't surprised to hear that he
04:34had the dementia. That's out in Central Australia, and it's Uluru, I think they call it.
04:41And I suggested to Carmen that, you know, maybe it was time that he came to live with us. We
04:46didn't
04:46think he was ready to go into a retirement village. All the memories, eh? At the moment,
04:53I'd say it's classified as moderate dementia. So many different parts of the country. Accepting
05:00that dad is going to get worse is hard. We're definitely dreading the day when it gets to the
05:05point where we realise that we can't take care of him anymore. I don't feel as though it's getting
05:10worse. But luckily, I've got a lot of photographs. So I've got things to remind me of stuff that
05:15I've seen and done. I can always look them up.
05:22A lot of people think of us as being a pair of Aussie blokes who just grew up in the
05:27suburbs of
05:28Australia. But in fact, we started out in England. So we're the original 10-pound POM family.
05:35I think the reason Mike and I ended up as close as we were was because dad got into real
05:41estate
05:42and moved around from one suburb to the next. As a result, we changed schools so much
05:47that we didn't really get enough time to make good friends. So we became each other's best mate.
05:56And his very first film we ever shot was at the Olympic Games.
06:00And that's how we got into shooting films. And we ended up filming little home movies of things
06:07that we did, you know, holiday trips and stuff like that.
06:13So I bought an old Land Rover and set off on a trip to Heirs Rock.
06:18These days, some people might think it offensive that we climbed the rock. But in 1961, not many
06:23people made the trip and everyone did it. We had fallen in love with the desert and become
06:29completely charmed by Heirs Rock. We'd made a movie too, an amateur movie, The Lure of the Centre.
06:37Mike showed Lure of the Centre to the news editor and landed the job of Channel 3's first news
06:42cameraman. For a while, Mike and I were rivals. Using this camera, I started work as a cadet photographer
06:50with the afternoon daily paper here, The Newcastle Sun. But the rivalry didn't last long. With only
06:56one year's professional experience, we joined forces to make our first commercial film.
07:02And all the books that I'd read said the secret to selling a documentary was to actually do something
07:07for the first time. So I picked up a map of Australia and thought, well, what can we do that's
07:12not going to be too expensive and too far away? And looked at New South Wales and there was this
07:16wriggly line going through it and it was the Darling River. And no one had done it. It was 1400
07:22miles.
07:26We had no idea what we were letting ourselves in for. And so inexperienced were we, we never even had
07:31a pair of oars with us. We had an outdoor motor only. And it gave us trouble. We kept breaking
07:38the propellers.
07:39Then we thought, well, if we get some baked bean tins and tip the baked beans out, we could flatten
07:43the tin
07:44out and cut it to some sort of shape resembling a propeller. We managed to sell our Down the Darling
07:50film to the Nine Network and the film became so popular, it was repeated within two weeks and got
07:57huge audiences. There isn't any doubt that the success of Down the Darling prompted us to believe
08:04that we could make a living out of doing it. Adventurers who are actually going out and paying
08:09for their adventure by selling the film to a television station, it was just unique in those
08:14days. And they told me they used Super 8 film. They were doing it almost home movie style, which
08:20everyone loved. There was a charm to it and it meant they could make really good money out of it.
08:24Five young Australians set out on an expedition never made before. A journey across a waterless continent.
08:31But we had to come up with something better, something that no one had done before. And
08:37that's when we decided we'll go right across Australia from one side to the other. And
08:42when away we had to cross the Simpson desert. Ahead lies 300 miles of hard slogging over Simpson
08:47sandhills with no water holes at all. I think the most spectacular, most impressive thing we saw was
08:54Ayrs Rock in the rain. We were there, we arrived on one day and it was bright and sunny and
09:02then
09:02next day at port we had six inches of rain and this broke the eight year drought.
09:10One tourist in a hundred thousand has seen such water spilling from Ayrs Rock
09:15and no cine cameraman has ever filmed it until now. Nobody had ever filmed an event like this before.
