max*d Issue 17

ISUZU UTE AUSTRALIA | Issue 17

KOALA SQUAD Meet the brothers rescuing our most endangered icons

DEEP COVER

Australia’s best family-friendly caves

HIGH&

MIGHTY Tackling Australia’s steepest climb: the Billy Goat Bluff Track

HELLO SATISFIED

CUSTOMERS

ISUZU UTE AUSTRALIA FINISHED BEHIND ONLY ONE OTHER AUTO BRAND AND LEVEL WITH ANOTHER IN THE 2015 ROY MORGAN CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AWARDS AFTER WINNING TWO MONTHLY AWARDS OUTRIGHT (AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER 2015)*. WITH ANOTHER MONTHLY AWARD EARNED IN JANUARY 2016, ISUZU DRIVERS CAN GO THEIR OWN WAY WITH CONFIDENCE.

ISUZUUTE.COM.AU *Results reported by Roy Morgan Research. For more information visit www.customersatisfactionawards.com. 5-star ANCAP safety rating on 4x4 D-MAX Crew Cab models built from November 2013 onwards, 4x2 D-MAX Crew Cab High-Ride models built from November 2014 onwards and all MU-X models. ^5 years/130,000km whichever occurs first, for eligible customers. Excludes trays and accessories. >The Capped Price Servicing Program (“CPS Program”) applies to Eligible Vehicles with a Warranty Start Date after 1 January 2015 at Participating Isuzu UTE Dealers only. The CPS Program covers the first 6 Scheduled Services in line with the Scheduled Service Intervals. CPS Prices are subject to change. For full terms & conditions and current pricing visit isuzuute.com.au/service-plus.

Contents ISSUE 17

18 COVER STORY Just out of Dargo, Victoria, is the Billy Goat Bluff Track —Australia’s steepest gazetted road. Well, it’s kind of a road

REGULARS 04 READERS’ RIDES You’ve gone your own way—now share your D-MAX and MU-X stories

06 NEWS Half a million dollars for community sports, and a digital max*d on its way

10 WISHLIST Stay toasty warm in the coldest of months, no matter where you roam

12 TECH HEAD

18

FEATURES

Expert advice on towing even the heaviest loads up the most rugged tracks

16 INSIDE LINE

24 OUT OF THE BOX

It’s a big world—and D-MAX has it covered. Meet some foreign cousins

From The Matrix to Pirates of the Caribbean, Australia has hosted a stack of Hollywood films. And you can still visit the sets—for free

Go underground when you visit Australia’s best family-friendly caves

34 THE LIST

28 PASSPORT

38 HOOK, LINE ’N’ SINKER

Nevada’s Burning Man is one of the world’s most interesting, remote and strangest festivals. Come for the ride—with just a dash of pickle juice

Andrew and Nick chase mulloway in the sublime, secluded Fowlers Bay, SA

Ray and Murray Chambers of Sunshine Coast Koala Rescue have made it their mission to save one of Australia’s most iconic animals

Image courtesy of Village Roadshow

32 UNSUNG HEROES

40 REFUEL

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Masterchef alumnus Ben Milbourne rocks Moroccan lamb and mushrooms

43 FLASHBACK Recalling 1987’s surprising and punchy three-door coupé: the Isuzu Impulse

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max*d 1

Welcome

to our latest issue of max*d magazine!

H

ello and welcome to our latest edition of max*d!

Well, we are just about halfway through this year already, and to date Isuzu UTE Australia has continued to enjoy a healthy sales success in 2016. If you are a new owner, welcome to our ‘Isuzu UTE family’ as I like to say, and for those of you who have been with us for a while, thank you for your continued support. I am always appreciative of our customers, as it is you that help us continue to make our brand bigger and better.

With our continued growth, we are increasingly focusing on our customer satisfaction, through providing superior quality vehicles and an exceptional customer experience from the moment of purchase at our dealerships, through to the aftersales care and service you receive during your ownership.

I sincerely hope your experience with our vehicles is a good one and providing you, your family or your business with all the benefits that can be appreciated thanks to its reliability and durability. As you know we have been working hard on providing you with the support you deserve, having invested in our brand, with initiatives like our 5-year warranty, a new Capped Price Service program and our I-Venture Club driver training days and weekend 4WD trips.

As a reflection of the above, it is also very pleasing for me to mention our second placing (tied with Subaru) in the 2015 Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction awards. To be vying for first place with an established brand like Lexus is a credit to our vehicles, our staff and our service, but most importantly our customers—so again, thank you for your support.

I hope you enjoy this edition of max*d!

Yasu Takeuchi Managing Director & CEO Isuzu UTE Australia

“We have been working hard on providing you with the support you deserve, having invested in our brand.”

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ON THE GO!

READERS’ RIDES

Now you’ve got the wheels, tell us where you’ve been—or where you’re off to next!

THE ZEIDAN FAMILY

Lives: Westmead, NSW Drives: 2015 D-MAX 4x4 LS-U “Santa came a little early last year and was nice enough to deliver Dad’s D-MAX just under the Christmas tree—or actually in the driveway,” says Olivia Zeidan, 14, of her father Joe’s new vehicle. “As we rushed outside to see it, the first thing Dad said was ‘isn’t it a beauty!’ He had bought himself a D-MAX space cab for work and play. We all think it’s awesome; the space cab means we don’t have to walk home from school anymore, and you’ve gotta love the D-MAX for that! We can’t wait until we get a chance to experience Outback Australia in it. Not only is Dad going his own way, he’s taking the long way!”

COLIN & MARGRET FREE

Live: Wyreema, QLD Drive: 2015 D-MAX 4x4 LS-U and 2015 D-MAX 4x2 LS-U

“Last May my hubby Colin needed to upgrade his work vehicle and did a lot of homework before buying. The new vehicle would be towing heavy machinery every day and occasionally a caravan— and Isuzu came up trumps by a mile. Within 10 months Colin had racked up 14,500km and the vehicle was faultless. In January, impressed with Colin’s D-MAX, our best friend from Brisbane, Ricky Young, ordered his own Isuzu D-MAX—a 4x4 Dual Cab. Needless to say when we needed to upgrade another vehicle last month we chose another D-MAX. This winter, Ricky, his wife Lynette and their new ute, will be joining Colin and me in towing our vans out to Birdsville to the Big Red Bash. As our names suggest, we’ll be ‘Young and Free’ in our Isuzu D-MAX utes!”

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RODNEY GOOCH Lives: Rosebud, VIC, Drives: 2014 D-MAX 4x2 LS-U “We travel to compete in flyball, a dog sport involving up to six dogs in a team. Dogs run in relay over jumps and boxes, fetch a ball and return to their owner. I’ve been involved in it for 20 years. We were in a serious accident two years ago in our previous car.

We were sitting behind a B-double at 20km/h on the Hume and a young woman hit us from behind at 110km/h. We had to borrow a friend’s 2009 D-MAX to drive our gear home from Queanbeyan­—and we loved it! So we bought one. It’s a bit over a year old and we’ve done 71,000km in it. What do I like about it? The price, quality, economy and reliability. We’re looking at an MU-X next!”

STUART CORBETT

Lives: Nowra, NSW Drives: 2013 MU-X 4x4 LS-U

“My MU-X has been good, particularly with the kids in tow. We mainly go camping. I tow a Jayco Eagle Outback with it, and we like to get out as much as we can—mostly to local areas like down on the Shoalhaven River, or Yadboro, out the back of Ulladulla. It’s good to get the kids out, let them run around, have a swim, go kayaking. It’s great to get into the freshwater creek—the kids have a pretty good life! We’ve done one big trip of about 5500km up through Emerald and out the back of Lightning Ridge over about three weeks, and then back down the coast. I’ve taken it out on some off-roading tracks and managed to put a couple of dings in it as well, unfortunately.”

DAVID ‘BRUCE’ WILSON

Lives: Gloucester, NSW Drives: 2012 D-MAX 4x4 LS-M

“The family has 50 Australian stock horses and 20 motorbikes between us, but there’s something else breeding fast: Isuzu Utes! My dad, Bill, who is 83, uses his 2012 D-MAX to check on his cattle and horses every day. My 2012 D-MAX tows the horse float better than anything I’ve had before—it gets the power to the ground perfectly. Adam, my son, drives his D-MAX to work in the mines in the Hunter. Because he doesn’t have a tractor, it also does all the heavy lifting on his Glendon Brook and Gloucester properties. And Billy, my nephew, has a 2015 SX Space Cab. He does 150km a day to work as a motorcycle mechanic in Taree. Three generations of Wilson, all in a D-MAX!”

WANT TO SCORE A $50 CALTEX FUEL CARD? Send a high-resolution image with your name, town, state and model of your D-MAX or MU-X, plus a 100-word blurb, to maxd@iua.net.au. Disclaimer: Non-genuine aftermarket accessories and modifications are not recommended or endorsed by Isuzu UTE Australia. For detailed information on ‘what is’ and ‘what is not’ covered by the Manufacturer’s Warranty please refer to the Warranty and Service Booklet.

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PUBLISHER Isuzu UTE Australia Pty Ltd ISUZU UTE AUSTRALIA MANAGING EDITORS Dave Harding, Cody Harland EDITOR Ben Smithurst ben.smithurst@edge.agency MANAGING EDITOR Paul Rodger SUB-EDITOR Michael Ryan ART DIRECTOR Guy Pendlebury ACCOUNT MANAGER Emma Rogers ADVERTISING SALES Chris Waite chris.waite@edge.agency MANAGING PARTNERS Fergus Stoddart, Richard Parker

max*d is published on behalf of Isuzu UTE Australia Pty Ltd by

Level 4, 10–14 Waterloo Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 Phone: +61 2 8962 2600 edgecustom.com.au

Disclaimer: The information included in this magazine is intended for interest only. The opinions and views expressed in this magazine are provided in the writers’ personal capacities and are their sole responsibility. Their publication does not imply that they represent the views or opinions of Isuzu UTE Australia or Edge and must neither be regarded as constituting advice on any matter nor be interpreted as such. The reproduction of advertisements in this publication does not in any way imply endorsement by Isuzu UTE Australia or Edge of products or services referred to therein. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. A selection of the images featured in this publication has been sourced from Getty Images and Thinkstock Images. Business Essentials trading as Edge ABN 22 062 493 869.

Isuzu UTE kicks $500,000 into community sports In an effort to foster grassroots sports development in our communities, Isuzu UTE Australia (IUA), in association with its extensive dealer network, initiated the implementation of a Local Sports Sponsorship Fund in 2015. The fund will inject over $500,000 into local community sporting teams and clubs, and IUA is pleased to announce that the funding will continue in 2016.

