Rise and fall of the Leyland Brothers | Australian Story (2015)

[Music] long before Steve Irwin and dad before the bush tucker man they were the Leland brothers and they were making these wonderful films about Australia travel all over the countryside get I own Mel Island from hostile alien brothers now this week's letter here is rather unusual it's from Australian story in fact it says for thirteen years now we've been asking you if I could tell my story on your program okay well tonight that's what we're gonna do [Music] we're very friendly I've got to cook cakes and pies and pasties and quiches all today waving a cafe at the RSL at Malini I'm excited about the new adventure and opening nights tonight non nervous I never imagined I'd ever be in this position I thought our future was all tied up financially secure because we've had so many millions of dollars invested didn't expect to lose it all in one here I think people probably they do ask the obvious question like why are you doing this they don't quite understand I think that if you've been on television all your life you've got a huge estate and plenty of money why would you want to go and sell cakes and biscuits [Music] their travel documentaries over the past 30 years made the Leyland brothers household names hundreds of hours of television tens of thousands of kilometers over the countryside since their debut on Australian television in 1963 the Leyland brothers have become cultural icons everyone knew right Fred travel all over the countryside house the Leyland brothers everyone knew that song it was incredibly popular millions and millions of Australian watch the show every night our first story comes from Western Australia lots of people ask us how we got all his brothers I mean we were together for 30 odd years and we obviously had our misunderstandings and differences of opinion but mostly when you're at the bush you can't really afford to do that they were true brothers they almost talked one after the other they loved what they were doing together and I could never imagine a time that they would remain as close siblings it was amazing to me when ten years later I heard they'd been a major falling out this is the first time that I've publicly spoken about what happened to the Leyland brothers and why mark and I went our separate ways we've made a conscious effort to make sure that people thought we were still traveling together we did the odd story together we didn't want people to feel as though that we were actually ready to rip each other's throats out but I look back on our life as his brothers has been pretty special we we had something unique [Music] a lot of people think of us as being a pair of Aussie blokes who just grew up in the suburbs of Australia but in fact we started out in England so we're the original 10-pound palm family well I think the reason Mike and I ended up as close as we were was because dad got into real estate and moved around from one suburb to the next as a result we changed schools so much we didn't really get enough time to make good friends so we became each other's best mate 19:56 was a very big year for me and for Australia because that was a year of the Olympic Games in Melbourne I entered a competition there was a drawing competition to go to the Olympic Games and dad said to me if you win that competition son I'll buy your movie camera and he did he bought me this camera because I won the trip to Olympic Games you very first feel me of a shot was at the Olympic Games and that's how we got into shooting films and we ended up filming little home movies of things that we did you know holiday trips and stuff we used to sit there and plan to be the Warner Brothers of Australia our first major goal on the trip was to reach lake eyre I went with Mike and Mao on their first couple of trips Mike wanted to get a film ready because television was starting to come to Australia Mike had always been very keen on becoming a professional cameraman and because they were English everything they saw was fascinating to them because they weren't used to it and they just absorbed it and they just wanted to know more and more about all things Australian [Music] these days some people might think it offensive that we climbed the rock but in 1961 not many people made the trip and everyone did it we had fallen in love with a desert and become completely charmed by Ayers Rock we've made a movie to an amateur movie the lure of the center Mike showed lure of the center to the news editor and landed the job of channel three's first news cameraman for a while Mike and I were rivals using this camera I started work as a cadet photographer with the afternoon daily paper here the Newcastle Sun but the rivalry didn't last long with only one year's professional experience we joined forces to make a first commercial film and all the books aren't read said the secret to selling a documentary was to actually do something for the first time so I picked up a map of Australia so what could we do that's not going to be too expensive in too far away and looked at New South Wales and there was this Rigby line going through and it was the darling River and no one had done it there was 1,400 miles we had no idea what we're getting ourselves in for and say we an experience where we never even had a pair of oars with us if we had an outboard motor only and it gave us trouble kept breaking the propellers then we thought well if we get some baked bean tins and took the baked beans out we could flatten the tin out and cut it to some some sort of shape resembling a propeller we managed to sell our down the