09:22Those pictures became the most famous ones I ever took. We decided we would road show the film.
09:29We'd take it around the country and hire town halls, cinemas if we could and advertise it ourselves and see
09:37how we went. I want to start with everybody said I was mad, you know, I was throwing the money
09:40down the
09:41drain advertising it and putting it on and in Newcastle the theatre manager said you know two
09:45days we'll finish it. And at the end of two week season we'd recovered fifteen thousand dollars,
09:52enough money to buy three houses at the time. We've just come back from the Kimberleys
09:56shooting a new series put off the beaten track. And that's when we started calling ourselves the Leland
10:01Brothers. We had a bit of a rough time didn't we? Yeah we had a few breakdowns and land rovers
10:06rolling
10:07over and things like this. But we've come now to sort of accept these as part of the business really.
10:12That's what makes our films interesting I think. Mike and Mal as brothers had the most strong
10:19relationship that I've ever seen between two people ever. We then moved on to make a new television
10:25series called Ask the Leland Brothers. That was a program where viewers rode in and asked us to film
10:31anything anywhere in Australia and we travelled there to film it. And we're going out to Brad's Nest,
10:36Ireland. You can answer to this request.
10:44We travel with our wives now in two vehicles and we all work together as a team. Just Mike does
10:50all
10:50the camera work I do the sound. Another good item is a well-equipped picnic set. Both of the wives
10:55were
10:55attractive girls and both Mike and Mal were a bit sexist and so they used their wives as a draw
11:04card.
11:05Before we look at packing consider saving weight in the food department. Dehydrated food is good but
11:10only in areas where you can get lots of water. I got pushed in front of the camera you know.
11:15Talk to
11:16these people. What about? But I learnt to start asking questions and that. And these days portable gas can
11:23be acquired almost everywhere. It was just part of what the viewers started to like. But what I think was
11:29the
11:29secret to it was actually the fact that it was a family. An average family. We didn't do things
11:34that the ordinary bloke couldn't do.
11:36I need it. I need it.
11:40Of course you do have to inflate the air bed each evening but don't try blowing it up with your
11:44mouth.
11:45It's far better to save your lungs for breathing in the clean country air you've travelled so far to enjoy.
11:52When we went to sign up with Nine for the Ask the Ladle of the series they said to make
11:56sure that we
11:56didn't make it too slick because they want it to look like the boys next door. Sort of an amateur
12:02home movie look.
12:06The old saying about hard work not hurting anybody seems to be true. We discovered this when we were
12:11down here in Tasmania. The ratings were phenomenal. About 40 percent of the number of people that are
12:16watching tv on any one night watching our show. That amounts to about three and a half to four million
12:21people. If there's anything you want to know about this great continent of ours then ask the Leyland
12:29brothers. What do you reckon we are Mike? Buckety wine over. Two guys have disposed of their Kodak
12:37rappers properly all over Australia. I don't think Mike and Mal ever complained about the parodies and
12:43the put downs. They were always put down as these amateurs and so forth and it just gave them more
12:48and more publicity. Look at that the Leyland brothers putting a smile across Australia. That's the kind of
12:53guys you are. The biggest advantage was that they had a positive image a very positive image. No one
13:01ever said no. As soon as you mentioned Leyland brothers it was oh oh yeah because they were
13:11almost seen as family and and friends. In 1983 we decided to make a new direction for our career.
13:18Instead of just continuing with television we wanted to get into tourism.
13:24Mike and I had looked at the idea of building a big tourist park for quite a few years and
13:29then
13:29one day Mike confronted me with the idea that he thought that what we really needed was some really
13:34big thing to attract people. So instead of building our little timber building we eventually decided to
13:40build a replica of Ayers Rock. And we ended up having to borrow a lot of money to do it.
13:50The next thing you know the interest rates had gone up to 26 percent and what we'd borrowed had just
13:56doubled and then it started to get like a big snowball.
