News Archives - Pat Callinan's 4X4 Adventures

Ford hasn’t officially announced its 2027 Ranger and Everest line-ups yet, but preliminary details have started appearing online, and there are some interesting changes potentially heading our way. Information based…

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Cooper Creek Floods The Birdsville Track… Again

Just when it looked like the Birdsville Track might finally be settling down after a huge year of flooding, Cooper Creek has gone over the track again. Floodwater from the…

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CREB Track turns treacherous after days of heavy rain

Travellers are being warned to stay off Far North Queensland’s CREB Track after persistent rain transformed the already challenging route into an impassable mess. According to an update from Local…

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Labor emissions crackdown could make more 4X4s expensive

The Federal Government is preparing to expand its emissions rules to cover more heavy-duty utes and 4X4s, potentially leaving Australian buyers thousands of dollars worse off from 2027. Labor is…

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Is Hill End The Next Big Touring Destination?

Hill End has always felt much bigger than its current population suggests. Hidden away in the NSW Central Tablelands, north of Bathurst, the former gold-mining town is filled with old…

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Thousands of utes are heading for Deni again in 2026

There aren’t many events in Australia where the journey there is almost as recognisable as the event itself. Every October long weekend, highways and backroads leading towards Deniliquin begin filling…

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Pat’s heading to the Melbourne 4×4 Show

If there’s one weekend guaranteed to add a dangerously large number of new items to your 4X4 wish list, this might be it. The National 4×4 Outdoors Show is returning…

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The Strzelecki Track Is Changing Forever… But Is That A Good Thing?

Every time another section of the bush gets sealed, the comments light up. Some 4X4ers celebrate another step towards reliable year-round access, while others see it as one more piece…

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Wait, There’s A Ferry On The Birdsville Track?

If you’ve spent any time travelling Australia’s outback, you’ll know the Birdsville Track by reputation. Stretching more than 500 kilometres between Marree in South Australia and Birdsville in Queensland, it’s…

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Your Dream 4X4 Build Could Be One Entry Away

If your dream touring build has been sitting on the “one day” list, you might want to make some time before July 6th. Club 4X4’s Mods Grant competition is entering…

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What A $320 Million Kimberley Investment Means For 4X4ers

There’s a tendency to think of the Kimberley as one of the last untouched corners of Australia. Spend enough time exploring the region and it’s easy to understand why. The…

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Boom To Bust: What Is Happening To Australian Caravans?

If you’ve spent any time around caravan dealerships over the last five years, you’ve seen both extremes of the market. During COVID, manufacturers couldn’t build vans fast enough. Customers were…

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Why Ford Believes Australia’s Best Engineering Days Are Ahead

For a lot of Aussie’s, the end of local car manufacturing felt like the end of an era. When the last Falcon rolled off the line in 2016, it was…

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Cold Snap Closes Alpine Routes

An early dumping of snow has seen the authorities shut down several iconic High Country tracks ahead of schedule. Severe weather and safety concerns mean the winter lockout is officially…

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Kakadu Closures Lock Out Popular Falls For 2026

If you’re planning a trip to the Top End this dry season, you need to rewrite your itinerary. Parks Australia and the TO’s have just dropped a bombshell announcement regarding…

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Flood Warning for NSW’s Most Popular 4X4 tracks

We all love a good weekend escape into the bush, but nature is about to turn the taps on across some of our favorite testing grounds. If you have tracks…

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Blue Oval bets big on storytelling

Ford Australia just launched a new online content hub called From The Road. We know what you are thinking. Why does a car manufacturer need a lifestyle blog? Well, it…

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The Big Wet is Coming: What the First NW Cloudband Means for Your Next Trip

Well, it looks like Mother Nature has decided to roll a six just when we thought the outback was heading for a dusty winter. After a dry April and plenty…

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Lock it in: ARB Kicks Off 2026 Open Day This Weekend

It’s time to clear the calendar and check the tyre pressures. The crew at ARB have locked in the date for their nationwide Open Day, and it is shaping up…

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Desert Parks update: Floods, closures, and limited access

We’ve seen some massive rain events across Central Australia recently, with more than 10 inches falling in some parts. While the desert in bloom is a sight to behold, it’s…

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The Kimberley is Getting a Billion-Dollar Brain

We usually head south of Broome to find a quiet stretch of sand or to test out a new set of rubber on the pindan, but the landscape on Karajarri…

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The Great Outback Lock Up

We have all seen the headlines about the New South Wales government snapping up massive chunks of the outback. What was once the backbone of our wool and cattle industries…

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The Big Boss in the Bush: Ford CEO heads Down Under

We’ve seen a few high-flying CEO types roll through Australia over the years, but they usually stick to the boardrooms of Sydney or the cafes of Melbourne. It’s not every…

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Bright Ideas For Rural Roads

Driving rural roads at midnight is a different beast compared to the daytime run. When the shadows stretch out and the lines on the bitumen start to blur into the…

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Close Call North of Broome as Big Saltie Strikes

The latest news out of the Kimberley is a blunt reminder that the top end doesn’t play fair. A young bloke in his 20s is currently recovering in Perth after…

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National Parks are more crowded than ever

The latest numbers are in and it turns out we are all feeling a bit of cabin fever. New South Wales national parks just clocked a record-breaking 65.5 million visits…

