Ask the Leyland Brothers? Where did their Kombis end up?

Hi all,

For those old enough to remember Mike and Malfunction Leyland, I bought a DVD for $4 from Big W with 4 episodes of "Ask the Leyland Brothers" on it. Bargain!

Soon after watching it I could not beleive this used to air at family viewing times with the wet T shirt shots of the Leyland Brothers T Shirts.

Some good images of the Kombis travelling around Australia and even travelling in a Beetle??? I did not realise they ever travelled in a Beetle, the copy at the end of the episodes says the Kombi's were supplied by Volkswagen Australia.

Interesting to know what happened to them as they would have been hard to sell off as a demonstrators with 3 million miles on them on some of the toughest tracks in Australia.

So what do we know about them???

Cheers,

David

the answer to the age old question is "f^&*$d if i know Mal"😂

Hi david i got a copy from big w also,was funny watching the old episodes theres even a splitty in one seen,i got a laugh at the old school microphone they use complete with cable and i know what you mean about the wet t shirts 😎cheers shane.

Haha.... I saw those at Big W.... guess I better get myself a copy....😂

Seen it😂
I used to check those guys stuff out when i was a kid, they had a map of australia on their shed wall like on the side of the buses, with all the places that they had been.

I actually stayed in Laylend brothers world when i was a kid (after it shut down) it was great they had this old Leland Bus this think pretty much had 2 gears forward and back, and i remember all of the kids getting off the buss because it couldn't get up the hill.. ahhh hilarious memories.

I'll be buggered after all this time i find out they had volksies,all I ever saw was the Land Rovers and buses with broken axles,shattered diffs,bogged to the axles etc,but it wasn't a bad show considering the other crap we were expected to watch. No wonder drinking and chasing sheilas came a positive first to TV shows.You have now ruined all my illusions and now I'll have to buy the video to see what I missed. Cheers Les

and to think all their early stuff was filmed and edited on good ol' Super 8mm - then broadcast ! those were the days...!

😉

traveling all over the country side ask the leyland ask the leyland,traveling all over the country side ask the leyland brotherrrrrrrrrrrssss

the last of the kombi's was sold out of ipswich. privately i think, the story went that they tried to donate it to a good cause but had no takers. i saw the bus around town from time to time with that map on the side of it. one of the brothers (i dont remember which) opened up a little cafe/coffee shop in town but it didnt last very long. he was pleasent but his food wasn't .

One of the Landrovers is at the National Motor Museum in South Australia

I wonder if they are talking to each other again? I knw there was some sort of split there. I'm sure with a bit of trawling someone could track them down.

I'm not sure what happened to them after the Ayers Rock went down the gurgler,.They had a few of the old buses etc laying around for a while when the park opened.I think Mal ran it for a bit and then it was sold up

squizy wrote:I wonder if they are talking to each other again? I knw there was some sort of split there. I'm sure with a bit of trawling someone could track them down.

yeah, it happens

grumble wrote:I'm not sure what happened to them after the Ayers Rock went down the gurgler,.They had a few of the old buses etc laying around for a while when the park opened.I think Mal ran it for a bit and then it was sold up

Always had a laugh driving past that. It's the only "big thing" in Australia that is actually smaller than the thing it represents.


Regards,


Matt.

I also wrote to the Leyland Bros about 10 years ago (their managerial address can be found in the business 'Who's Who' in your local library), but also got no reply. I will try to grab as many of these DVDs as I can - it looks like there's about a dozen to collect.

VW Australia only sponsored the 'Ask The Leyland Brothers' TV show, not their original films or later shows such as 'Leyland Brothers in the Great Outdoors', when they used Land Rovers. When Ask The Leyland Bros finished, those Kombis would have been stuffed!

I also remember one of the original Leyland Bros 16mm fillms of one of their trips across northern Australia (in Land Rovers), when they went to Wolf Creek meteorite crater. They took a cut-down VW buggy and drove it down the crater walls into the middle, and out again. The crater was almost unknown at the time. Now it's a popular tourist destination and National Park, and driving a VW buggy into it would not be allowed!