Scooby-Doos.

Up until the mid-1970s, 4WDs were primarily the domain of farmers, miners and foresters, rather than for the after-school-pickup run.

The original 4WDs were rugged and spartan vehicles with none of the modern comforts or safety features like power everything, cloth seats, carpets, chrome trim, airbags, cruise control, disk brakes, sound system, satnav… blah… blah… blah…

It seemed that all government vehicles in the 1970s came factory fitted with the “Poverty Pac”, and the only air-conditioning was 4WD-60… Four Windows Down… 60 miles per hour…

The aptly named Subaru Forester then hit-the-market in Australia in about 1975 which heralded a new era of small, comfortable, well-equipped and safe family 4WDs.

The Forests Commission purchased some for the fleet, but they didn’t hold up well to rough bush tracks and weren’t very popular with forest supervisors and overseers who were more accustomed to their indestructible shorty-40 Tojos.

They also seemed to spend a lot of time in the garage getting CV joints repaired.

Then in the mid-1980s, the Department briefly flirted with the tragically beige Toyota Tercel (AKA – The Turtle).