14:00And it was a nightmare. It started out as a dream and it turned into a nightmare.
14:08Just before we opened Leyland Brothers World we we had about 26,000 I suppose in cheques that hadn't
14:16been yet presented to the bank. And they fronted up and said that they weren't going to honour these
14:22checks unless we provided additional security. Well we didn't have any additional security. And then
14:28they said oh what about your houses? We said well no those are always going to be protected they're in
14:33the girls names. And I said it's my house. And they said well you can't open if you don't sign
14:40your house over.
14:42And I ended up doing the one thing I really regret. I talked her into it.
14:48So in the end after much persuasion I signed the house over and I said well that's my house gone.
14:55And it was. They took it.
14:59We opened. We were making a lot of profit. It was going like a rocket. But things were getting a
15:05bit
15:05tense with Mike as well. Mistrust had crept into our relationship and it had never been there before.
15:13And inside it's just like an outback town. Lorraine and I had done a trip to central
15:17Australia which was a private trip. And then later he accused me of putting all those expenses for
15:21that through the company. And I couldn't believe that he didn't trust me. Of all people, of all things,
15:26what we'd been through. And then he turned around and accused me of ripping him off.
15:33The partnership that Mike and I had for 29 years was crumbling before my eyes. And
15:39I knew it would never be the same as gear. Our relationship was damaged permanently after that.
15:46And it never really recovered.
15:51So the bank walked in, sent the receivers in, put new locks on,
15:56give us 20 minutes to get off the place. And it was the most devastating day I reckon I've ever
16:00gone
16:00through. We were absolutely broke to the point where I had to go bankrupt.
16:09That's the day my life collapsed. Everything we'd worked for, all our lives, everything was tied up
16:15in that one project. And on that day, the receivers walked in and took possession of the whole lot.
16:27I felt like shit, to be perfectly honest.
16:32In hindsight, Lone and Brothers World was a huge mistake. Biggest mistake we ever made.
16:40We walked away with $5,000. That's all we had.
16:45It was a lifetime's work and our personal estate was worth $6.5 million before we built the park.
16:51And I didn't really mind losing the money. I objected to being treated like a criminal because
16:58I lost the money. And that's what really hurt. The receivers though claim the Leylands are far
17:05from being down and out. They say that though totally legal, Mike and Mal transferred more than
17:12a million dollars of assets into their wives' names over an 18-month period. It was during that period
17:18that the media started chasing us. Who's come off worse, Leylands, that still live in their big
17:24houses or the people? The bank. The local people that have lost their jobs. It's a big joke it is.
17:30Our main house was in her name but the bank took that anyhow. Apart from that we had another
17:36terrace house in Newcastle which had a debt on it but that was sold.
17:41We all had this impression of people who go bad in an industry that they've got it all away somewhere
17:48in their wife's name and they haven't really lost anything. Well, they did.
17:54You know, it wasn't that they walked away and were still wealthy people.
17:59They had absolutely nothing, they'd lost it all. Mike and I had our differences prior to that
18:12and since there was now nothing left that we jointly owned there was no need for us to stay
18:17together in partnership. So for the first time we went our separate ways.
18:21This is Mike and Mal Levin. Two young Australians who've become legends in their own country.
18:28For a while we didn't communicate with each other at all. I said, look, forget the what ifs,
18:34that's all finished. Look ahead, that's the only way you can go. And then I realised that times were
18:40very difficult when Mike wrote a book and Mal told me he wasn't going to read it. And I realised
18:46then
18:46that there'd obviously been a complete split up, which was very, very sad.
18:50Yeah, well, Mike came out of it financially better than me in several ways. He went into
18:55a couple of different business ventures, all of which were very successful.
19:04Well, Lorraine and I ended up with very little money, but we had enough to buy a little bit of
19:07land.
19:08And we moved on to 25 acres of pretty rugged, poor quality bushland just out from Glen Innes.