darling film to the non-network that film became so popular it was repeated within two weeks and got huge audiences there isn't any doubt that the success of down the darling prompted us to believe that we could make a living out of doing it adventures are actually going out and paying for their adventure by selling the film to a television station it was just unique in those days one of the inspirations for me to get into documentary filmmaking I've always been an adventurer but was basically to follow in the footsteps of the Leland brothers I thought if they can do it and make money out of it sure I can 5 young Australians set out on an expedition never made before a journey across a waterless continent but we had to come up with something better something that no one had done before and that's when we decided we'll go right across Australia from one side to the other and when the way we had to cross the simpson desert ahead lies 300 miles of hard slogging over simpson sand hills with no water holes at all I think the most spectacular most impressive thing we saw was a rock in the Rhine we were there we arrived on one day and it was bright and sunny and then next day at 4:00 we had six inches of rain and this broke the idea drown [Music] one tourist in a hundred thousand has seen such water spilling from Ayers Rock and no city cameraman has ever filmed it until now nobody had ever filmed an event like this before those pictures became the most famous ones I have a talk [Music] we decided we would roadshow the film we'd take it around the country and higher town halls cinemas if we could and advertise it ourselves and see how we went with everybody said I was mad you know I was trying the money down the drain advertising it and putting it on in New Castle the theater manager said you know two days we'll finish [Music] and the end of two weeks season we had recovered $15,000 enough money to buy three houses at the time just come back from the Kimberley's shooting a new series pulled off the beaten track and we're away about six months did 16 thousand miles and that's when we started calling ourselves the Leland brothers we had a bit of a rough time you know if you break down and land drivers rolling over things like this but we've come here to sort of accept these as part of the business really that's what makes it interesting I think Mike and mal as brothers had the most strong relationship that I've ever seen between two people ever we then moved on to make a new television series called ask the Leland brothers that was a program where viewers wrote in and asked us to film anything anywhere in Australia and we traveled there to film it we're going out to rat's nest [Music] we travel with their wives now in two vehicles and we all work together the Tangis market a little counter work I do the sound another good item is a well-equipped picnic sit both Mike and mal were a bit sexist and so use their wives as a draw card before we look at packing consider saving weight in the food department dehydrated food is good but only in areas where you can get lots of water I got pushed in front of the camera you know talk to these people what about no but I learnt to start asking questions and that how they always purple out that I had to learn to cook on an open fire had to learn to sit on a piece of warden silver chair because there was no room for chairs or anything like that no tables it was just part of what the viewers started to like but what I think was the secret to it was actually the fact that it was a family an average family we didn't do things that the ordinary bloke wouldn't do when we went to sign up with 940 isolated the series they said to make sure that we didn't make it too slick because I wanted to look like the boys next door sort of an amateur home movie look it was if we were going our own family was going and taking the movie with our own little super 8 camera and I think that was the charm of it I think they're very astute if there's anything you want to know about this great continent of ours then ask the Leyland brothers what do you reckon we arm like burgundy wine oh man so let's have a big glad to be alive hand for two rugged adventurers the Starsky and Hutch of a dead center [Music] and I don't think Mike and mal ever complained about the parodies and the put-downs are always put down as these amateurs and so forth and it just gave them more and more publicity the biggest advantage was that they had a positive image of very positive image no one ever said no as soon as you mentioned Leyland Brothers it was all oh yeah because they were almost seen as family and friends the old saying about hard work not hurting anybody seems to be true we discovered this when we were down here in Tasmania the writing of a phenomena about 40% of the number of people that are watching TV on any one night watching our show so I'm a classic example of somebody who grew up with the Leland brothers so the kids who grew up watching the Leland brothers myself included and now buying their four drives in their caravans and their counters and they're going out and doing the adventures that Mel did I'd probably say that a lot of the grey nomad phenomenon it could almost all be traced back to Mel and Mike getting out there in their four drives and exploring Australia in 1983 we decided to make a new direction for our career instead of just continuing with television we wanted to get into tourism the range is broken by various gorgeous the most spectacular is Kings Canyon we felt that we were running out of the adventurous places to go I always took the view that we