The program is designed to provide financial support to sporting teams and clubs for expenses such as facility upgrades, equipment procurement and uniform purchases—with partnerships formed directly between the clubs and our local dealerships.

To date, beneficiaries of the fund have included a variety of junior football codes, cricket, netball and basketball clubs, and even gymnastics and surf lifesaving clubs.

TV partners back on the box in 2016 If you’re looking for inspiration on where to find some adventure with your D-MAX or MU-X, then make sure you tune in to our esteemed TV partners. If you’re into wetting a line then the boys at Hook, Line and Sinker will provide you with entertaining insights into how and where to catch everything from a yabby at your local park to a fat Northern Territory barra.

Staying dry—most of the time—Spida and Sheree Everitt will take you to some of Australia’s most interesting destinations with their travel program, The Great Australian Doorstep. Behind the wheels of both a D-MAX and MU-X, the pair seek out the people and places that make our country unique.

And if you like your travel a little more hardcore, then you’ll love what the team at The Offroad Adventure Show serve up each

week. Join Rick, Jamie, Starlo, Caroline, Adrian and this issue’s max*d chef, Ben—see his work on page 40—as they search for that next great track, that next prize fish, or even that elusive perfect campsite. Full of great tips and tricks, the show will ensure your next offroad jaunt is a fantastic one.

max*d magazine is proudly printed in Australia using renewable resources.

Hanno Gloss is an FSC Mixed Sources Certified paper, which ensures that all virgin pulp is derived from well-managed forests and controlled sources. It contains elemental chlorine-free bleached pulp and is manufactured by an ISO 14001 certified mill.

Above: The Hook, Line and Sinker boys. Inset: Spida and Sheree SGS-COC-003898

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NEWS

Customer satisfaction awards recognise Isuzu UTE Australia Isuzu UTE Australia has had its excellent product reliability and after-sales service claims validated in the recent Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction Awards. Isuzu Ute Australia placed joint second, alongside Subaru, after the winner, Lexus, in its 2015 Car Manufacturer of the Year results.

Roy Morgan Research is Australia’s largest independent research company and one of the most respected in the world. It has been measuring customer satisfaction for several years and generates its data via extensive and ongoing surveys with over 50,000 consumers. This data is then used to determine the monthly and annual Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction Award winners.

The overall winner for the calendar year is the organisation that achieves the most months with a number one ranking in consumer sentiment.

Isuzu UTE Australia also started off the 2016 Customer Satisfaction Awards in strong fashion, posting its first win for the year in the January survey.

MU-X wins renowned OzRoamer award three years running!

Despite increasing competition, the Isuzu MU-X LS-T is now a three-time winner of OzRoamer Magazine’s Seven-Seat 4WD Under $60,000 award. It won in 2013—its very first time out— again in 2014 and now with the latest 2015 award.

“What the Isuzu does is make you really question why you would pay upwards of $80,000 on some of the other ‘family 4WD wagons’—it’s that good,” said the editor, Rob Fraser.

“I think it is interesting that you can get an Isuzu MU-X and a decent camper-trailer for less than a new top-spec Prado and be out there enjoying the Australian bush and not missing a thing. The Isuzu MU-X LST is a worthy winner of the Seven-Seat 4WD Under $60,000 category for 2015.”

STAY CONNECTED! Don’t forget you can keep up to date with all that’s happening at IUA via our Facebook and Instagram pages. There’s always a stack of great content and imagery, and it’s also a great place to share your latest adventures while you’re ‘going your own way’! www.facebook.com/isuzuute www.instagram.com/isuzuute_aus (@isuzu_ute)

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PEACE OF MIND WITH SERVICE PLUS

OUR COMMITMENT TO YOU & YOUR ISUZU Keep both your wallet and your vehicle happy with Isuzu UTE Service Plus. Service Plus is our comprehensive care package providing you with complete peace of mind and no unexpected surprises when maintaining and servicing your D-MAX or MU-X. Providing 5 year/130,000km Warranty^, 5 year Roadside Assist and 3 year Capped Price Servicing>. No matter where you are or what you’re doing, we’ve got you covered.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ISUZU UTE SERVICE PLUS AT ISUZUUTE.COM.AU/SERVICE-PLUS ^5 years/130,000km whichever occurs first, for eligible customers. Excludes trays and accessories. >The Capped Price Servicing Program (“CPS Program”) applies to Eligible Vehicles with a Warranty Start Date after 1 January 2015 at Participating Isuzu UTE Dealers only. The CPS Program covers the first 6 Scheduled Services in line with the Scheduled Service Intervals. CPS Prices are subject to change. For full terms & conditions and current pricing visit isuzuute.com.au/service-plus.

NEWS TEAM D-MAX—2016 TOUR DATES National 4x4 Show, Melbourne Victoria Aug 19–21 Royal Adelaide Show South Australia Sep 2–11 Wagga Show New South Wales Sep 2–3 Royal Melbourne Show Victoria Sep 17–27 Henty Field Days New South Wales Sep 20–22 Royal Geelong Show Victoria Oct 13–16 New South Wales Oct 14–16 Sydney 4WD & Adventure Show Royal Hobart Show Tasmania Oct 19–22 Adelaide 4WD & Adventure Show South Australia Oct 21–23 Western Australia Nov 11–13 Perth 4WD & Adventure Show

See Australia’s longest-running and most famous precision driving team!

www.teamdmax.com.au

IMPORTANT NOTICE! The digital version of max*d magazine is coming!

Our next edition of max*d magazine (arriving later this year) will also be available in digital format so you can enjoy it wherever you go!

However, if you would still like to receive your hard copy of max*d magazine in the post as you do now, you will need to subscribe at the website below.

So to ensure you receive your next edition of max*d in the format that suits you, and to make sure we have your most up-to-date contact details, please visit

www.isuzuute.com.au/subscribe Thanks and regards, The Isuzu UTE Team

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WISHLIST

by Michael Benn

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4

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Bring the heat 1

WACACO

Minipresso GR

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Designed to be the easiest, most versatile handheld espresso machine on the market, the Minipresso GR is handoperated, with a semiautomatic piston that you squeeze to control the amount of coffee extracted.

Just 175mm long, it weighs a satisfying 360g. You add hot water and coffee and pump it seven or so times to begin infusion. It’s as close as you’ll get to being able to jam a barista in your back pocket—and a lot easier on your trousers.

RRP $76, wacaco.com

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OUTDOOR RESEARCH

StormTracker gloves

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Buying cheap ski gloves for chilly days seems like a simple concept—but it’s a worse idea than a Twilight marathon. It’s a big enough mistake if you’re actually skiing, but it’s terrible if you work outside, where for all intents and purposes, in terms of dexterity, you might as well wrap your mitts in doonas.

StormTracker’s gloves make for nimble fingers and are streamlined for tactility.

They also retain heat despite being remarkably low profile.

RRP $130, bogong.com.au

Just because it’s cold outside doesn’t mean you can’t stay toasty warm

KLYMIT

Static V Inflatable Ultralight Mattress

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The thing you miss most about your bedroom when you’re sleeping outside isn’t the roof over your head. It’s more likely to be the floor, or at least what’s between your back and the cold, cold earth.

Klymit’s ultralight pad inflates in just 10–15 breaths, using an ‘ergonomic body map’ to limit air movement and heat loss, insulating you from the ground. It’s 183cm long, 59cm wide and 6.5cm thick when inflated. Useful.

RRP $89.50, wildearth.com.au

RAB

Xenon X Hoodie Rab’s lightweight (370g) hoodie topped the Outdoor Gear Lab’s ‘insulated jacket road test’—the Northern Hemisphere’s industry yardstick—with an overall score of 79 out of 100 in late 2015. It’s incredibly warm for its weight and has powerful wind- and water-resistance, but can still be jammed into a stray pocket when on the run. It also stuffs into itself, with four zip-up pockets. It’s what you’ll want to wear next time you stop for a nap on Kosciuszko. In July.

RRP $289.95, bogong.com.au

ALL BLACKWOLF PRODUCTS NOW COME WITH A LIFETIME WARRANTY* MADE TO ESCAPE. VISIT WWW.BLACKWOLF.COM.AU OR CALL 1800 227 070 FACEBOOK.COM/BLACKWOLFGEAR

*YES IT REALLY IS A LIFETIME WARRANTY. REGISTER ONLINE. RETAIN YOUR PROOF OF PURCHASE. FOR MORE DETAILS SEE BLACKWOLF.COM.AU/WARRANTY

TECH HEAD

by Brendan Seymour

like a pro!

Whether it’s a trailer, a boat, dirtbikes or anything in between, 4WD Action’s Brendan Seymour gives you eight tips to tow ’em like only the pros know 4WDs are built to tow. The fact that most 4WDs weigh at least a tonne more than your average sedan or station wagon is a genuine benefit—the heavier the tow vehicle is, compared to the trailer, the more it’ll control the towing process, rather than the other way around.

Add the ability to select 4WD and even low-range when the going gets really tough, and throw a torquey

1

turbo-diesel engine into the mix and you’ve got a towing match made in heaven.

The 4WD Action D-MAXs—both Graham’s grey one he drives across the country on DVDs, and our silver workhorse that we’ve had in the shed for a couple of years now—are deadset towing weapons.

Why? Because they’re powerful, ridiculously economical and half

the time you barely know there’s anything strapped behind ’em. I’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve turned up at a campsite or a lookout with a trailer attached and someone says, “How the bloody hell did you tow that thing here?”

Here are eight tips and techniques that are guaranteed to help you tow in tough terrain like a pro!

Trailer tyre pressures

Trailer tyre pressures are as important to off-road performance as that of the tow vehicle. So what pressures do you run? When you’ve got a free Sunday arvo next, load up your trailer with whatever you’d typically take off-road. Drop one of your 4WD’s tyre pressures to dirt road driving levels—on the D-MAX we run 28psi on dirt roads, 20psi on low-range tracks and 16psi on the sand. Then, measure the tyre’s footprint for each of these pressure levels using two sticks, as shown.

Now, adjust your trailer tyre pressures until the footprint matches each of those measurements, and you’ve now figured out the right pressures to run. Of course, you’ve got to apply a little common sense here. If your tow vehicle tyres are significantly larger than your trailer’s this may not work. Instead, start with the same pressures as your tow vehicle and apply the 4psi rule to fine-tune it.