19:14We had nothing. We had to start from the ground up. Lorraine and I were living in a couple of
19:20shipping containers.
19:22Look, I was shocked when I went up to see Mal and Lorraine. It was absolutely clear to me that
19:28they were in terribly desperate financial situation. And I'd gone from being very, very wealthy,
19:34being multi-millionaires in a period of about 15 years to being close to destitute.
19:40And then a week later, I went to the mailbox out in the road and there was a letter from
19:48Dick.
19:48I opened it up and inside was a cheque for $10,000. I thought it won the lotto. I couldn't
19:55believe it.
19:55And he just sat on it to help with your project.
20:04The place Mal had built at Glen Innes was absolutely indicative of his attitude to life.
20:10He just got out and went back to basics. And with whatever little money he had,
20:15they started to build the place literally with his own hands. He bought a mill.
20:20He cut the trees down on the property. He milled the timber. He built the building. He did it all.
20:27It's a big, big effort. And I'm not 100% fit, so I have to time myself and pace myself
20:36very slowly.
20:38Well, not long after the collapse of Leyland Brothers World, I discovered I had cancer
20:45in the bladder. I had a huge tumour, which required surgery to be removed.
20:53I've had some success with potatoes already. And that's encouraged us to think the soil here is
20:59probably pretty good for us. I think growing our own food and living off what we grew ourselves,
21:06getting rid of all the chemicals out of our lives, made a huge difference to my health. And I defied
21:12the odds.
21:20I wanted to get together with Mike and bury the hatchet a bit. I hadn't seen Mike for a few
21:29years,
21:29probably four years or so. One time we were home, I was out in the kitchen and I heard this,
21:35hello, hello. And I thought, what is that? And I heard a car pull up and there was, Margie got
21:44out of the car
21:45and started walking towards us. And then there was this old man behind him who I didn't recognise.
21:52And I got a shock when he got closer and I realised it was Mike. He was all stooped over.
21:58He looked
21:59ill and one side of his face was sort of drooping. And that's when we found out he had Parkinson's
22:06disease.
22:08And he knew he didn't have long to go. And he wanted to come and see me before he did.
22:14He wasn't aware of people much. You know, it was terrible to see him like that.
22:23Some time later, I got a call to say, we should come down and see him because he wouldn't have
22:27long to go.
22:30He was sitting in his chair and I said, how would you like to do one more trip?
22:34And this little glint came in his eye and one side of his face moved.
22:38And he mouthed the only two words he said while I was there. He said, one more.
22:45I tell you, that really, that really, really hit me. And I just turned around, I said,
22:53I've got to go. And I did this thumbs up thing like that, that we used to do to the
22:58camera together.
22:59You know, I just did that. And he tried to raise his arm to do it. And I knew it
23:06was the last time
23:06I'd see him. So I just said, I've got to go now, mate. I can't stay any longer. And it
23:12was the last time I saw him alive.
23:15And then I got a phone call a few months later saying he died.
23:22Mal just about collapsed.
23:26And unfortunately, it meant that I couldn't have the discussion with Mike that I wanted to have.
23:32I wanted Mike to know that I had never been that dishonest person he thought I was.
23:38I wanted him to understand that that wasn't what had happened. I wanted to bury the hatchet on that.
23:44I wanted that to be gone and dealt with. It was something I never got the chance to do.
23:54G'day, I'm Mal Leyland. My wife, Lorraine, our daughter, Carmen, have already completed one full
24:00circuit of Australia on a caravan and camping odyssey that most people only dream of.
24:04I often get asked the question of what's it like growing up with, you know, the Leyland brothers,
24:10or one of them as your father. A great feature of the Tokamool area is that they not only have
24:14beautiful strawberries, but you also get the chance to pick your own. For me, I grew up with a camera
24:20in my face. I grew up travelling and apparently I would run around as a two-year-old and go,
24:26shh, we're filming.