can't be popular on television but forever one day you'll wake up and no one will want you anything certainly a number of people have criticized that the production style wasn't that professional by modern and so there the Leyland Brothers works began to look a bit amateurish and I suppose ultimately in time they got out of fashion behind his thing was the part of Layla's mother's world this is taking a seven years to create mark and I'd looked at the idea of building a big tourist Park for quite a few years and then one day my confronted me with the idea that he thought that what we really needed was some really big thing to attract people so instead of building our little timber building we eventually decided to build a replica of Ayers Rock we ended up having to borrow a lot of money to do it [Music] the next thing you know the interest rates had gone up to 26% what we'd borrowed and just doubled then it started to get like a big snowball and it was nightmare it started out as a dream and it turned into a nightmare [Music] just before we opened land on brothers world we we had about twenty six thousand dollars in checks that hadn't been yet presented to the bank and they fronted up and said that they weren't gonna honor these checks unless we provided additional security what we didn't have any additional security and then I said what about your houses we said well no those are always going to be protected there in the girls names and I said it's my house and they said well you can't open if you don't sign it house over and I ended up doing the one thing I really regret I talked her into it so in the end after much persuasion I saw signed a house over and I said well that's my house call and it was they took it we opened we were making a lot of profit it was going like a rocket but things were getting a bit tense with Mike as well mistrust had crept into our relationship and it had never been there before Ryan and I had done a trip to Central Australia which was a private trip and then later he accused me of putting all those expenses for that through the company and I couldn't believe that he didn't trust me of all people of all things what we'd been through and then he turned around accused me of ripping him off the partnership that Mike and I had for twenty nine years was crumbling before my eyes and and I knew we'd never be the same again our relationship was damaged permanently after that and it never really recovered so the bank walk teams and receivers in put new locks on give us 20 minutes to get off the place and it was the most devastating day I recognized ever gone through we were absolutely broke to the point where I had to go to bankrupt that's the day my life collapsed everything would work for all their lives everything was tied up in that one project and on that day the receivers walked in and took possession of the whole lot I felt like [ __ ] to be perfectly honest I with in hindsight Lannon brothers world was a huge mistake biggest mistake we ever made we walked away with $5,000 that's all we had there's a lifetime's work and our personal estate was worth six and a half million before we built the park and I didn't really mind losing the money by objected to being treated like a criminal because I lost the money and that's what really hurt the receiver's though claimed the Leyland's are far from being down and out they say that though totally legal Mike and mal transferred more than a million dollars of assets into their wives names over an 18-month period but it was during that period that the media started chasing us for the people the local people that have lost their jobs it's a big joke ADIZ a mine house who was in her name but the bank took that in here apart from that we had another Terrace house in New Castle which had a debt on it but that was sold what gives them the right to not pay their bills I mean we've got bills we've got to pay them yeah they put these people on a claim to be creditors any one of which on you as far as I'm aware we paid our bills we all have this impression of people who go bad in an industry that they've got it all away somewhere in their wife's name and they haven't really lost anything well they did you know it wasn't wasn't that they walked away and was still still wealthy people it's absolute rubbish they had absolutely nothing I'd lost it all and today they basically had no money Mike and I had their differences prior to that and since there was now nothing left that we jointly iron there was no need for us to stay together in partnership so for the first time we went our separate ways for a while we didn't communicate with each other I said look forget the what-ifs that's all finished look ahead that's the only way you can go and then I realized that times were very difficult when Mike wrote a book and mal told me he wasn't going to read it and I realized then that they'd obviously been a complete split up which was very very sad yeah well Mike came out of it financially better than me in several ways he bought resold he went into a couple of different business ventures all of which were very successful well Lorraine and I ended up with very little money a little bit when we moved on to a 25 acres a pretty rugged poor quality Bush land just out from Glen Innes we had nothing we have to start from the ground up Lorraine and I were living in a couple of shipping containers look I was shocked when I went up to see Mel on the rain it was absolutely clear to me that they were in terribly desperate financial situation I'd gone from being very very wealthy being multimillionaires in a period of about 15 years