“People looked at us like we were crazy.”
A bunch of Aussie blokes in a typical Aussie shed building a car.
Nothing crazy about that.
Except that car was scheduled to drive underwater in shark and crocodile-infested territory in an attempt to break a world record.
Shepparton-born Travis Lia was part of a team of engineers that did exactly that, driving across Darwin Harbour and breaking not one but two world records on Saturday, July 29.
In a 1978 Toyota LandCruiser called the ‘Mudcrab’, a rotating team of 35 divers, including Travis, travelled nearly 8km underwater, reaching depths of 32m.
Travis’s father, Reno Lia, was at his Shepparton home, watching live footage from the camera on one of the diver’s helmets.
“My first thought was I don’t want to see a crocodile or a shark,” he said.
“(I was nervous) by a mile. I thought if one of these lithium batteries blows up, they’re in big trouble, and they had 14 of them!”
The last time Reno saw the ‘Mudcrub’, it was “just an old rust bucket” being built in his father’s backyard in Melbourne.
The team of engineers had replaced the motor with an electric engine, welded casings for waterproofing, and bomb-proofed it for the batteries to withstand a certain pressure in the water.
“When they told me about it, it’s like something you’d read in a fiction book,” Reno said.
“I asked if it was going to work, and they looked at me like I was from outer space and said it will work, we just have to figure out how.
“Seeing their energy and belief, not once did they reconsider, they were so confident.”
Reno described his son Travis as a daredevil, never fractured by nerves, and an inspiration that anything was possible.
As an engineer and experienced diver, Travis has spent a lifetime thriving on these kinds of challenges.
So much so that it squashed the enormity of the risky task ahead — it was about getting the job done.
“I’m used to tasks like this ... in trying circumstances, I’ve developed mental resistance,” Travis said.
As the ‘Mudcrab’ slipped below the surface that day, problems arose, but so did solutions.
For every bog in soft mud, there were lift bags on each side of the vehicle to take a tonne out of the weight and soldier on.
Said airbags also came in handy to float over the world’s largest pipeline.
It turned into a 12-hour battle to get the ‘Mudcrab’ across the harbour and to clear the shipping channel during the Port of Darwin’s strict timelines, but they did it.
Awaiting them on solid ground was a party at the water’s edge of Mindil Beach.
“About 9pm, we had the car close to creeping out of the water — we were super late to our own party,” Travis said.
“Thousands came out to see us, with their phone torches, walking into the water.
“They were all cheering. It was a pretty surreal moment.”
Now, over a month later, time has allowed Travis to let the underwater venture really sink in.
“The more I reflect on it, the more I realise what an achievement it is,” Travis said.
“Companies like Tesla haven’t built an electric car that could do that, not Toyota, no-one, just us.
“And we got it done with no fancy workshops or equipment, no money behind it, just a bunch of mates drinking beer and building a car.”