There are plenty of four-wheel drives that Australians love, but the LandCruiser is something different. For generations of owners it has been a farm vehicle, work ute, family wagon, weekend toy and sometimes a member of the family in its own right. That history is part of the reason old LandCruisers work so well as automotive artwork. An FJ40 or FJ45 isn't just recognisable because of its shape. For a lot of people, that shape is attached to a particular place, trip, job, relative or period of their life.
And much of that story starts well before four-wheel drives became lifestyle vehicles.
Before the 40 Series
Toyota's first vehicle in the lineage appeared in 1951 as the Toyota BJ. The LandCruiser name followed in 1954, before the second-generation 20 Series began larger-scale exports. Australia became important to the LandCruiser story very early. Toyota Australia records that the first FJ25 LandCruisers were sold here by Melbourne importer B&D Motors. LandCruisers then gained serious credibility when vehicles imported by construction businessman Leslie Thiess were put to work on the rough tracks associated with the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme.
That distinction matters. The LandCruiser didn't establish itself here because it looked tough in an advertisement. It established itself by doing the hard work.
The 40 Series arrives
Toyota launched the 40 Series globally in 1960. Toyota Australia dates its Australian arrival to 1962, and the model would go on to have an unusually long production life. Toyota offered the 40 Series in different wheelbases and body configurations, including soft tops, vans, pickups and other commercial versions. Globally, its reputation for reliability and cross-country ability helped make the LandCruiser name familiar far beyond Japan. Yet specifications alone don't really explain why the 40 Series remains so recognisable.
Look at one and the basic ingredients are remarkably simple:
-
upright windscreen
-
separate front guards
-
round headlights
-
narrow body
-
short overhangs
-
simple, functional panels
-
very little decoration for decoration's sake
It looks like a car that was designed around what it needed to do. And that has aged extremely well.
FJ40 and FJ45: what's the difference?
This is where LandCruiser naming can become confusing.
40 Series describes the broader model family. Individual model codes within that family varied according to factors including engine, wheelbase and body configuration. In enthusiast conversation, FJ40 is most commonly associated with the short-wheelbase 40 Series shape many people picture when somebody says “classic LandCruiser”.
FJ45, meanwhile, is strongly associated with the longer-wheelbase working versions, including utes and troop-carrier-style bodies. The 40 Series family eventually included several wheelbase lengths and a surprisingly broad range of working configurations. That difference is part of their appeal.
An FJ40 feels compact and almost toy-like by modern 4WD standards. An FJ45 looks ready to have fencing gear, camping equipment, tools or half a property thrown into the back.
Same family. Very different personalities.
Why the FJ45 feels particularly Australian
The longer LandCruisers make sense in Australia because so much of the vehicle's reputation here came from work. Farms, construction projects, remote travel, field work and infrastructure put a premium on vehicles that could carry people and equipment over large distances without needing perfect roads.
Toyota's own Australian historical material includes an account of FJ55s and an FJ45 being used on scientific expeditions into Arnhem Land in the 1970s, towing caravans through difficult conditions before and after the wet season. Stories like that explain the LandCruiser better than any list of specifications could. They were useful. And useful vehicles tend to accumulate stories.
Then came the 70 Series
By the early 1980s, the 40 Series had been around for more than two decades. Toyota launched the heavy-duty 70 Series in 1984 as its successor, updating the styling, cabin, ride comfort and usability while keeping the heavy-duty LandCruiser philosophy intact. Toyota Australia records the 40 Series being replaced locally by the 70 Series in 1985.
That's important because the 70 Series wasn't a complete change of direction. It was an evolution. Toyota could make the vehicle easier to live with without forgetting why people bought one in the first place.
The FJ75 and the classic 70 Series shape
For many Australian enthusiasts, the early 70 Series — including the 75 Series working variants — occupies an interesting middle ground. It is clearly more modern than a 40 Series, but it still looks unapologetically functional. Square body. Simple glasshouse. Upright front. Big wheel openings. Not much visual fuss.
The family resemblance with earlier heavy-duty LandCruisers remained deliberate. Toyota itself says the original 70 Series styling retained the overall image of the 40 Series while bringing changes intended to improve comfort and usability.
That connection hasn't disappeared.
When Toyota substantially updated the Australian 70 Series for 2024, it deliberately referenced its own history: circular headlights harked back to earlier 70s, the grille included a cooling-vent treatment inspired by the 75 Series, and the bonnet incorporated a detail borrowed from the 40 Series. Forty years after the 70 Series began, Toyota was still borrowing from those old shapes. That tells you something about how strong the original design became.
Why LandCruisers became so deeply Australian
Toyota created the LandCruiser in Japan. But Australia became one of the places where its reputation was forged. By 2021, Toyota Australia said approximately 1.14 million LandCruisers had been sold locally, reflecting just how significant the model had become here.
The Australian relationship with them is also unusually broad. A LandCruiser can belong to somebody who:
-
works on a property
-
tours remote Australia
-
restores old four-wheel drives
-
goes camping twice a year
-
drives one for work
-
remembers growing up in one
-
simply likes beautifully simple old machinery
That gives the vehicle something that can't really be engineered into a new model: accumulated history.
Why we keep drawing them
At Petrol Threads, LandCruisers are some of our most popular subjects. That isn't particularly surprising. Old LandCruisers have exactly the qualities that make a car interesting to draw: strong proportions, recognisable details and meaningful differences between generations.
When we're drawing an FJ40, FJ45 or FJ75, we're looking for the details an owner would notice. The grille, the shape of the guards, the roofline, the length of the rear body. The little changes that separate one model from another.
Car people notice when those things are wrong. Which is one reason we think they're worth getting right.
40 Series or 70 Series?
Choosing between them isn't really about deciding which is “better”. The 40 Series represents the old-school LandCruiser at its most elemental: simple, compact, mechanical and unmistakable. The 70 Series took that heavy-duty idea and carried it into a newer generation without abandoning the basic workhorse formula.
One helped create the legend. The other proved the idea could keep going. And in Australia, both have earned their place.
Explore our LandCruiser artwork
Our Toyota LandCruiser collection includes artwork inspired by the 40 Series, FJ40, FJ45, FJ75 and later LandCruiser generations, drawn in-house at Petrol Threads.