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Tow vehicle tyre pressures

In tough terrain, our D-MAXs have a massive trick up their sleeve­—an intelligent fivespeed Rev-Tronic automatic transmission with sequential sport mode. We’ll typically select firstgear low and just let the torquey engine do the work, but to keep traction levels high and wheel spin low, we found the trick is to drop 4psi out of the tow vehicle’s tyres when a trailer is attached.

It’s not needed for high-range dirt, but makes a massive difference on sand and low-range tracks.

4

Understanding pivot points

Understanding your trailer’s pivot point is absolutely vital.

It’s not rocket science either—it’s the trailer’s axle, or the leading axle relative to whatever direction you’re going, if it has two. Not sure when to spin the wheel to get the trailer to turn the right direction? Line up the pivot point with a tree or a rock at the apex of the turn, and use your steering to guide it around that point. Practice makes perfect here—do it a few times and we guarantee it will become second nature.

3

Use your mirrors

After a strong drivetrain, the next best thing your 4WD can have to increase its towing ability is a good set of mirrors. Side mirrors aren’t all created equal, and when you hook up a trailer it’s obvious which ones were designed for shopping centre carparks and which were built to get the job done. We’ve been a bit spoilt here—the D-MAXs have excellent side mirrors that give a massive wide-angle view of the trailer and the terrain. If you’re not scanning your mirrors every 10 seconds at the most to ensure your trailer’s where you want it to be, you’re just asking for trouble.

5

Use your spotter

Regardless of your experience, reversing is a tricky process. It helps massively if you’ve got excellent rear and side vision like we’ve found with the D-MAXs, but at the end of the day the key to success is to get someone to be a second set of eyes standing outside the vehicle. Always keep them in your sight—stop the second you can’t see them—and get them to use hand signals to show how much distance there is to that tree, bollard or rock. “Yeah, a bit more mate!” just ain’t accurate enough.

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Go your own way – anywhere!

Slowly does it

It’s natural to want to crawl your 4WD slowly over an obstacle, but it’s easy to forget you’ve got the trailer on the back and speed up before you’re completely clear.

The number-one thing we see 4WDers doing wrong is taking an obstacle too fast. Keep the speed right down—the D-MAX is extremely happy to just idle along in first-gear low. If power is needed, that particular gear ratio means the turbo is always spooled up and ready to produce stumppulling torque at a touch of the throttle. And don’t forget to track-build to keep your trailer out of deep ruts!

Want to brush up on your own off-road skills? Become an expert at one of Isuzu UTE Australia’s I-VENTURE club upcoming handson tutorials. Learn more at

iventureclub.com.au

Where: RIVER ISLAND, NSW When: 23 JULY 2016

Where: MORETON ISLAND, QLD When: 13 AUGUST 2016

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High-range dirt touring

At touring speeds, trailer control is all about correct throttle, brake and steering input. The simplest rule is: no fast movements. You need to give both your vehicle and trailer time to adjust to input changes, before you start the next one. For a touring-speed dirt corner, brake early, and have all of your braking done before the corner. The D-MAX’s safety features shine here—Electronic Brake-Force Distribution sends braking power to the wheels that need it, and ABS stops the tyres from locking up even under heavy braking. Before you enter the corner lift off the brakes and let the ute settle, then use the throttle to maintain a constant speed until you’re through.

Wait for the trailer to complete the turn and settle down before you accelerate away.

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Where: RIVER ISLAND, NSW When: 22 OCTOBER 2016

Manual application of electric trailer brakes

Electric trailer brakes are an absolute cracker when it comes to towing down steep hills. Every now and then, the weight of the trailer can cause it to step out of line, with the worst-case scenario being the trailer wants to overtake the tow vehicle. The solution?

Manually­—and gently—apply the trailer brakes to slow the trailer and bring it back in line. This works very well if you get onto it early—but be careful not to lock up the trailer tyres, which will only make the situation worse.

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Where: MELBOURNE 4X4 TRAINING & PROVING GROUND, VIC When: 3 SEPTEMBER 2016

Where: ADVENTURE 4WD PROVING GROUND, SA When: 12 NOVEMBER 2016

Where: MORETON ISLAND, QLD When: 3 DECEMBER 2016

Who can take you to incredible places? - New Age Caravans Escape and enjoy your own personal travelling 5 star accommodation.

Experience endless adventure possibilities with New Age Caravans. Whether you are embarking on an easy, relaxing getaway or taking a road trip around Australia, New Age Caravans can get you on the road in no time.

Our caravans cater to your needs and offer you the flexibility and comfort you will need no matter where your journey takes you.

Find your nearest dealer: www.NewAgeCaravans.com.au Or Call Now (03) 9305 - 1714

INSIDE LINE

by Dave Harding

X A M D

!

E C N E R E F F DI

ld he wor t d n u ro e, but a n i h level … c a w e m n e l e ti ol o a wh a versa t s y a t i w l i t X a r D-MA at vers u h t o g w n e i ak ays kn anies t p m We alw o c e re som there a

A H T I W

Hilltip SnowStriker, Finland The streets of Jakobstad, on the west coast of Finland, average 145 days of snow cover per year. This makes it a balmy shorts-and-t-shirt sort of place by Scandinavian standards, but that blanketing is more than enough to cause traffic chaos—and inspire local industry.

Jakobstad’s main claim to fame, then (along with Nanoq, Finland’s Arctic museum!), is the locally made Hilltip

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SnowStriker. With two blades, each electro-hydraulically adjustable from inside the cabin via a remote control, the lightweight, high-strength steel plow will turn your D-MAX into the king of road clearers. Three variants are offered, weighing from 142–155kg, each with its own headlights and LED positioning lights.

Actually, we think this could come in handy sorting out peak-hour gridlock in Sydney or Melbourne!

The BRV, United Kingdom British company Pickup Systems also recognised the strengths of the D-MAX when developing their 4x4 crew-cab-based Brigade Response Vehicle (BRV).

Developed to complement the vehicles already operated by Fire and Rescue services across the UK, the BRV performs as a first-response vehicle that is especially useful for rural environments— predominantly thanks to its four-wheel-drive system and generous ground clearance.

The BRV’s fire-tackling equipment includes a Hale HPX75 B18 single-stage pump with bespoke rearmounted control panel, a 55m long hose—complete with electric wind-back reel—and a water tank capable of holding up to 310 litres. Fully integrated foam tanks, and side and rear lockers for the storage of tools and emergency equipment, make the converted D-MAX a complete fire and rescue vehicle.

Arctic Trucks AT35 D-MAX, Iceland Iceland’s Arctic Trucks has conquered the world’s harshest environments.

They’ve clocked up 250,000 kilometres on the Antarctica plateau, reached the South Pole over 50 times and provided the vehicles for Top Gear’s adventure to the North Pole, on the BBC. Now they’ve put their spin on our trusty D-MAX in both Norway and the UK. The new Isuzu D-MAX Arctic Trucks AT35 has been treated to an upgraded suspension with Fox Performance Series shocks and 35-inch Nokian Rotiiva All-Terrain tyres fitted to 17 x 10-inch wheels. These enhancements jack the ride height by 125mm and improve the approach, departure and break-over angles. Boisterous fender flares add to the muscular stance of what’s described as “the most extreme D-MAX ever sold”—and one of the toughest vehicles you’ll ever see. Drool.

The Tumbler Element, Singapore Designed to complement the traditional fire engine, the Tumbler Element D-MAX is designed to provide rapid response to emergency situations in Singapore’s increasingly dense urban environment. Designed

by HOPE Technik, the Tumbler Element is a compact yet power-packed vehicle. Its size, as compared to a fire engine, allows it to be highly manoeuvrable in narrow urban streets.

The layout has been modified for easier entry and egress, and has all-round better equipment storage, including easy access space for two compressed air foam (CAF) backpacks in the rear of the vehicle.

The Tumbler Element is the world’s first compact urban firefighting vehicle with a completely integrated CAF pump system. A second model, the Tumbler Element LF5G, also has foam capabilities in the form of an FRC TurboFoam Pump and foam tanks integrated in the front fenders, which helps balance weight and improve space efficiency. Also unique to the Tumbler is an electronic throttle control, which allows for accurate engine-pump pressure control. It’s D-MAX to the rescue—literally!

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COVER STORY

by Craig Jamieson Images: Cristian Brunelli

What better pair to take on Australia’s steepest gazetted road—Victoria’s Billy Goat Bluff Track— than the mighty Isuzu D-MAX and MU-X?

E

veryone has a talent. Some are pretty handy with numbers and become bankers. Some have the gift of the gab and become real estate agents. Some are adept at bluffing, self-aggrandising and shiftiness. These people also become real estate agents.

As for me, it’s always been the bad idea.

No one can have a bad idea quite as well as I can—barring Lewis Hamilton’s R&B

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career, of course—so when it came time for me to plan an off-road trip, only the narrowest track up the steepest hill I could find would do. It’s the adventuring spirit of Edmund Hillary, combined with the forethought of a 2am tattoo.

The hill, and track, in question is the Billy Goat Bluff Track, draped across the corner of no and where, in the middle of the Victorian Highlands. We’ve read that

it’s the steepest gazetted road in Australia, too, climbing 1200 metres over the course of seven kilometres. But that doesn’t tell the whole story; there are sections where the one-in-seven average gradient becomes much, much steeper, probably worryingly close to one-in-two.

It’s actually a track that you can find on a happy little website called dangerousroads.org.

And it’s obviously something that my cohort has been grappling with.

“I’m having serious concerns about this,” says Daniel.

“Seriously, how dangerous is it for novices? I’ve done some training but not much; you’ve done none.”

“But Cristian, the photographer, knows what he’s doing.”

“Hm.”

It’s the adventuring spirit of Edmund Hillary, combined with the forethought of a 2am tattoo.

With that in mind, it’s time to put a call in to the off-road oracle. He’s my mate, but you know the sort. The kind that’s been up the Telegraph Track five times in six years. The kind that can explain portal axles using nothing more than a pair of empty beer cans. The type that’d treat a snake bite by killing the snake and using its carcass as a makeshift tourniquet.

“Well, it can be pretty hairy,” he says.

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COVER STORY “What kind of cars are you taking?”

I tell him we have a D-MAX and MU-X. “Oh, well you’ll be fine then. Just take it a bit easy and don’t have one of your bright ideas while you’re halfway up.”

What could he possibly mean by that?

Thing is, I’ve already decked my D-MAX out like Marty McFly’s vehicular prize for fixing the past in Back to the Future, lights included, although I’m still working on time travel. My jet-black D-MAX looks entirely awesome and ready for anything.

