TWO Wangaratta locals who ventured to the northern-most tip of the Australian mainland in cars each almost half a century old have returned from their travels, having raised thousands of dollars for young armed forces veterans in the process.
Originally masterminded by Wangaratta-local Cameron Gray and father Andrew following the latter’s retirement from a 37-year Air Force career, the pair set off for ‘Pajinka’ in June, with Andrew travelling from his home in Tasmania in a 1978 HJ45 Land Cruiser nicknamed ‘Natasha’.
Arriving in Wangaratta to pick up his son for the journey, the pair were joined by Cameron’s long-time friend Tom Carriera, who committed to driving his own early 70s Holden HQ ute alongside them, before embarking on a solo journey through the red centre on his return to Wangaratta.
The northern journey, dubbed ‘Tassie to the Tip’, was documented by Andrew on his 1000-subscriber YouTube channel ‘Grayzbildz’, and raised funds for charity ‘Young Veterans’, which supports young servicemen and women in re-engaging with their community after serving with the armed forces.
So far, the trip has raised $2000, shy of its $5000 donation goal.
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Cameron said the four-week, 10,000km return journey saw the trio cover an average of as many as 500km per day, travelling through the New South Wales before diverting to Caloundra and taking in Queensland’s Sunshine Coast through to the famed Telegraph Track on Cape York.
“Unfortunately poor Tom sat behind the Land Cruiser which couldn’t do 100kph - so we sat at about 90 or 95 so it was long days, but all three of us are very passionate about cars and like driving, so for us, looking out the windscreen at things was like pulling into a scenic spot to have a look (for others),” he said.
“We really enjoyed the whole adventure behind it – I jumped in with Tom in the passenger seat a couple of times, just to keep him under control and have a bit of a conversation because he was getting a bit bored by himself.
“Doing the old Telegraph Track for was a really big achievement, (particularly) in an old car like the Land Cruiser. People go and do that track thinking you need a $150,000 setup 4WD to be able to achieve it.
“We went on that track and had as much fun as anyone, the car was probably more capable than some of the new cars and there were no electronics to go wrong – when we did Nolans (famous river crossing) we didn’t worry about water coming in the car because there was nothing electric for it to fail.
“As long as we kept it running it was going to make it through and surprisingly (the Land Cruiser) dropped down into it and then drove right out of it – to actually drive it was like ‘this car’s pretty capable’ and a lot of people respected it.”
With both cars having conquered the 571km Peninsula Developmental Road (PDR) and the Telegraph Track beyond, and with the trio sharing a drink at the tip of the Australian mainland, Cameron said the return leg of the journey threw just as many challenges at the travelers.
After Tom departed inland to travel through Halls Gap and Uluru before returning to Wangaratta, Cameron said he and his father had run into car trouble, after a wedge-tailed eagle flew through their windscreen.
“We had to kick the windscreen out and drive 400km without a windscreen which got us to Townsville,” he said.
“Luckily this old-school mechanic had a windscreen for our Land Cruiser in his back shed available – for a modern car you probably would’ve waited for one to come in, but this guy had one available which was lucky.
“The hype for heading up there was (about the) unknown, what we’re going to come across - at the same time on the way up there (you’re thinking) is the car going to break down, are we going to have an issue where we actually have to cancel our trip from here and not make it to the top.
“Once we did make it to the top, if the car breaks down from here or something happens, we’ve made it to the top and we’ve actually done something we wanted to achieve.”
Tom experienced his own animal trouble during his solo leg, when he collided with a kangaroo mere kilometres away from his home in Wangaratta.
Having spent considerable time behind the camera throughout the trip, Cameron said it was exciting to be able to look back at the experience down the track, with the first of his father’s YouTube videos expected to be released in the coming weeks.
“That’s going to be awesome to be able to reflect on it one day, and people will see exactly what we saw,” he said.
“I had an idea of what it was like, but you could never explain to someone what (Cape York) is like without experiencing it, it’s such a different place.”