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The Birdsville bubble has burst but keep the snorkel on

We’ve just seen some fresh updates coming across the desk from the Birdsville Hotel and the Diamantina Shire Council, and it’s a bit of a game changer for anyone sitting…

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Ford throw $4000 worth of fuel in your tank

We’ve all felt the pinch at the bowser lately. It feels like every time we plan a big trip up the coast or into the red centre, the fuel prices…

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Ford Ranger and a lap of the map up for grabs

We’ve seen some massive giveaways over the years, but the “BIG Aussie Review” currently doing the rounds is certainly one of the biggest. The premise is straightforward: someone is going…

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Important April News

MRT LAUNCHES HELIUM INJECTED CANOPY TO BEAT GVM In an industry first, MRT have launched the world’s first helium filled canopy to help customers meet GVM requirements. Included in their…

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Mother Nature rules the roost as Big Red Bash 2026 is cancelled

It’s rare that we see the Simpson Desert looking more like an inland sea than a dust bowl, but that’s exactly the hand we’ve been dealt. The news came through…

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Prices Up, Quality Down, What’s Happening With Our Fuel

If you’ve pulled up to a bowser lately and felt like you’re being mugged in slow motion, you’re not alone. Prices have been climbing hard, availability’s been patchy, and now,…

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Does Australia Actually Want To Build Things Anymore?

There was a line dropped over the weekend that cut straight through the usual corporate PR fluff. Ford CEO Jim Farley, speaking during the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, warned…

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Visitors Will Soon Pay To See The Twelve Apostles

One of Australia’s most recognisable coastal landmarks will soon come with an entry fee attached. The Victorian Government has confirmed plans to introduce a tourist charge linked to the new…

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Wooleen Station To Change Hands After Two Decades Of Conservation-First Touring

One of WA’s most talked-about outback stations is officially heading into a new chapter. Wooleen Station, a 134,000-hectare pastoral lease roughly 700km north of Perth in the Murchison, has been…

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Local Council’s Crack Down On Caravan Storage

Sutherland Shire Council in Sydney’s south is weighing up a crackdown on trailers and caravans being parked long-term on suburban streets after fielding close to 3,000 complaints in 2025 alone.…

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Zone RV Sold, Customers Burned: What It Means For The Caravan Industry

The collapse of Zone RV sent a shockwave through the touring community late last year. Now there’s a new chapter. Melbourne-based Essential Caravans has officially purchased the assets of the…

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What Happens To Utes Under NVES?

The first results from Australia’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) are in, and on the surface, the industry has ticked the box for 2025. Targets met. Credits issued. Everyone moves…

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The Robot Ranger: Can it Handle the Real Bush?

Would you trust a computer to steer your rig through a bushfire? It sounds like a tall tale from a sci-fi flick. But a new Aussie project is trying to…

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Dingo Deterrent Trials on K’gari

If you’ve been following the chatter on socials lately, you might’ve seen some funky photos going around from K’gari, the place most of us know as Fraser Island, of fake tents rigged…

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Gnarabup Resort Approved: Progress, Pressure and the Cost of Loving Places to Death

Another slice of Australia’s coastline is at the centre of a familiar tug-of-war. This time it’s Gnarabup, just south of Margaret River, where a $138 million luxury resort has been given the…

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Have Your Say On The Great Koala National Park

The Great Koala National Park would be one of the largest protected areas ever created in NSW. Spanning more than 475,000 hectares, it’ll stretch from Kempsey to Grafton and inland…

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Are public campsites still first-come, first-served?

If you’ve camped anywhere popular over Christmas or Easter, you’ve probably felt it. That low-level tension when you roll into a spot expecting a chance at a riverbank camp, only…

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Mt Warning could reopen by 2027

One of NSW’s most hotly debated track closures might finally have a light at the end of the tunnel. After being shut since 2020, the Wollumbin Summit Track in Northern…

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ANCAP Rules Could Finally Fix Annoying 4WD Safety Tech

If you’ve driven a new 4X4 on dirt in the last few years, you already know the pain. Corrugations start, lane markings disappear, you move the wheel an inch… and…

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Gamba Grass Is Threatening One of the NT’s Best 4X4 Destinations

If you’ve ever pointed the bonnet north towards the Top End, Litchfield National Park is usually on the itinerary. It’s the sort of place that makes touring in Australia the…

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Ford Backs Drive Against Depression

There is a concept in the touring world we reckon holds a lot of water. It is called ‘windshield therapy’. You know the feeling. The noise of the daily grind…

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The Iconic Lions Den Hotel Is Up For Grabs (Again)

If you’ve ever rattled your fillings loose on the corrugated tracks of Cape York, chances are you’ve stopped at the Lions Den Hotel. It’s a rite of passage. A tin-and-timber…

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The Zone RV Shock: Why We’re Rooting for a Resurrection

By now, the news has done the rounds: Zone RV, one of the absolute heavyweights of the premium off-road caravan game, has entered voluntary administration. For anyone with a love…

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Labor Says No To Blanket Speed Limit Cuts on Outback Roads

In a rare display of political spine, WA Labor senator Glenn Sterle has come out swinging against a federal proposal that could see speed limits slashed on unsigned rural roads…

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