That said, I probably should have fitted some off-road tyres. Then again, so should Dan; his glistening white MU-X— free from frippery, unlike mine—is also going to make the trek up The Bluff with a set of highway-terrain tyres.

As the writer Kurt Vonnegut was fond of saying, so it goes.

And, at least for the first part of the journey, those highway tyres come in handy. The quickest way to The Bluff means 230 kilometres from Melbourne, along the highway to Stratford in Victoria’s southeast.

From Stratford, we make a beeline for the mountains. And by beeline, of course, I mean the most inebriated, indecisive bee you could ever conceive of; Dargo Road takes perhaps the most tortuous path imaginable, following the contours of the mountains that spring up from the Gippsland plains. It is a

Right: should you not prefer newer, digital map tools, $12.95 will get you a handy paper version; Below: cold morning tray planning.

truly magnificent, 90km stretch of road, favoured by bikers for its fast sweeping corners and sharp switchbacks, framed by glimpses of the creeks and rivers rippling below. My D-MAX’s 3.0-litre turbo diesel gets its first workout of the entire trip, but certainly not the last.

Happily, it relishes the opportunity to do more than sedate highway cruising.

Judging by the way Dan is keeping up, he’s had the same idea. I didn’t know they were contagious.

From this section of driving Nirvana, we emerge into Dargo’s tree-lined main street. There are just three roads in Dargo—one through, and two that skive off into the wilderness—so it’s a happy discovery to find that they still managed

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to build the pub on the corner. It’s also where we choose to stay, thanks to four log cabins out the back.

“Please don’t use our linens to check your oil,” says a sign in the bathroom.

“And don’t steal them either; we’ll notice.”

They must have interesting guests.

Back in the pub, some more intrepid types want to camp outside, as though the winter cold in Victoria’s alpine regions had decided to take the night off. They ask the publican for good places to pitch a tent.

“Well, you can always use our paddock out back, by the river,” she says. “No charge. Would you like another beer?”

The next morning, we load up at the general store, just across the main street from the pub. While hardware, espresso

Dargo Road takes the most tortuous path imaginable, following the mountains that spring up from the Gippsland plains.

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COVER STORY

There’s so much lowdown torque at my disposal that it only takes a tiny prod of the gas to scale the steepest gradients. and taxidermy make for odd bedfellows, it all seems to gel within the wooden walls of the historic building.

Heading south out of Dargo, we quickly turn our attention to the east, a deadset rally trial-stage road following the snaking Wonnangatta River upstream to the beginning of the bluff. From there, the seemingly neverending bends give way to something else entirely. For all intents and purposes, it’s a straight shot up the side of a mountain.

Well, in for a penny and all that.

Feeling that an entire battery of hens has come home to roost, we set off, mustering the confidence to keep momentum up the seemingly vertical ascent. It’s a thrilling road.

I’m amazed at just how steep it really is, but perhaps more amazed that my bad idea did include one good element: the right tools for the job. I keep waiting for a crunch, hiss or thud, but none come.

Nor do any moments when either of our machines feels out of its depth.

I do.

The surface changes repeatedly as we ascend, with seemingly instant segues from compacted dirt to loose, fistsized stones and then on to bare rock.

Concentration is key here, with random smatterings of large, sharp-edged stones

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lying in wait to puncture the tyres of unwary travellers.

A flat tyre is an annoyance on city streets, but up a one-in-three—nudging towards two—gradient, it’s much more irksome. And yet, we’re sailing through.

The higher we climb, the rougher it gets.

We’ve been in low range since the start of our ascent, but now it really comes into its own. My only real job is to pick the path of least resistance and point the nose of the D-MAX at the sky.

There’s so much low-down torque at my disposal that it only takes a tiny prod of the gas to scale the most vertiginous

parts of the track. Soon enough, a third job comes into play: keeping my foot steady enough on the throttle as the road tyres kick and pick their way through the worst of the trail.

Conventional wisdom would suggest that heading up the bluff on road tyres was just another of my brilliant ideas and, perhaps another time, I would have gotten my just rewards for such folly.

The fact remains, however, that after a final section of bare rock, we make the climb, without getting stuck, without having to adjust anything and without having to attempt even the trickiest bits more than once. It’s clearly due to the Isuzus, more than anything else, that my iffy idea didn’t turn into a tale of woe.

Both the leaf-sprung D-MAX and coilsprung MU-X clamber up the bluff like, well, proverbial billy goats, depositing us at the top of the track unruffled, unscathed, and totally unprepared for the astonishing views that greet us.

As we stand at vertigo-inducing heights, looking down on mountain ranges much like you would from an aeroplane, we toast a bittersweet victory.

Because, in reality, we’d only explored the merest of fractions of this staggeringly beautiful and mercilessly rugged part of Australia. And, although we conquered the climb, it only served to whet our appetites for the off-road playground that is Victoria’s High Country.

THE BILLY GOAT BLUFF TRACK Australia’s steepest gazetted road

How do I get there? The Billy Goat Bluff Track is about 350km northeast of Melbourne. Head onto the dirt about 5km south of Dargo, at Short Cut Road. The 7km-long Track is an hour’s drive along what is a spectacular dirt rally road stage from here. It’s just the most precipitous part of the magnificent Wonnangatta Drive, a 222km loop that is classified as Very Difficult in dry conditions under Victoria’s 4WD Recreational Track Classification code.

Where to stay: Dargo Hotel; thedargohotel.com.au

When to go: It’s best to head up before winter, as some tracks are closed in the coldest months. Check with Parks Victoria at parkweb.vic.gov.au or call on 131963.

Left: one of the cool local cats; Below: the lovely Dargo Hotel

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OUT OF THE BOX

by Michael Benn

TINSELTOWN

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B

are Island is as easy to love as it must have been to name. Crowned by a balding green-grass pate in the warm Sydney autumn air, it crouches inside the cobalt entrance to Botany Bay. A charmingly toothless fort that’s been incapable of anger since it was decommissioned in 1902, Bare Island is also an easy place to be in love, as the newlyweds that pose on the island’s hundred-metre wooden walkway to the mainland might attest. It’s a sturdy, broad-shouldered bridge easily strong enough to take the weight of a car— or, indeed, a speeding motorcycle.

Whether they realise it or not, those couples stand on a small chunk of Hollywood history. In fact, if a wedding couple were standing there in June 1999, the bride would have been run down by a 1050cc bike ridden

by Tom Cruise. Just afterwards, she’d have been blown up. This is the spot from Mission: Impossible II where Scientology’s biggest name—pursued by a chopper and raked by

gunfire—streaks across a wooden bridge, the air thick with bullets. It’s brilliant, exotic and explodey; a perfectly ridiculous Hollywood film scene. But the set was in Sydney.

If Sydney doesn’t immediately leap to mind as a film town, it’s easy to see why.

The Emerald City usually glories in her own reflection. But she’s not always so vain.

Whether posing as New York in The Great Gatsby remake, as Metropolis in Superman Returns or even as Vietnam for Hugh Jackman’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, when Hollywood calls, Sydney is content to look like somewhere else.

There are plenty of other places in Australia where you can literally stroll on to the sets of some very recognisable films.

From Mad Max to Pirates of the Caribbean to Picnic At Hanging Rock, Australia has a long history of celluloid fame—even if it’s often pretending to be somewhere else.

In fact, Australia’s biggest city has hosted so many major movie shoots that a day

Film stills: Courtesy Paramount Pictures (Mission Impossible II);

From The Matrix to the X-Men, Australia has stood in for celluloid cities across the globe—sometimes the universe. And you can take a Hollywood tour any time you want…

DOWNUNDER

Film stills: Courtesy Paramount Pictures (Mission Impossible II); Village Roadshow Pictures (The Great Gatsby)

Bare Island, location of the climactic scene in M:I-2.

Above (strip): Leo’s 2013 The Great Gatsby was filmed around Sydney

touring it might barely scratch the surface.

In the heart of the city, you needn’t even leave your D-MAX or MU-X to visit, just head to where Campbell St burrows below the railway line between Central and Town Hall stations. A bustling street during the day, just after dawn it’s a quiet spot—although not as deserted as it was in The Matrix, in 1999. Keanu Reeves’s Neo got into a 1965 Lincoln Continental here to meet Morpheus for the first time. And, er, have a wriggling mechanical scorpion yanked from his stomach. Icky.

Episodes II and III of George Lucas’s Star Wars prequels were also shot nearby at Fox Studios. Even closer is Martin Place, a wide, pedestrian-only, grey-paved thoroughfare that cleaves its way between skyscrapers in the financial heart of the CBD, familiar to all Sydneysiders.

Halfway along Martin Place is a long fountain—and a superhero touchpoint— where Brandon Routh stopped and dropped a car in Superman Returns in 2006, a film shot almost entirely in the district. Matrix nuts will also recognise it as the busy spot

where Morpheus asks Neo if he was listening to him … “or looking at the woman in the red dress”.

Further east in leafy Vaucluse is Strickland House. Boasting multi-milliondollar harbour views, it’s an intoxicating spot.

It was also the Governor-General’s house in 2008’s Australia. You’ll recall a dressed-to-thenines Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman dancing up a storm—albeit pretending to be in ‘Darwin’, half the continent away. And if that’s not grand enough, Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 filming of the classic The Great Gatsby used what feels like the whole city, Mount White to Manly and Rozelle via Botany Bay. Easiest to spot might be The International College of Management in Darley Road, Manly—or, as we know it, Gatsby’s mansion.

Then there’s the Sydney College of the Arts in Rozelle. Built in 1878, the campus was a Victorian-era insane asylum. It’s where Liev Schreiber and Hugh Jackman face a firing squad in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, while tied to posts. And live.

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OUT OF THE BOX

Film stills: Courtesy Village Roadshow Pictures (Matrix);\ 20th Century Fox/Marvel Entertainment (Wolverine)

Below: Martin Place features in the 1999 sci-fi classic The Matrix

If you’re no fan of the city, go west— way west. Like Priscilla did. The Queen of the Desert started in Sydney before heading to Broken Hill, a town which, alongside Silverton, provided the backdrop for Mad Max 2. Max’s final chase in the first sequel was largely filmed on the road from Broken Hill to Menindee. The opening sequence was shot on the road out past Silverton, towards Mundi Mundi Plains.

