Leyland brothers
Mike Leyland, MBE and Mal Leyland, MBE, jointly known as the Leyland brothers, were Australian explorers and documentary film-makers, best known for their popular television show, Ask the Leyland Brothers. The show ran on Australian television between 1976-1980 and 1983-1984.
Early life
When Mike was eight and Mal was five they migrated with their parents from England to Newcastle, New South Wales, and Mike attended Wallsend Public School.Aged 15 Mike won a trip to the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne from a cartoon-drawing competition, and his father bought him a 16mm movie camera to take along.
Media career
By the age of 21 Mike was a news cameraman at NBN Television and at age 18 Mal was working as a cadet at Newcastle's now-defunct newspaper The Sun.Their first regular TV series, Ask the Leyland Brothers, ran on Australian television from 1976 to 1980, and again from 1983 to 1984. The show often provided Australian viewers with their first look at outback Australia.
A following documentary series called Leyland Brothers' World appeared on Australian television. Rather than viewers writing in and asking the Leyland brothers to visit a particular place in Australia and provide information about it as in Ask the Leyland Brothers, it focused on exploration by the Leyland brothers in Australia and featured a double-decker bus.
The television show is not to be confused with the theme park of the same name.
Honours
In 1980 the brothers were awarded the MBE for services to the film industry.Leyland Brothers World and bankruptcy
In November 1990 the Leyland Brothers opened the Leyland Brothers World theme park at North Arm Cove on the New South Wales Mid North Coast. In a 1997 article in The Sunday Age, Mike Leyland said that the initial A$1 million loan blew out due to rain during construction and a 27% interest rate. In July 1992 Chris Palmer of BDO Nelson was appointed receiver and manager of the park when the Leyland Brothers company failed to meet its loan commitment to the Commonwealth Bank. The theme park was sold for $800,000, and continued to trade successfully as the Great Aussie Bushcamp. The brothers went bankrupt.Later careers
After the 1992 bankruptcy, Mike and his wife Margie ran a New Lambton video store and worked for the park's new owner. In 1997 Mike sold part of his Tea Gardens property to fund the production of a far-north Queensland film for Channel Seven. Mike and his wife Margie signed a contract with Channel Seven for 12 one-hour documentaries, the first of which aired in 1998 in The World Around Us slot. On 14 September 2009 Mike Leyland died from Parkinson's disease. He was 68 years old. Mike is survived by his wife Margie, his daughters Kerry, Sandy and Dawn, his stepdaughters Sarah and Alison, and seven grandchildren.Mal and his wife Laraine ran a photo processing lab in Queensland and launched a travel magazine. In 1997 Mal and Laraine launched a bi-monthly magazine, Leyland's Australia. In 2000 Mal produced the television show Leyland's Australia, with Laraine, daughter Carmen and her husband Robert Scott—traveling around Australia in a trailer. In April 2000 Channel Nine canceled the show after six episodes but the series was then picked up by Network Ten.
Mal and Laraine have written travel stories for ROAM magazine, a number of novels and cookbooks, and in 2015, Mal published his memoirs, entitled Still Travelling.
Laraine passed away on 22 November 2018 in Tasmania aged 75.
Documentaries
- 1963 – Down the Darling – A trip from Mungindi, Queensland, to Mildura, Victoria, following the 2,300-kilometre course of the Darling River, part of Australia's longest river system, in a small aluminium boat. An accompanying book was titled Great Ugly River was published by Lansdowne Press in 1965.
- 1966 – Wheels Across a Wilderness – Driving two Land Rovers from Steep Point, Western Australia, across the centre of the continent to Cape Byron, New South Wales. The trip was also published as a book, Where Dead Men Lie.
- 1969 – Open Boat to Adventure – A six-month journey from Darwin to Sydney in an 18-foot open boat, following the coast around Arnhem Land and Cape York. The book was titled Untamed Coast.
- 1972 – The Wet documents a journey to what is now called Kakadu National Park via Darwin. There were no sealed roads to the north-west part of the Northern Territory at the time. It also provides footage of a Darwin before Cyclone Tracy.
- Lure of the Red Centre
1. Introduction
2. Hayes Family
3. Uluru
4. Ochre Pits
5. Fly Over Kings Canyon
6. Arltunga Visitors Centre
- Border Country
- The Stormy Coast
1. Introduction
2. Maits Rest
3. The Grotto
4. Princess Margaret Rose Cave
5. Goolwa
6. Kangaroo Island
- Outback Coast
- Along and Beyond the Tanami Track
1. Introduction
2. Desert Park
3. Granites Gold Mine
4. Back On The Tanami
5. Bungle Bungle Range
6. Dawn Kununurra
- Tracks Of The Past
1. Introduction
2. Willochra Plain
3. Talc Sculptures
4. Marree
5. Coward Springs
6. 1961
7. Peak Hill Ruins
8. Fogarty's Claypan
9. Puncture Repair
10. Mac Clark Reserve
11. Chambers Pillar
12. Credits
- Travel Across The Cape
1. Introduction
2. Tuckers Lookout
3. Lava Tubes
4. Cobbold Gorge
5. Chillagoe
6. Dorunda
- Travel To The Lost City
1. Introduction
2. The Great Top Road
3. Lawn Hill
4. Track To Bowthorn Station
5. Track To Hells Gate
6. Cape Crawford
- Trek Around The Pilbara
1. Introduction
2. Dalgaranga
3. Three Pools
4. Chinamans Pool
5. Walking Trail
6. Kalamina Falls
- Kakadu and Beyond
1. Introduction
2. Jabiru Airport
3. Gunlom
4. Nourlangie 1967
5. Yellow Water
6. Twin Falls
7. Ubirr Lookout
8. Fishing
9. Bush Tucker
10. Caves
11. Port Essington
12. Credits
- Cape York Adventure
1. Introduction
2. Bloomfield Falls
3. Archer River
4. Frenchmans Track
5. Fruit Bat Falls
6. Dugout Canoe
Television series
- Off the Beaten Track, 1970–1972
- Trekabout, 1974–1975
- Ask the Leyland Brothers – Nine Network, 1976–1980 and 1983–1984. All 156 episodes were shot in the Super 8 mm film format.
- The Leyland Brother's Great Outdoors – Seven Network, 1980–1984
- Leyland Brothers' World
- Leyland's Australia – Network Ten. In 2000 Mal and his wife Laraine documented their travels throughout Australia.