Australia. No one has even heard of a Ford Bronco.

[AussieBronco]

Flash, I'd be very interested in knowing how you go importing your bronco as I am originally from Queensland and will eventually be importing my bronco back to oz. There are full sized Bronco's floating around Australia but no EB's.

The diesel Toyota Landcruiser's and Nissan Patrol's (a Ford Maverick is a re badged patrol) are very popular 4x4's from touring to hardcore rock crawling.

 

[flash]

Aussie,
I'm still tyring to iron this all out, but anything older than a 1989 model may be imported to Australia without restriction. As sponsored immigrants my wife & I are each allowed to bring along a car without being hit up for import fees, duty ect. I plan to load both broncos into a 40' container box & pack our stuff around them. The problem comes when I go to get Queensland "rego", they will require a restricted use license plate because they are left hand drive. This requires them to be certified as completely original & restricts them to being only driven in club functions, parades ect. This won't work for me as mine are very modified & driving restrictions defeat the whole purpose of bringing them in the first place. I have figured how to perform the steering conversions & plan to do so, but then the problem then becomes the requirement of having an engineer inspect & ok the conversions to meet Queensland safety requirements, or have a qualified shop do the conversions. There is a lot more to it than this & like I stated I'm still working in it.
I'm also bringing a backhoe & a very large boat, so I should have this importing stuff figured out pretty well in the end.
I'm meeting with a "bloke" in Los Angeles who ships stuff to Oz for a living in a couple of weeks so hopefully he can shed some light.
My wife is a registered nurse & is being sponsored by the Townsville hospital which is how we are getting our visas. They make it very difficult to migrate to Australia even for their most qualified & needed people (I wish the US would take notes). We've been working on this for a year now & expect to be moving in 6 months or so, thats extremely fast for Australian immigration.
Last April, we drove from Brisbane to Townsville looking for a new place to live. We absolutely fell in love with Australia & we can't believe how relaxed & friendly you Aussies are. I'm sure my children are getting a better place to grow up. I love the US & this pains me greatly, but I think it's headded down hill fast. Also Australia has a better economy & a brighter economic future especially for an excavation contractor from Az.
When/where are you moving to Queensland? Who knows maybe we can start A down Under EB club.

 

[stevew]

I've been in touch with & sold some parts to a Bronco owner in Langshaw Queensland for about the past 5 years . He bought it in L.A. & shipped it there . Unfortunately it was missing quite alot so he's having issues with getting stuff shipped ( cost etc ) . It's one of many projects he has so it likely won't be on the road for some time yet . As noted , he also has never seen another EB in Oz .

 

[AussieBronco]

Flash, your conversion sounds very interesting. The only way I thought about getting around the left hand drive issue was registering the car in Western Australia, but I imagine the QLD cops would always give you a hard time. I would be very interested to know how you do the RHD conversion. Will you do it here or in Oz? The easter seaboard is a very beautiful place and from Townsville you you have endless wheeling opportunities as the Dane Tree National Forest is just to the north and above that is Cape York Peninsula is just beyond that. Below Townsville there is endless 4x4 tracks and clubs, especially further down towards Harvey Bay.

I won't be moving back for another 2 years or so, but when I do it would be great to form a QLD bronco Club, as it looks like we could have at least 3 members to start with! The only problem is I will probably be based out of Brisbane. Good luck and keep us posted on your endeavorers. Let me know if you need any help from the other end. It's been a while since I've been to Townsville, but I'm sure I'd know a whole bunch of people who could help out of needed. (QLD is a big country community and you always know someone)

 

[casadejohnson]

Bring back some aussie heads...

Bring back some inline six heads! They have the intake that unbolts from the head instead of being one piece like we have here. Lucky Bastards!

 

[flash]

Aussie, Let's keep in touch.
There is actually a chance we will end up in Maryborough which is much closer to Brissie & only a 15 minute drive to Hervey Bay & Frazier Island, but either way it would be fun to get together with you & run some trails.
Drop me a line @ flashexcavating@msn.com