The original Mad Max was shot in Victoria. In 1979, the now-closed Pretty Sally Roadhouse on the Northern Highway, north of Wallan, doubled as Fat Nancy’s, where Goose sat for a bite to eat. Goose also sped along Altona’s Kororoit Creek Rd in Melbourne when he muttered, “Christ, they’re headed for population!” Meanwhile, Max leaves Johnny with a hacksaw and a choice on Gellies Road in Sunbury.

Queensland also has a show-reel of star turns. Few would be surprised to learn that the kitsch turquoise panorama of Porpoise Spit in Muriel’s Wedding was the Gold Coast, while Muriel’s holiday destination, Hibiscus Island, was a

thinly disguised Hamilton Island.

Queensland boasts plenty of beautiful outdoor sets, including the site of Terrence Malick’s star-studded, reflective war film, The Thin Red Line, which shot scenes at Bramston Beach, 60km south of Cairns.

The fifth Pirates of the Caribbean film, due in 2017, was partly shot in studios on the Gold Coast too, as well as on location on the Far North Queensland coast.

But perhaps Australia’s most iconic natural film set—on a global level anyway—is one that remains the easiest to access. In the 30 years since Crocodile Dundee was released, Paul Hogan’s face has tightened, his tax bills have yo-yoed and his fame has gradually diminished. But head to the Gunlom Falls, just 30km from the southern entrance to Kakadu National Park, and you’ll find a spot far more timeless. There are no saltwater crocs in the water, but check your watch and

pretend to tell the time by the sun and you’ll be imitating Paul Hogan in his iconic film, in the exact spot where he did it.

If Kakadu is a bit too far, simply drop into the Walkabout Creek Hotel in McKinlay, Queensland. Then known as the Federal, the Walkabout was Dundee’s proverbial watering hole in the film. After an almost 17-hour drive northwest of Brisbane, you’ll definitely arrive ready for a drink and a chat with the locals.

So, if you want a Cruisey experience, head to Bare Island and bring a chopper, a motorbike and a bulletproof vest. If you have a taste for something cruisier, there’s a country full of sets out there, all set to be explored.

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PASSPORT

by Tom Guise Images: Brad Cook

EPIC BURN There’s going your own way – and then there’s going to Nevada’s iconic Burning Man. Charting the incendiary rise of the world’s weirdest festival

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lack Rock City has its own radio station. Doesn’t sound that big a deal, until you realise Black Rock City is actually a dry lake bed in the middle of the Nevada desert. As our RV thunders towards it in a rolling cloud of alkali dust, we tune in. Slotted between songs and cautionary ads concerned about sunstroke is a newsflash.

“We have Joe here, who’s broken his clavicle,” announces the surprisingly upbeat voice. “He needs to get to Reno fast. If anyone can give him a ride, please come to the medical centre at Esplanade and 5.15 as soon as possible.”

Joe’s in trouble. This is day two of the Burning Man festival and everyone’s heading the opposite way—in. Also, Reno is nearly 200 kilometres away. That’s three hours with a shattered collarbone, assuming he catches a ride right now. Joe’s just discovered one of the principles of Burning Man—radical self-reliance.

By the time our motorhome finally crawls through the gate four hours later, Joe is hopefully tucked into a comfy Reno hospital bed. It’s the middle of the night and our first taste of this week-long experiment in extreme counter-culture is a schizoid mix of oppressive regime and hippy commune.

Uniformed guards with flashlights check our tickets, then investigate the inside and underside of the RV—even the glovebox— looking for stowaways. If we had a hay cart, they’d probably pitchfork it. Next, chirpy ‘greeters’ dressed like charity-shop pirates

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force us out of the van to spread-eagle in the dust, have our personal space invaded by hugs, and ring a giant bell. We’ve been initiated. Welcome to Black Rock City— home of Burning Man. And for nine days each year it really is a city. It’s a motorhome metropolis the size of downtown San Francisco, with streets rippling outwards in perfect concentric rings intersected by radial avenues—like some gargantuan crop circle. It has an airport, a post office, a police force and fire department—the latter crucial in overseeing what towers at the centre: the Man himself. He’s a 10-storey wooden effigy that is ritually set ablaze on the penultimate night. It’s a Wicker Man fantasy potent enough to give Nicolas Cage cold sweats.

But there are better movie analogies to be had. Giant ‘art cars’ cruising the dusty landscape—their decks populated by hedonistic Burners—easily evoke Tatooine, the desert planet of Star Wars; more so when smaller ‘mutant vehicles’ buzz past you to park outside a shanty cantina playing jazz. The connection to the post-apocalyptic outback of Mad Max is more literal. Nightfall reveals a fully fledged Thunderdome—the caged combat arena where Tina Turner forces Mel Gibson into a hammer-wielding death-match on bungee ropes. It’s the same deal here, only with padded pugil sticks and without Tina and the mortal outcome. Well, maybe not the last bit —clinging to the outside of the geodesic cage with other cheering

Bikes are crucial for getting around, but “Do not bring a good bike,” say organisers. “The desert will reduce a valuable bike to a rust bucket post haste.”

spectators, there’s a very real prospect I could plunge to my death. Hence the unofficial motto: ‘Keep Burning Man Potentially Fatal’.

That’s never more apparent than when riding out into the darkness of the ‘deep playa’—the unbound desert beyond the neon cityscape. Here, mysterious sights are to be found—luminous forests, an open-air planetarium, a ’50s diner that a Jeff Bridges lookalike without shoes told me he’d been trying to rediscover for three years. Here, art cars roam free. Fail to cover yourself or your bike in enough lights and you could

wind up as rocky roadkill. The night before the dawn burning of ‘Embrace’—an epic, 22-metre-high hollow sculpture of a man and woman—over 60 art cars gather in the deep playa to await the moment.

The atmosphere is incredible. Sonic waves of different music fold into each other as thousands of half-naked and even stark-naked Burners clamber on and off party vessels built like dragons and mechanical octopi, many spewing fire.

One that resembles a moving castle seemingly has flame throwers just for guests to play with.

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PASSPORT It wasn’t always this insane. In 1990, when Burning Man first came to the Black Rock Desert, it was much worse. Having been evicted from San Francisco’s Baker Beach by fire-fearing cops, this was a reckless time of people racing cars around the camp and sporting loaded firearms. Today, there’s a speed limit of 8km/h and you can’t bring any weapons, fireworks or dogs. The population has gone from 800 to over 65,000 and the Man has ranged from 12 metres to 32. ‘Leave no trace’ has become a guiding principle—everyone must take their trash or MOOP (matter out of place) with them.

A volunteer police force (the Black Rock Rangers) was formed, then a fence was built to collect wind-strewn trash. Today, alongside law enforcement in night-vision goggles, the fence keeps humans from sneaking in; a situation that’s escalated with the ticket prices. In 1994 entry was US$30— today it’s US$390. That’s ... a lot.

Once inside though, money isn’t an issue —you can’t spend it on anything, except ice and coffee. It’s another of those principles—‘decommodification’—and it extends to every level of Burning Man. There’s no sponsorship, the organisation is non-profit, even the performers are unpaid.

Unless you plan to survive on frappuccinos, you have to bring what you need or find it on site. Intended to instill the principles of radical self-reliance and gifting, it’s recently seen wealthy attendees rocking up to readymade luxury camps. Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin famously created the first Google Doodle as an out-of-office notice while they nicked off here, while Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk brought a five-star fleet of eight fully stocked RVs. At least Mark Zuckerberg kind of gets it—he helicoptered in to serve up grilled cheese jaffles.

He’s not alone. Everywhere we ride there are camps offering tequila shots, or hot tacos, or ‘the world’s best Bloody Mary’ (arguably true). At a ‘one cent hot dogs’ saloon, the barman offers me a pickleback.

“Take a slug of bourbon, then a shot of the juice from the pickle jar,” he yells to me over a cover band live version of Stevie Wonder’s Superstition.

“You’ll be surprised,” he reassures me.

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The dry lake bed hosts around 300 artworks each year— some more trippy than others

The population has gone from 800 to over 65,000 and the Man has ranged from 12 metres to 32.

He’s right—the brine neutralises the punch of the whiskey. Two picklebacks later and a mammoth hot dog is placed on the checker tablecloth in front of me. It doesn’t cost a single cent.

As I tuck in, the band finishes to rapturous applause. “Thank you!” they shout, as their stage drives off into the darkness leaving just the crowd, their giant hot dogs and picklebacks, the distant cacophony of a myriad of other sound systems and a starry sky split by the occasional high-powered laser beam.

A few days later the whole restaurant will be gone, leaving no trace. Not even a pickle.

WHEN

WHERE

STAYING

EATING

Burning Man will be held from August 28 to September 5, 2016. Tickets cost US$390 per person, plus US$80 per vehicle, and are notoriously hard to get. The last 1000 will go on sale August 3 at 12pm PDT, but you’ll need to pre-register by July 29 at tickets. burningman.org

The nearest city to Burning Man is Reno, 196 kilometres away. Stocking up on food and water is crucial, and you might want to consider renting an RV, as the desert can often reach 40°C in August.

Any Walmart in Reno is normally stocked ready for Burners, including $100 bikes.

Black Rock City is laid out like a giant clock—the noisiest areas being around 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock, where the stages are.

It’s better to stay nearer the edge and travel around on your bike. Don’t worry about being stuck in a boring area— there aren’t any!

Your ticket comes with a guide book to the many camps that gift food, water and alcoholic drinks, but riding around will yield just as many results.

The only places you can actually buy anything are Center Camp Café —coffee—and Arctica (also at the 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock plazas) which sells ice.

T

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UNSUNG HEROES

by Stephen Corby

RAY & MURRAY

CHAMBERS

The Queensland twins behind Sunshine Coast Koala Rescue save 500 koalas a year—at huge financial and emotional cost—and all without funding

C

uddling a carefully coiffed and mollycoddled koala in a zoo seems like a rite of passage for visiting celebrities, royal representatives and cashed-up tourists. But it’s this kind of photo-opp Photoshopping of reality that incenses the Chambers twins, who’ve devoted the past decade to looking after the dwindling number of these threatened marsupials in the wild.

Putting your life, and your livelihood, on the line to save Australia’s dwindling koala population isn’t the kind of hobby you’d pick for these two burly, no-nonsense brothers if you met them in a pub, but then the emotional rollercoaster involved in this kind of work isn’t something that you do for fun or recreation. It’s a calling.

“I guess we’ve just always had a passion for Australian native animals, both of us. We’re just the kind of people who, if we see an injured bird on the road, will take it in to a vet,” explains Ray, 48 (the same age as his brother, Murray, funnily enough), in his gruff Queensland brogue.