to being close to destitute and then a week later I went to the mailbox out in the road and there was a letter from dick I opened it up and inside was a check for $10,000 I thought it won the lotto I couldn't believe her and he just said on it to help with your project [Applause] the placement of filtered cleanliness was absolutely indicative of his attitude to life he just got out then went back to basics and with whatever little money he had they started to build the place literally with his own hands he bought a mill he cut the trees down on the property he milled the timber he built the building he he did it all so big big ever and I'm not a hundred percent fit so I have to time myself and pace myself very slowly well not long after the collapse that Waylon Baba's were all the way discovered I had cancer in the bladder I had a huge tumor which required surgery to be removed had some success with potatoes already and that's encouraged us to think the soil here is probably pretty good for him I think growing our own food and living off what we grew ourselves getting rid of all the chemicals out of our lives made a huge difference to my health and I defied the odds can I am a Leyland my wife Lorraine our daughter Carmen and her husband Robert have already completed one full circuit of Australia on it once we got back into television doing what we do best we finally started get on their feet this led to us making a new TV series which we did for the Nine Network we follow a walking track which leads to Ben halls cave but at the same time Mike unbeknown to me had the same idea and he started running around filming of series which went on the Seven Network commercial networks being what they are they put them up against each other good place to stop and have a bit of a break when we go away shooting now Mike and I go together we're just a team the two of us it's very fulfilling and very satisfying we're doing exactly what one and I don't have to answer to anybody but myself I wanted to get together with Mike and bury the hatchet a bit I hadn't seen Martin for a few years probably four years as her one time we're home I was out in the kitchen and I heard this hello hello and I heard a car pull up mmm there was Maggie got out of the car and started walking towards us and there was this old man behind him ooh I didn't recognize and I got a shock when he got closer and I realized it was Mike he was also stooped over he looked ill and one side of his face was sort of dripping that's when we found out he had Parkinson's disease and he knew he didn't have long to go and he wanted to come and see me before he did he wasn't a way of people much well you know it's terrible seem like that sometime later I got a call to say we should come down and see him because he wouldn't have long to go he was sitting in his chair and I said how would you like to do one more trip and this little glint come in his eye on one side of his face moved and he mouthed the only two words he said while I was there he said what more well I tell you that really that really really hit me and I just turn around I said I've got to go and I did this thumbs up thing like that that we used to do to the camera together you know it's did that and he tried to raise his arm to do it you know I knew his last time I see him so I just said I've got to go in here mate I can't stay any longer and it was the last time I saw him alive and unfortunately it meant that I couldn't have the discussion with mark that I wanted to have I wanted Mike to know that I had never been that dishonest person he thought I was I want him to understand that that wasn't what had happened I wanted to bury the hatchet on that I wanted that to be gone dealt with it was something I never got the chance to do my client the cameraman wants to film the wet Mike's brother Mel and his wife Lorraine will record the sounds along this unusual journey to the wet the price in television history the Leland brothers historically the films are incredibly important especially because of the general the fact that they are not overly professional they are not the Magnificent Attenborough type BBC production just a paper yeah with the lake in the background they're all there I've now got what I hope will be my final best film which will be a film that shows a life of self-sufficiency against the odds the years I've always dreamed of living a self-sufficient life being able to grow our own food in our own bit of land I hope it's not my last film but I think this will probably be the most important when I make it away because I want people to be inspired by it I want people to realize that it's that you don't have to have a lot of money you just have to have a bit of determination to get through things mal has written a book and in reading that book to me its pathos it's so sad hopefully I mean it has a happy ending in the way that mal and Lorraine are still together and they're happy together however but what a roller coaster and I'm going to continue to live it to the fullest and I'll still have a camera Mahim and I fall off my perch you you

Channel: ABC News In-depth

Views: 214,577

Rating: 4.8989363 out of 5

Keywords: news, abc, abc news, australia, Australian Story, Australian TV, The Leyland Brothers, Mal Leyland, Mike Leyland, Travel all over the countryside, Ask the Leyland Brothers song, Leyland Brothers theme, Leyland Brothers world, Outback, Northern Territory, Australian roadtrip, Ayres Rock, Uluru, 1970s Australia, 4WD, Leyland Brothers

Id: VmT6Hc9aMRg

Length: 28min 2sec (1682 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 10 2020