I left Sydney on a Friday afternoon to drop the Redhead off at our daughter Jane's place in Port Macquarie before crossing the Divide to Walcha. There I caught up with our convoy, Brisbane Valley-bound.

I'd fuelled up the Land Cruiser's two tanks in Castle Hill, paying an outrageous $1.60 a litre for diesel. The next top-up was in northern NSW where the price tag was down slightly:

$1.54.

Across the border into the Darling Downs, bowsers were regularly selling diesel for $1.25 to $1.35 per litre.

With Brisbane and country Queensland house prices also considerably lower than those of Sydney and comparable ''Mexican'' towns, is it any wonder there's a continuing exodus to the Deep North?

Back home a week later, I drove out of the office carpark behind Old Northern Road and found the obstacle course remained in Baulkham Hills Council's Terminus Street carpark.

A reconfigured parking bay-cum-pedestrian crossing guard rail in McDougall Lane (surely The Hills' most filthy street, incidentally) is a major problem. Especially for cars turning left from McDougall Lane into the four-laned entry/

exit ramp in the centre of the carpark.

The bay/ramp protrudes across a full lane,

forcing turns so tight cars necessarily cross the double lines, intimidating oncoming motorists. Every time I tried in the Tojo to execute as tight a turn as possible, I still drove over the double lanes - and 20 out of 20 cars following me did the same thing.

Nut all is in hand. A council spokesman

promised there would be an imminent solution and, sure enough, on Thursday the workers arrived. They dug up the protruding corner of the ramp, rounded it off somewhat and reconcreted it.