“And when we heard about the plight of the koalas, how much trouble they were

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in, we just realised they needed our help, and we had to do something.”

The two brothers don’t do much separately, nor do they do anything by halves. The car-repair business they

“Development has taken their habitat—about 95% of it has been cleared.” run together on the Sunshine Coast has been teetering on the edge of financial ruin ever since they invested their life savings and made themselves available to rescue injured or orphaned koalas in Queensland—anywhere across the entire state—seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

Sure, your car might need fixing, but as

far as the Chambers boys are concerned, that koala in Kingaroy—a day’s drive away—needs their help more.

“We do it for the love of it,” says Ray. “We’ve spent probably $250,000 of our own money over 10 years doing this, and we get no help from the government.

Basically we go to work to support the koala business.”

“We’re so false in this country. As soon as the Queen or a pop star gets off the plane we give them a toy koala or get them to hug a real one, but we don’t do anything about the koalas’ habitat.

“In Caloundra, where we are, there’s only one koala left in the wild, and that should be front-page news, but it’s not, and we see their population being decimated, everywhere we go, even in the outback. People think if you get out there you’ll see koalas, but everything’s been cleared for cattle grazing, and there’s no trees left for them.

“Development has taken their habitat— about 95 per cent of it has been cleared— and on top of that white settlers have brought disease.

“We think they’re hardy because they’re Aussie animals, but they’re not. They get

As hard and emotionally draining as their unpaid work is, Ray says the rewards can also be indescribable.

“It’s incredibly satisfying, when you’ve had a rescued koala at home and you get to let them go, it’s a great feeling,” he says.

“But then when you lose one you want to hit your head against the wall, and you think you can’t do it any more.

It’s really emotionally draining.

It’s hard. And then the next To sckoa donate, g day the phone rings and you o laresc ue.co to can’t say no, because there’s m.au.

Fo a little bugger out there who koalar 24-hour Quee rescue in bone-marrow diseases, pneumonia, they doing 1000km in a needs your help. call 0 nslan 423 6 d, day, plus we have get frail. They’re not that tough.”

“They’re just great little 18 0431 300 7 740 or Ray has a saddening amount of horror them hanging off cliffs, animals, but they’re like 29. stories about koalas being hit by cars, driving through floods.

Graeme Kennedy in his later attacked by dogs and otherwise injured, and Our D-MAXs have to be days, they’re reclusive, they don’t spot on. We flog them hard but hair-whitening tales of he and his brother hang in groups and they probably chasing ailing animals 30 or 60 feet up into they’re tough,” Ray enthuses. think humans are a bit like aliens. They’ll “We had to raise the money to buy them trees, an exercise that’s not only hard on the really put up a fight when you try to help and the first one’s got 140,000km, the body but fraught with peril. them. But they’re also smart, and after But as hard as they work, their two Isuzu other one’s got 80,000km and we’d love a while they can tell you’re there to help to get a couple more. Honestly, though, D-MAXs—one of which is designated as them, not hurt them. You can feel that, if Toyota offered us two free trucks we’d a Koala Ambulance, the other a Rescue and it’s pretty bloody special.” say ‘thanks, but no thanks’. We like our Vehicle—are flogged even harder.

Pretty bloody special—three good D-MAXs, and we’re loyal. You can’t beat “They have to be reliable because we words to describe the Chambers twins that 3.0-litre engine. cover the whole state and we can be themselves, frankly.

Koala killers include disease, dog attack and cars—and treatment can be every bit as complex as saving people

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THE LIST

by Ben Smithurst

Australia’s beauty doesn’t stop at ground level.

Tape a torch to your temple and wander through some of the country’s greatest family-friendly caves

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are still some of the world’s most aweinspiring places.

The best news is Australia contains more than her fair share.

From incredible submerged passageways 90m beneath Cocklebiddy on the Nullarbor, where intrepid divers have explored over six kilometres of tunnels, to bushranger hideouts

and ancient Aboriginal heritage sites, Australia is a Swiss cheese of caverns and cavities. Access varies from fully chaperoned commercial tours to selfguided, bring-your-own-torch walks.

Caving is a unique experience, claustrophobic and cold, but primal and unquestionably thrilling. Try some of these caves for size …

Photo: Harp Cave, Capricorn Caves © Tourism Qld

Most novice spelunkers start caving for one of two reasons: to find Batman and steal his identity, or to find a treasureladen pirate ship like in The Goonies.

Both are good reasons, but neither does caving justice. Because even if you never discover a subterranean grotto beneath Wayne Manor, or a deformed but friendly berzerker called Sloth, cave systems

© Tourism WA

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

and Giants caves are run by the Department of Parks & Wildlife, who provide helmets and torches as part of the $16 (adult) fee.

Ngilgi Cave Where: Yallingup Best for: friendly ghost stories

Contact: Parks & Wildlife, 08 9757 7422, parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/calgardup-cave

The 100km from Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leeuwin consists of an enormous limestone ridge riddled with around 350 caves. Ngilgi cave was named in the local Wardandi language for a good spirit that defeated an evil Wolgine spirit in battle, and is 500,000 years old. Discovered in 1899 by a local farmer searching for stray horses, Ngilgi is open almost every day, with formations including the red and orange ‘Arab’s Tent’, and the ‘Mother-of-Pearl’ and ‘Oriental’ shawls. Tours from $21 (adult).

Crystal Cave Where: Yanchep National Park Best for: come any time

Contact: Geographe Bay Tourism, 08 9755 2152, geographebay.com

Just 50km north of Perth and open every day of the year, Crystal Cave is the showcave jewel in Yanchep’s crown. Exploring the limestone grotto means wandering around picturesque lakes and marvelling at stalagmites at a year-round 18.5°C. “Our 45-minute tours are very popular,” says Rob Susac, president of the WA Speleological Group. “So you need to book.”

Adult admission is $11. Yanchep has 400 other caves at varying grades of difficulty, many available for adventure caving.

Mammoth, Lake and Jewel Caves Where: 30km south of Margaret River Best for: fossil fanciers

Contact: Parks & Wildlife, 08 9405 0772, parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/crystal-cave

Strung out along the creatively named Caves Rd (which begins at Ngilgi), Mammoth, Lake and Jewel caves each boast a character of their own. The massive cavern of Mammoth, 21km south of Margaret River, has divulged over 10,000 fossils, including those of Tasmanian tigers and giant roos. Lake Cave, 2km south, has coloured feature lighting that reflects spectacularly on its eponymous lake. Jewel Cave, 37km south of Margaret River, is a fever dream of contorted, gravity-defying stalactites, including one of the world’s largest.

Mammoth also boasts CD-ROM headsets.

Mimbi Caves Where: 200km west of Halls Creek Best for: very ancient history Around 350 million years ago, the Mimbi Caves were a 1400km barrier reef off the Kimberley Coast. Today it is one of the bestpreserved ancient fossilised reefs on Earth, with Indigenous guides offering tours from Tuesday to Saturday. Expect ochre-stained walls lit by natural rockfall skylights. Mimbi has been occupied for at least 40,000 years,

Mammoth Cave, near Margaret River

up to the 20th century when the ancestors of today’s Gooniyandi people held out here against police and pastoralists.

Contact: Girloorloo Tours, 08 9191 5355, mimbicaves.com.au Tunnel Creek Where: 390km east of Broome Best for: frontier wars history “North of Mimbi, Tunnel Creek is highly rated and regarded,” says Susac of the 750m cave through which you’ll trek. “It will have resting water in it—and it does have (freshwater) crocodiles.” Aboriginal warrior Jandamarra, who lead one of the few organised, armed guerrilla insurrections against European invasion, was shot and decapitated outside the cave entrance in 1897. Expect a more pleasant experience nowadays. Accessible by 4WD only.

Contact: Parks & Wildlife, 08 9195 5500, parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/tunnel-creek © Tourism WA

Contact: CaveWorks, 08 9757 7411, margaretriver.com Calgardup and Giants Where: 20km south of Margaret River Best for: not turning back Calgardup Cave has a seasonal underground lake with living tree roots descending from above, while just to the south, Giants is a ‘through cave’, meaning you enter at one side—via an impressive, 100m-wide collapsed sinkhole—and walk 600m underground to exit at the other end.

Metal stairs lead through the colossal 40m ‘Ballroom’ along the way. Both Calgardup

Interior view of the Mimbi Caves

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THE LIST

NEW SOUTH WALES

Caves are many things, but opulent isn’t a term usually associated with fissures of rock. Not so at Hatter’s Hideout, a 20m high, wide and deep cave that’s privately owned … and available to rent on Airbnb.

Alongside a unique hand-hewn lodge, sitting on eight acres of Blue Mountains wilderness, the cave’s opening is 25m high, with incredible acoustics. All the better to crack out an old nylon-stringed guitar and bash out a few offspring-embarrassing choruses of Wonderwall.

Contact: Hatter’s Hideout, 02 6355 2777, hattershideout.com.au Jenolan Caves Where: 20km east of Oberon and 175km west of Sydney Best for: an easy bucket list tick Australia’s most famous caves, the Jenolans consist of 40km of multi-level passages (lots of stairs), several kilometres of which are lit with LED track lighting and HID spotlights. There’s also synchronised music and sound effects.

While this may run counter to the caves’ traditional name—‘Binoomea’ in the local Indigenous dialect means ‘dark places’— it provides an evocative experience of formations, such as the breathtaking nine-metre-long ‘Angel’s Wing Shawl’.

The caves host 250,000 visitors a year and some testing indicates they are the world’s oldest. Not the visitors. The caves.

© Tourism Qld

Hatter’s Hideout Where: Bell, in the Blue Mountains Best for: unexpected luxury

Undara Lava Tubes at Mt Surprise, Queensland

Remarkably, the 221m long, 60m wide and 30m high Arch Cave still contains a dance platform built by gold miners in the 1880s. It continues to serve as a perch for Carols In The Cave. In late 1830, the caves were the hideout of the 80-strong Ribbon Gang of bushrangers—until their leader, English escapee Ralph Entwistle, was caught. And then hanged in Bathurst.

