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New Products:

LCR 200 Series 180Li Aux tank
HD Adjustable Drag Links and Tie Rods suit Patrol & LCR

Specials:

Web Site Update:

For those of you who haven't visited the 4wd systems website in a while, we had a comprehensive update mid-year. Well worth a look, had lots of positive feedback. If you have visited the site in the last 6 months you will have seen the new format, hope you like it!

Milparinka:

We had a day to kill, a couple of mates and I, so we asked at the Milparinka Pub about some old gold mines and graves we had heard about on a previous trip. Milparinka is just off the Silver City Highway, 300kms north of Broken Hill on the way to Tiboorburra. Its normally an overnight stop on the way to somewhere else, but like almost everywhere you go in Australia, there's so much more if you take the time to look.

Following some rough directions we ended up at the Mt Brown Station rubbish dump. I've always found old station dumps and cemeteries very interesting and a great source of local history. Mt Brown did not disappoint. There was a mountain of broken bottles, windmill parts and other station parafinalia. But more interesting to us were the old Landcruisers, parts of a pennyfarthing, a WW2 Willys Jeep body and an assortment of 4wd vehicles & trucks in various states of disrepair.

As we scouted round the area (the dump covers a few acres) a 75 Series Landcruiser ute rolled up. Looked like a station vehicle but turned out to be some private gold prospectors from Blackall QLD. After some small talk, gaining some trust, the couple showed us the result of their prospecting. A handful of stones with trace woven through. Exciting stuff!

However, the pride of their efforts was a good sized nugget in the shape of Tasmania. Safe to say it was worth quite a few dollars and the trip was financially worthwhile for them. There is a one off cost to acquire the equipment - detectors, camping gear, set up a 4WD with dual battery and fridge, good suspension, fuel tanks, snorkel etc - all the things you need for independent remote area travelling. We said our goodbyes and headed further west, keen to find the mines and graves.

A few kms on we crossed through a sandy creek, the other side to reveal a desolate site. The pictures don't do justice to the harshness of the surrounds, the sense of hopelessness, sadness - hot, dry, treeless, white clay and rock. There was plenty of evidence of past mining activity, most trees consumed for bracing the shafts, white mounds of powdered dry clay, rusting chunks of early mechanisation. And on the crest of a nearby stony rise were the graves. Not a cemetery, no fence, just a scattering - most unmarked, many very small, a few ornate head stones.

Here we were visiting a bygone era in a modern air-conditioned 4wd, diff lock to help through the sand, terrain insulating suspension to iron-out bumps and corrugations, cold drinks from the fridge, long range diesel enough to drive over a 1000kms home without stopping.

We admired their tenacity but could hardly imagine the unbearable conditions of the previous residents. Often not surviving early childhood, labouring in the dingy shafts for 'tuppence' (except for the few that made good), pushing the wagons and carts through the sand to get goods in and out, oppressing heat, flies. Water, where was the life giving water? Pass me another coldie Mick, fast!

We headed out past the airstrip, north to Pooles Grave and Depot Glen, made famous by the early explorers Burke & Wills and Sturt. 1845, poor John Poole, Charles Sturt's 2IC, marooned for months by drought at Depot Glenn, the only reliable water. Advanced scurvy, Sturt decided to send Poole south for medical treatment, he lasted but a day, so the escort brought him back to the camp. They buried him at the base of Mt Poole. The blazed tree survives today. Harsh country indeed.

On our return to the Milparinka Pub, we were greeted by an old customer of ours with a GU Patrol. David was in trouble. The RH rear wheel studs had sheared off. Going along sweet... then bang, down she went. Towing a camper and accompanied by family, the good day had turned into a dramatic night. The camper pushed off the road and family prepairing dinner, we set about removing the RH wheel to remove the broken studs, then the LH rear wheel, removed 3 good studs and fitted them to the RH side. 3 studs a wheel. Not quite as good as new, but good enough to get to Broken Hill, if driven gently.

"All part of the service, Workshop on hand at every corner" I told David! Our good deed done for the day, we headed to the Pub to reminisce an eventual day!

Footnote:
On further investigation I have found several other Patrols have had wheel stud failure when using the factory alloy mag wheels. Possibly the result of different rates of expansion between the alloy and steel - yet to be proven.