4wdtouring.com.au | 009REVIEWe don’t like to think of a retrospective as ‘yep, another
year down’, as though we’re just ripping the months
off a calendar. We like to think of each magazine as
one adventure that rolls seamlessly into the next.
And over the last 12 issues that’s exactly how it’s felt; we were
all over Australia, from King Island one minute to Dirk Hartog
Island a couple of weeks later, the stars at night being aboutthe only reminder that we were even camped out in the same
country.
And each night’s stars were soon replaced by the glow of a
new dawn in a new location. We worked from the road, and
as one magazine headed off to the printer, a new destination
magically lured us to our next dawn and our next magazine.
It’s been a ride that none of us plan on getting off.W
JIMMY O’KEEFEIssue 62
WIDE OPEN ROAD
Tales From Beyond The Tarmac
When The Triffids released the song ‘Wide
Open Road’ in 1986 it became a modern
anthem, a rallying cry to get out and lose
yourself in the real Australia. The Wide Open
Road is a concept that has always driven
us. We live in an environment that draws us
ever deeper into its geographical bounties.
It goes against our nature to sleep comfortably at night, knowing that all
these places exist, just lying in wait for us to explore... Thus, in this issue,
our man Sean Scott joined the traditional owners on a bush bash through
the Dampier Archipelago, the country’s 4WDing godfather Dick Eussen pre-
sented us with an FNQ touring guide, and we took a trip across the guts of
the Simpson with a family of young explorers.Issue 61
QUEENSLAND
From Gulf Country To Granite Belt
Reef and beef, cattle and cane, grit and
glitz, rainforests and deserts... ‘Where
else but Queensland?’ When you consid-
er that the scalene triangle of Queens-
land’s landmass is five times the size of
Japan, six times the size of the UK, and
three times the size of Texas, there is
plenty of room to be everything for all people. This issue we uncov-
ered the common thread that links the backroads of the Sunshine
State, with supreme touring sojourns through The Granite Belt in the
south, the Warrego in the west, and the coastal one-two punch of
Fraser and Straddie in the east.Issue 54
SUMMER ESCAPES
The Coolest Getaways
In The Hottest Season
When we are in the thick of a season
thick with heat and humidity we’re inter-
nally driven to both bask in it and to cool
off from it. A swim on a secluded beach
is made twice as memorable when it’s
twice as hot. In this issue we opened
a big sweaty editorial embrace to the best of summer – the best
summer touring destinations in the land. Across every state and ter-
ritory! We unveiled the best getaways, be they beaches, waterfalls,
rainforests or ultra-hidden secret spots. To cap it off, we rounded up
the best ice-boxes in the land, went on an outback NSW pub crawl,
and we caught a bucketload of summer whiting.Issue 53
DOWN UNDER DOWNUNDER
Australia’s Forgotten
Southern Coast
What lies beneath? At the bottom ofthe
continent, before it all falls away into
the icy morass of the Roaring 40s? There
was only one way to find out, by re-chart-
ing the journeys of the early explorers
in wildernesses that are still yet to be
tapped by the hordes. And so our all-terrains trundled, from crusty
Lake Eyre, to the white sands of Esperance, and the crushed crayon
sunsets of the Flinders Ranges. Part travelogue, part touring guide
and completely anything else you had ever seen on the newsstands.
Elsewhere in the mag we also explored the dark art of land-based
game fishing.Issue 57
CAPE YORK
Tales From The Tip Truck
It’s the ultimate pilgrimage – the trip to
the tip! And this month we celebrated
with a special issue on the deep muddy
tracks and the deep life adventures that
unfurled in front of the windscreen as we
made our way to the top of Cape York. A
magazine as colourful as the destination,
with features that ran the entire gamut, from extreme rescues and wet
season missions, all the way to family bonding trips. As if that wasn’t
enough, we also hunted the shallow reefies of the deep north, and
checked Oz’s best UHF options.Issue 58
BEYOND
Where Outer Light
Meets Inner Light
Ahh, the great beyond! Where we found
the edge of the Australian track and took
a broad step into the unknown; this being
our 112-page ode to the outsider. Carlisle
explored the uncommon sense that drives
us into driving into the unknown, and from
there we embarked on a journey exploring outside the touring bounda-
ries. From a reverse roadie that started in the Red Centre and ended
at the coast, to a photo expose of the secrets that lie just beyond the
suburbs, and superbly rounded out with a trip to the ghostly surrounds
of Limmen NP.REACH YOUR
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