MAL LEYLAND ‘I WANT ONE LAST ADVENTURE!'

Along with his brother he inspired a generation to discover Oz, now the icon is hitting the road again

- Phillip Koch

Talk to anyone over the age of 40 and chances are they can still recite the catchy theme song to Ask The Leyland Brothers after a childhood spent watching the two brothers travel all over the country on their pioneering TV show.

With their bushy sideburns and daggy flares, Mike and Mal Leyland became unexpected and mild-mannered superheroes to generations of Aussie kids thirsting for adventure. They took their wives and kids along for the ride, travelling in a battered four-wheel-drive Jeep and bright orange Kombi van, to destinations suggested by their millions of fans.

In the process, the English-born siblings, who moved to Newcastle in the NSW Hunter Valley when they were young, carved a name for themselves as latter-day explorers.

Fast forward almost 50 years, and Mal, 77, is the only surviving Leyland brother after Mike died in 2009 from Parkinson’s disease. Sadly, Mal’s wife Laraine, 73, a fan favourite, died of a heart attack in 2018 on the eve of their 50th wedding anniversary.

FINAL PROMISE

“The very night she died she said, ‘I want you to make me a promise that you are going to write your novels,’” he says, choking back tears as he recalls how Laraine seemed to know her time had come the night before she suffered her heart attack.