24:32It was 2018 when Mum passed away. Dad really, really struggled to move on with his life.
24:40He felt very lost. My mum was the centre of his life.
24:45He had many ideas of getting back and filming and doing what he loves, but one way or another,
24:52it just didn't come to fruition. Over here, we've got copies of Mel's books
24:59and a lot of his old bits and pieces that he used for all the filming.
25:03He definitely remembers the past. He has talked a lot about one particular trip,
25:09Wheels Across a Wilderness, which is when they went from Steak Point, the most westerly point of
25:14Australia, all the way across to Cape Byron. It seems incredible, but these five people
25:20have succeeded in crossing for the first time the Australian continent at its widest point.
25:25So it was only recently that my husband and I realised that the 60th anniversary of that
25:30Wheels Across a Wilderness journey is coming up soon, and we went, wow,
25:36what an opportunity to recreate that trip 60 years on.
25:41So we've got Where Dead Men Lie, which is your original book,
25:44and of course, you've got in here the map that you originally followed roughly.
25:50We're planning to follow the original route as closely as possible,
25:54going to all the places that they stopped at.
25:57Up through here, up to the border, and then you cross over, and you end up at Birdsville,
26:05a big town. We thought it was a big town because it had a pub.
26:11It still does.
26:12So we're hoping to go in the middle of the year, around the same time that Dad did the original
26:17trip
26:17back in 66.
26:18The trip like this is a real eye-opener to anyone who's never done it.
26:22You realise what a great country we live in.
26:24Yeah, definitely.
26:26So we have managed to get 10 vehicles that are prepared to come along with us,
26:31and they have paid to tag along.
26:35The money that we raise from that trip is going towards creating a photographic museum
26:41and gallery in Cairns.
26:43So this is the space that you were looking at.
26:46I think it'll be perfect for you what you are looking for.
26:49We're currently looking for possible venues.
26:52So it will have a museum element to it, where people can hear the story of both my dad and
27:00my mum.
27:01We're going to have a cafe in the back of it called Lara's Cafe,
27:04because my mum was a passionate cook and always wanted a little cafe.
27:08You could put the cafe along the back wall bay and the gallery would all fit out here.
27:14It was always my dad's dream to open up a gallery and showcase his work.
27:20Because he's actually a still photographer by trade,
27:22but everyone knows him as a documentary filmmaker.
27:25I would hate to think how many photos there are.
27:29I think it's great. I mean, it's got plenty of room.
27:34And it'd be very nice to see a lot of the old stuff on display
27:37and people coming in and appreciating it.
27:41Looks like ginger.
27:47We're really hoping that Dad will be well enough to come on the trip.
27:50We are involving him as much as we can in the planning.
27:55I mean, as far as his physical health is concerned,
27:57100% he's ready to go.
27:59It's just, we'll see where he's at with his dementia at the time,
28:03but hopefully he doesn't decline any further.
28:08Well, it's better in there than it does then.
28:13Although he won't necessarily remember the trip at the end,
28:16he will enjoy the trip in that moment.
28:18And that's what's important to us.
28:21I like this one here because it's got that little...
28:24It's sticking out of it.
28:26Maybe it'll be my last trip, I don't know,
28:29but I think one day there will be our last trip, I suppose,
28:34because one day I'm going to fall off my perch.
28:39I think I've had a pretty good run, I think my life has been full of ups and downs a
28:44bit,
28:45but I think I'd like to be remembered as a person who was a traveller, photographer,
28:53and lover of life.
28:57Yeah, one more trip would be pretty good.
29:11I remember the wonderful time I had with Lorraine, my wife.
29:14The best thing that ever happened to me was meeting her and marrying her and living with her.
29:19It was wonderful.
29:21I sometimes have dreams with her in it, and I feel like she's basically there,
29:26you know, and you wake up and you realise, of course, it's a dream.
29:28Meeting her was the highlight of my life.
29:32She was the highlight of my life, and in my memory she still is.
29:38The End
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