"Man from Snowy River"

[Richard Coutts-Smith]

Back in the 80's the epic Australian poem "The Man From the Snowy River" was filmed in the High country of North East Victoria, two biggest challenges were getting a bankable American star, and being able to film the horses and associated action on the move.
Kirk Douglas duly arrived, quite a coup when you look back, but little interest to the MLU fraternity I am sure.
What was interesting was the requirment for a camera vehicle that could handle cameras and crew, while matching the speed of the horses over country that was really only suitable for.....horses.
The winner was (envelope please) the venerable Austin Champ. With its open top and Ohh so supple independant suspension it was easily fitted with the required camera brackets and was able to provide the footage that made the film watchable, sorry I mean: made the film such a huge success!
However, here she is, in all her rusty glory. The scaffolding front and rear are obviously the camera brackets, the Spare chassis's in the last pic show the unusual "X" design that was needed to support the stresses of the Champs independant suspension, and why there was no room for a conventional transfer case behind the gearbox (it of course ended up in the back diff where it performed faultlessly, with no trouble at all, bulletproof, easy to maintain and work on if it did ever wearout, and a really good idea. Really!)

Gosh, if only there was a film type person with time on his hands, and a suitable event coming up, say for arguments sake, a gathering of British military type vehicles that needed filming.....
Rich.