Contact: NSW Environment & Heritage, 1300 072 757, nationalparks.nsw.gov. au/visit-a-park/parks/abercrombiekarst-conservation-reserve

Contact: Undara, 07 4097 1900, undara.com.au

QUEENSLAND

Undara Lava Tubes Where: Undara Volcanic National Park, 300km southwest of Cairns Best for: freaky natural subway tubes Around 190,000 years ago, a huge

Edwardian Jenolan Caves House, built in 1897

Abercrombie Caves Where: 75km south of Bathurst Best for: families. And arch fans

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The Summer Solstice Light Spectacle is a phenomenon unique to the Capricorn Caves. Throughout December and early January, the sun lines up over the Tropic of Capricorn and sends a 14m vertical shaft of light into the Belfry Cave. The effect is electric, with direct sunlight bouncing around the cave, picking up the colours in the clothing of visitors and creating a dazzling, kaleidoscopic ‘mirrorball’ effect. Entry is $30 for adults, $15 for kids.

TASMANIA

© Tourism NSW

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Capricorn Caves Where: 23km north of Rockhampton Best for: a phenomenal lightshow.

Contact: Capricorn Caves, 07 4934 2883, capricorncaves.com.au

Contact: Jenolan Caves, 1300 763 311, jenolancaves.org.au

Open every day during school holidays and with 60 camp sites, the Abercrombie Caves have a singular claim to fame: ‘The Archway’, which is the largest natural arch in the Southern Hemisphere.

volcano erupted violently on the western McBride Plateau, according to Queensland National Parks website, “spewing molten lava over the surrounding landscape. The lava flowed rapidly down a dry riverbed”. As the top cooled, the molten middle kept flowing and drained outwards, leaving a series of huge, long, hollow tubes. It’s an incredible trek, and guided only, due to the dangers of roof collapse and high levels of carbon dioxide. Along the way are rock wallabies, thick vegetation in sunlit breaks and helpful walkways.

Mole Creek Where: 90km west of Launceston Best for: glowing in the dark Tassie has some of the nation’s deepest and longest caves and the Mole Creek

© Tourism TAS

Karst National Park is home to 300 of them, including two of its most famous.

Guided tours into the Marakoopa and King Solomons caves are available to suit all levels of fitness. Visitors will discover underground streams, unique animals that never see daylight, stalactites, stalagmites, columns, the crystal-filled ‘Great Cathedral’ and more glow worms than any other system in Australia.

VICTORIA

Buchan Caves Where: Buchan, Gippsland, 55km north of Lakes Entrance Best for: a no-stress weekend camp stay out of Melbourne A honeycomb network of caves cut through limestone by ancient underground rivers, the Buchan Caves— a cool 17°C year round—are electrically lit, with stepped walkways. Guided tours are offered daily from $21.50 per adult. Tours to creepier, cooler, unlit caves can also be arranged. You’ll see passages elaborately adorned with weird rock formations and the beautiful, calcite-rimmed pools of the 500m-long Royal Cave. Plenty of grassy campsites are nearby.

Contact: Mole Creek Caves, 03 6363 5182, parks.tas.gov.au Newdegate Cave Where: Hastings Caves State Reserve, 100km southwest of Hobart Best for: chasing away the chill The spectacular Newdegate is the largest tourism cave in Australia and the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service’s 45-minute tours are the perfect introduction. Formed around 40 million years ago, but not discovered by timber workers until 1917, Newdegate has 240 stairs, but lots of spots to rest. Unusually for Australia, it’s a dolomite cave, with walls of pearly white and pinkish crystal.

It’s a brisk 9°C inside, year-round, but you can warm your bones with a swim in the springs-fed pool, which is a much balmier 28°C. By Tassie standards, that’s magmahot. Admission is $24 for adults.

Contact: Hastings Visitor Centre, 03 6298 3209, parks.tas.gov.au

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Kelly Hill Caves Where: Karatta, 124km by road from the Penneshaw ferry terminal on Kangaroo Island Best for: adventure

Contact: Kelly Hill Caves, 08 8553 4464, environment.sa.gov.au

Marakoopa Cave, part of the Mole Creek Cave system, Tasmania

NORTHERN TERRITORY

Naracoorte Where: 100km north of Mt Gambier Best for: spooky ghost stories

Cutta Cutta Caves Where: 30km south of Katherine Best for: toasty warmth

Naracoorte boasts 26 caves in just over three square kilometres. It was World Heritage listed in 1994, not least for being one of the world’s richest fossil deposits.

Those bones belonged to unlucky beasts, most thought to have fallen into the limestone caves when 200 million years of erosion exposed them to the surface. Most famous is the 250m-long, three-chamber Blanche Cave, where the mummified remains of an Indigenous man were discovered and, incredibly, stolen shortly after the cave’s discovery by Europeans in 1845. The remains have never been found.

Limestone caves are rare in subtropical Australia and considering the cool temperatures usually associated with going underground, you’d expect the Cutta Cutta caves to be a haven to those escaping the Katherine heat. Not so. They support five species of bat and loads of harmless brown tree snakes. There’s a helpful grilled walkway so by all means, come for the towers of limestone, some with large boulders perched on top, but don’t expect to stay cool. With little ventilation and a hot spring within, things can get steamy.

Contact: Naracoorte Caves NP, 08 8762 2340, environment.sa.gov.au

Contact: 08 8973 8888, Barranyi National Park, parksandwildlife.nt.gov.au © Tourism TAS

Kangaroo Island has bracing vistas and gourmet attractions and for parents, the chance to convince your kids it’s run by a marsupial king, then crush their dreams.

It also has the brilliant Kelly Hill caves, so named because they were ‘discovered’ by an unfortunate horse, called Kelly, who fell into them through the cave roof. Try the adventure tour, where you’re fitted with a helmet and lamp to crawl through a maze of smaller, pokier caverns (2.15pm daily; $70 adults/$40 children; open 10.15am-4pm).

Contact: Parks Victoria, 131 963, parkweb.vic.gov.au

Newdegate Cave, Tasmania

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HOOK, LINE ‘N’ SINKER

by Andrew Hart

wonderland It was the trip the Hook, Line and Sinker crew had always spoken about trying to film, but one that was always put in the ‘too-hard basket’. Welcome to Fowlers Bay

E

ach year, one remote beach town in South Australia produces some of the biggest mulloway in the country.

If you spend time reading fishing magazines, you will know the photos I’m talking about: fisherman standing by the surf struggling to hold up huge slabs of glistening silver; mulloway almost as big as a man. And most of those photos come from one area in the far-flung west of the great state of South Australia.

The beaches near Yalata and Fowlers Bay are some of the most spectacular and rugged in the world. The swell is up on the Southern Ocean, even on calm days.

Access involves driving up and over huge sand dunes. There are no shops or fuel

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for miles, and there’s no one to help you if you get stuck out there on your own.

Perfect.

For about a decade we’d enquired about heading west to do a show, only to be told on countless occasions that it’s beyond us.

“You’d need at least a week, if not two, to get a fishable window in the weather,” we were told. “And ideally you need to tow trailers with four-wheelers, tents, generators, freezers and a whole convoy of four-wheel drives.”

Not to mention you also need to know someone, who knows someone, who can get you a permit to access the beaches— most of which are on Aboriginal land.

With all this advice ringing in our ears, we had a spare three days and a D-MAX, so we thought, let’s give it a go!

After flying into Adelaide and picking up the I-Venture Club D-MAX we started to drive. Leaving about midday, we made our way along probably the most boring strip of bitumen in the country: the Port Wakefield Road. Around 300kms later we arrived in Port Augusta, where we hit the supermarket, and then we were rolling west, past Ceduna (where there wasn’t much open for dinner) before finally arriving in Fowlers Bay. It was very late.

Our drive of 913.9km was over.

Our base in Fowlers Bay was a little self-contained cabin. We thought, instead of setting up camp out on the beaches, we’d do day trips from Fowlers. It would

be a bit more relaxed. We’d organised a guide—Michael from Snapper Safaris— to show us around, and the next morning he arrived bright and early. And so our adventure began – along with a persistent wind of 25 knots from the south. It kept its pace the whole time we were there, which made fishing very tough.

Our first day was spent driving on the many sand tracks in and around Fowlers Bay itself. We explored the rocky headlands and the beaches, the D-MAX eating up the deep, soft sand without even a hiccup. Our main goal for day one was to catch some fresh bait for the mulloway fishing the following day.

We achieved this, catching some salmon and some snook on lures.

The next two days we made the journey to a beach called Dog Fence. It is so-named because the track in follows the Dog Fence, an incredible structure in itself. Starting on the cliffs above the beach, it runs 2500km, all the way into Queensland. Built in the 1880s, it stands to this day, and still keeps plenty of dingos out. Except the only dingo we saw was actually on the eastern—or dingo-free— side of the fence!

Once on the beach we were greeted with an onshore breeze, but it was warm and sunny. We set our baits in some goodlooking gutters and waited. And waited and waited. Nothing for the first day.

Then on the second day the wind backed

“There’s something very addictive about mulloway fishing from the beach.”

off just a bit and the water cleaned up.

About lunchtime we started catching some salmon. Turning these into fresh bait resulted in Nick catching our first mulloway. Not the 100-pound monster we were after, but still a mulloway!

The next day we fished one of Michael’s secret spots, very close to Fowlers Bay. At low tide and first light we stood on a rock and cast out some fresh squid that we’d caught the night before from the jetty. Within five minutes I’d landed a little mulloway. Then shortly after caught a bigger one. Michael also added to the tally and the action was hot.

We also lost significantly bigger fish in this short session. It was enough to really whet the appetite, but then the tide came in and with it the gutter was out of reach. Such is life.

And that was our trip. As we left that afternoon the wind dropped and

This image: co-host Nick Duigan and a pal. Above: Andrew, Michael and Nick rock out—sans music Above right: with the D-MAX

no doubt the locals all went fishing and caught some huge mulloway, and although we didn’t get the big one we were after, I am desperate to go back.

There’s something very addictive about mulloway fishing from the beach.

We found out firsthand that the trip to the far west of South Australia is achievable. I’m sure you can choose to camp on the beaches and stay for a week

and you’ll probably catch many more fish, but you can also just jump in a D-MAX, drive for a day and cast a line and you’re a chance of catching the mulloway of a lifetime. It’s more than tempting.

By the way, if you are going to make the trip, go in November or December for your best chance to catch big mulloways.

That’s when we’re planning on going back. Hopefully we’ll see you there.

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REFUEL

“T

by Ben Smithurst

he one thing that I have discovered and been told over and over by the chefs, writers, critics, cooks and foodies I have met everywhere I go is simple: ‘start with the best produce you can find, and don’t stuff it up’,” says former MasterChef star Ben Milbourne.

“So if it’s about finding the best produce available, I really couldn’t live in a better place.”

The home state of the self-described “proud Tasmanian food nerd” was once routinely left off maps of Australia, but

no more. The Apple Isle’s foodie fame has gone global. Its cheese, seafood and meat are internationally known, their reputations regularly bolstered by emerging specialties such as wakame seaweed or chilli honey. And with a brace of cool-climate wines and world-beating spirits, it’s easy to see why Milbourne’s enthusiasm to promote his island is matched by his keenness to stay.

MasterChef might be based on the mainland, but this master chef is happy at home and happier still exploring its off-road trails in his MU-X.

A regular on The Offroad Adventure Show, barbecue tongs in hand, Milbourne also hosts Ben’s Menu on Channel 10. He has authored two cookbooks (Mexican Craving and Tasmanian Trail) and is such a specialist at operating outdoors he could give lessons to the SAS or even the M*A*S*H*.

This month Ben gives you two ideas— one with lamb, the other with a variety of mushrooms—to warm even the chilliest camp trip. You could also cook them at home. As those on MasterChef always say: it’s all about “your journey” … even if they don’t actually leave the studio.

Tasmanian Masterchef alumnus (and MU-X owner) Ben Milbourne brings the heat with rich, hearty fare

WINTER

WARMERS

FIND OUT MORE Visit benmilbourne.com.au for more recipes and cookbooks, as well as links to Ben’s food tours, degustation dinners and cooking school.

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MUSHROOMS ON TOAST Prep time: 5 minutes, Cook time: 10 minutes Serves: 4

INGREDIENTS: 1 tablespoon butter 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 porcini mushrooms, cut into quarters 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped 100g Swiss brown mushrooms, roughly chopped 100g button mushrooms, roughly chopped 100g field mushrooms, roughly chopped 1 teaspoon chopped thyme ¾ cup crème fraîche 2 tablespoons chopped chives 100g oyster mushrooms, torn salt and pepper, to taste sourdough bread, toasted ½ cup torn parsley leaves

METHOD: Step 1: Heat the butter and oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Add the porcini mushrooms and garlic and cook for three minutes. Add the Swiss browns, buttons, field mushrooms and thyme and sauté for another five minutes.

Step 2: Stir the crème fraîche, chives and oyster mushrooms through the mushroom mixture. Season with salt and pepper.

Step 3: Serve on toasted sourdough, sprinkled with torn parsley.

ROCKIN’ MOROCCAN LAMB SHOULDER Prep time: 20 minutes, Cook time: 140 minutes Serves: 4

INGREDIENTS

METHOD

• • • • • • •

Step 1: In a large bowl combine lamb, cumin, ground coriander, mustard seeds, turmeric and oil.

Step 2: Brown the lamb in a hot pan. Once browned, set aside in a bowl.

Step 3: Add the onions, carrots, eggplant and garlic cloves into the pan and cook for a few minutes. Put the lamb back in and continue to cook for around 10 minutes before adding the tomatoes, prunes, dates and chicken stock. Place in a slow cooker and cook for approximately two hours on low.

Step 4: Meanwhile, cook the brown rice.

Once cooked, combine the rice with coriander, sprout mix and the zest of one lemon. Spoon into a serving bowl.

Step 5: Once cooked, remove the lamb from of the oven/fire, mix in the zest and juice of one lemon and spoon into a large serving bowl. Garnish with pitted cherries and coriander.

• • • • • • • • • • • •

1kg lamb shoulder, diced 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp ground coriander 1 tsp mustard seeds 1 tsp turmeric 1 tbsp lemon-infused oil 10 pickling onions, peeled and cut in half 2 large carrots, roughly chopped 1 large eggplant, roughly chopped 8 garlic cloves 3 tomatoes, deseeded and diced 5 prunes 5 dates 1L chicken stock 2 cups brown rice half a bunch of coriander leaves 1 cup mixed sprouts 2 lemons pitted cherries to serve

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SPECIAL FEATURE

Manufacturer Profile:

TRIPLE M TRAY BODIES Who: The premier Australian manufacturer of truck bodies, ute trays and vehicle accessories.

History: Triple M—Manufacturing, Maintenance, Machining—started in 1967, moving into aluminium tray manufacturing in 1974. Since then, the business has grown by leaps and bounds; of the 450,000 tray bodies Triple M has sold since then, 300,000 have been in just the past 12 years. When Isuzu UTE launched its innovative—and legendarily tough—D-MAX in Australia in 2008, it was obvious that not just any tray back would do—it’d need to be just as rugged. That’s where Triple M came in, partnering with Isuzu UTE Australia to produce more than 8000 hardy tray backs in steel and aluminium so far, with more to come.

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manufacture and distribute this product, right here in Australia.”

Products: Triple M’s Quicklock technology addresses—and redresses—some of the most common problems associated with conventional trays, such as hinge damage under heavy load, finicky tailgate and drop-side removal, and easily bent mudguards.

“We wanted to take the tray body to a new level by using tray hardware that was safer, more durable and user friendly than traditional tray hardware,” says Fletcher. “We did a lot of investigation into suitable plastics, eventually landing on an automotive-grade nylon by Dupont.

“We did extensive testing to prove that the polymer could outperform steel, from a strength and safety perspective.”

Developed over a period of two years, and at a cost of more than $500,000, the design debuted in 2011. Isuzu UTE Australia saw the potential of the new system, adopting it for the new-model D-MAX in 2012 and including it on the three-year, 100,000km genuine accessory warranty.

Testing: To make sure their new technology could outlast, as well as outperform, conventional tray-back systems, Triple M’s new Quicklock hinge system underwent over 1000 hours of punishing trials. Video footage of the trials is available on their website.

Contact: 1800 773 030 or triplemtruckbodies.com.au.

Words: Craig Jamieson

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Triple M manufactures genuine accessories for the D-MAX range, including general purpose aluminium, heavy-duty aluminium and steel trays.

Extra options on the tray range include a ladder rack, tool box and water tank.

Philosophy: It’s a very simple one, says Michael Fletcher, Design and Development Manager at Triple M Tray Bodies, of ‘Quality First at the Right Price’.

“That’s always something that we’ve strived for,” he says. “From the start of our supply chain to selling to the customer, we put a lot of effort into process improvement so we can reduce manufacturing inefficiencies, which in turn reduces the cost of the products while maintaining the highest quality.

We were also determined to design, test,

FLASHBACK

1987

ISUZU IMPULSE TURBO RS It might be a surprise to some that Isuzu hasn’t always been about tough trucks, utes and SUVs Back in the 1980s, the designers and engineers at Isuzu in Japan made inroads into the sportscar genre. Their entry point was a cracking little three-door coupe called the Isuzu Piazza, known in the US market as the Impulse. In 1987, the company introduced a boosted, limited edition, aptly named the Turbo RS. All were painted white, with colour-keyed mirrors, door handles and 14-inch alloy wheels, as well as being trimmed with graphite-coloured bumpers, a rear spoiler and rocker panels.

Under the bonnet lurked a punchy, turbocharged two-litre air-to-air-intercooled SOHC four-pot. With an iron block and an alloy head, the engine was good for around 110kW at 4000rpm— which at the time propelled it to victories against the Mercedes-Benz 560SEC and BMW 635CSi in slalom testing!

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NSW

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Armidale Grant McCarroll Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 6772 1566

Maitland Hunter Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 4035 9300

Arncliffe Suttons Arncliffe Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 9335 9008 Ballina ASO Trevan Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 6681 4499 Batemans Bay Clyde Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 4472 4746 Bathurst Bathurst Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 6339 9444 Blacktown Gilbert & Roach Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 8825 1000 Bowral Harrigan Moss Vale Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 4868 3580

Moree Hill Fitzsimmons Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 6752 1777

Sutherland Sutherland Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 9524 6111 Tamworth Peel Valley Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 6768 3111 Taree Mid Coast Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 6592 6300 Tweed Heads Tweed Coast Isuzu UTE Phone: 07 5524 3555 Wagga Wagga Wagga Motors Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 6933 0100 Young McAlister Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 6382 3033

ACT Canberra John McGrath Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 6166 1111 Mitchell ASO John McGrath Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 6201 1800 Phillip ASO John McGrath Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 6122 2222

Mudgee Mudgee Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 6372 1766

SA

Muswellbrook ASF Wideland Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 6543 3066

Berri Chris Sinko Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 8582 2933

Narellan Narellan Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 4622 2552

Bordertown Wise Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 8752 0633

Newcastle Newcastle Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 4980 0660

Burton North East Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 8280 9899

Nowra Shoalhaven Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 4421 0122

Christies Beach Wayne Phillis Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 8384 8066

Orange Orange Isuzu UTE Phone: 02 6362 8100

Fullarton Fullarton Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 8338 2303

Hampstead Gardens ASO North East Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 8261 6006 Kadina Peninsula Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 8821 1022 Maitland ASO Peninsula Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 8832 2725 Mount Gambier OGR Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 8725 7999 Port Augusta Emanuele Bros Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 8643 6233 Port Lincoln Mike Raleigh Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 8683 1211 Tanunda Jarvis Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 8561 3700 Victor Harbor Victor Harbor Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 8552 7033

WA Albany Albany Autos Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 9842 5522 Broome Broome Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 9192 7357 Bunbury South West Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 9724 8444 Burswood Burswood Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 6164 1040 Esperance ASO Albany Autos Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 9071 1060 Geraldton Geraldton Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 9192 7357

O’Connor Major Motors Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 9331 9331 Osborne Park Regents Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 9273 2000 Port Hedland Northwest Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 9140 0100 Rockingham Bergmans Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 9527 8883 Wagin ASO South West Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 9861 1144 Wanneroo Wanneroo Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 9403 9403

NT Alice Springs Territory Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 8952 5155 Darwin Darwin NT Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 8924 8600 Katherine ASO Darwin NT Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 8974 0000

TAS Burnie ASO Gowans Isuzu UTE Phone: 03 6431 5677 Derwent Park Jackson Hobart Isuzu UTE Phone: 03 6277 6600 Devonport Gowans Isuzu UTE Phone: 03 6424 5177 Launceston Jackson Launceston Isuzu UTE Phone: 03 6323 7000

Kalgoorlie GTP Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 9021 4800 Maddington DVG Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 9492 0000 Mandurah Barbagallo Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 9587 9999 Merredin ASO Northam Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 9041 4444 Midland Midland Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 9464 1000 Northam Northam Isuzu UTE Phone: 08 9622 0888

ASO = Authorised Satellite Outlet ASF = Authorised Service Facility

Effective as of 01/06/2016. Please visit our website http://www.isuzuute.com.au/find-a-dealer.aspx for the latest dealer contact details.

NO MATTER WHERE YOUR ADVENTURES TAKE YOU, ARB HAS THE GEAR TO GET YOU THERE.

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