No damage to any of the KJs from what I hear. Others were not so lucky, a fair number defected on the way down by the NSW and VIC police - they arrived in camp sporting defect notices plastered on the windscreen. The usual defect stuff: no splash/mudguards, tyres too wide for guard coverage, etc.
As far as trip damage was concerned, SJC had a few vehicles damaged and two are still down there awaiting work/parts to return: blown fuel pump and a rear diff seal.
Now for a quick trip report!
Thursday - headed out on my own at 4:30am intending to drive straight through to Warragul and arrive before dark for camp setup. Was getting 12.4L/100kms towing the camper through the southern ranges. Picked up a bad batch of fuel at the Caltex at Tarcutta (avoid that one if you can, it must have been blended with something awefull) the fuel economy dropped into the high 13s and the exhaust gas temperatures went up by 200F! Refueled at Seymour to flush out the bad fuel and got into Jambo at 4:30pm. Rest of the day spent touring the very big camp at Lardner Park, setting up, prepping the vehicle for offroad, and catching up with old friends from previous events.
Friday - Not knowing how MJOC graded their trips (even though they provided a sheet these things are subjective mostly), I opted for a 'C' grade morning trip (also known as the Blue Square - like the ski run designations): suitable for medium clearance vehicles with AT tyres, etc. I thought this would not be too taxing for the first day - boy was I wrong. Of course the amount of rain they have had down there had turned every track into a series of deep mud ruts linking bog holes! We had nine vehicles in the convoy: two Grands, a KK, and XJ, my KJ, and the rest were Wranglers (mostly modified ones). The trip started out with airing down to 20psi and then some steep climbs and water crossings into the State Forest north of Warragul. Soon we were into the mud ruts (likely cut by people with 35"tyres spinning through there). The Grands didn't have the clearance or the tyres to cope with these conditions and we were constantly recovering them from the ruts and bog holes. We had a camera car along for this trip and it was all filmed in HD for showing that evening in the big hall. Andrew the camera man would go ahead in his modified Wrangler and setup at each obstacle to film us trying to get through. In many places we needed spotters to keep us out of the deep ruts and push the vehicles around in the mud to prevent sliding into dangerous situations. I was up on three and then two wheels on several occassions, and could feel the traction control working all day long. Mostly this was low range stuff because of the steepness of the tracks, so brake locked diff functions were still on, and there is some camera footage of this working. The highlight of the day for me was being able to get through a steep rutted descent, creek crossing and muddy rutted ascent on the other side when all of the other IFS vehicles had to be winched out of the creek. I climbed a tree with the KJ getting out of there! Won a prize at the evening presentation for that effort. I'll try to get you a link to the video when Andrew gets it up on Utube. Consensus was that this was a B grade trip in most other worlds having been made worse by the water/mud. BTW this trip returned to camp around two hours late and with only a third of the planned tracks covered.
Below: one of the early easy bog holes on this trip, which got much more serious later on.
The evening was spent at the trip film showing and chatting around the campfire.
Saturday - After yesterday's trip, and knowing now how MJOC graded trips and the water and mud expected, I opted to do a nice lazy 'D' grade trip - boy was I wrong about that one. The convoy out to the mountains southeast of Warragul consisted of two KJs (gi-frog and I), a FSJ, several Grands, and the rest being Wranglers. The trip leader was a young guy in his Wrangler Unlimted CRD backed up by a tailend charlie in a Grand (with a chainsaw). Into the very scenic mountains, working up fire trail roads onto tracks that were very narrow cuts on the side of the mountain with steep dropoffs. These tracks were wet clay, boggy in many places and steep. We started getting people bogged again, the FSJ didnt have low range and it had a big low bull bar so we recovered it a few times. We were stopped by a 30cm tree across the track (recent landslip as well) and out came the chain saw. It took the guy a half an hour to get through that log - the OH&S people would have had kittens if they had seen him - no safety glasses, one glove, dull blade binding every few minutes etc.. Forward at last we came across anther deeper bog hole, which the fornt half of the convoy got through and then were stopped further on by another downed tree - I was in the front section. The FSJ was bogged badly so the trip leader went back down to help get him out. On descending the track to the bog the leader ran over some small downed trees and ripped out his fuel return line at the fuel filter - I saw it all happen because I was walking back to help the recovery. It was exactly what happened to my son's JK Unlimted CRD up at Byfield. There was fuel gushing out and the leaders JK was now disabled in the middle of the steep narrow slippery track with half the group ahead and half behind him. We got to work on it trying to jury rig a fix but unless you carry a fittng from Enzed or Pirtek your just wasting your time as no amount of rescue tape can cope with the line pressure. Then the arguments started as the tail-end charlie tried to assume command. He wanted to release the handbrake in the JK and let it roll down to clear the track for the rest of us to regroup - the problem of course is that the JK CRD would have little braking and steering because it would not start. We got onto the MJOC office and I tried to convince them to get a T piece off of one of the Jeep demonstrator vehicles in the Hall but Jeep would not allow this. So we had to abandon the JK CRD out there as it was getting dark and no RACV rescue was possible in that terrain. Gi-frog pulled out his hand winch (a lack of winches on this trip was a big problem) and we rigged it up off a large tree and then winched the disabled vehicle down the track (pulling on the steering wheel to steer it into the bank). We finally got enough room to get the other vehicles past. Gi-frog picked up a leach for his trouble! Another argument about going forward or back - tail end charlie (with trip leader now in his vehicle) wanted to go ahead to get out and I wanted to return the way we came as it was cleared and we knew nothing about what was ahead and it was getting dark. I had Oziexplorer working on my Navman and it was the only moving map system on the trip, the trip leader had a photo copy of the state forest map. To cut a long story short, we proceeded ahead after all it is the MJOC responsbility to get us back. A few hundred meters further we were stopped by a long deep bog hole that no one was going to get through and common sense prevailed. We all had to back down the steep narrow track to a small turnign point and then retrace our path out to the firetrails. We arrived back in camp at 5:30pm (just before the big presentation dinner). The leaders JK CRD left out there for future recovery (good luck on that). SO that was the easy trip! The 'B' grade trip on that day returned very late and the SJC guys on that one just made it back before we ate their dinner for them!
That night at the dinner, MJOC and the trip leader bought gi-frog and I some drinks in thanks for our efforts to move the JK safely out of the way and secure it for the night.
Had a nice meal that night and caught up with CRDSTU, who had just arrived that morning to pick up his new Wrangler (Patriot Blue) at a Melbourne dealer. Stu flew down and stayed at a motel in Warragul. Sounds like his new business expansion is going great with a new workshop being built on his acreage.
Later on Saturday night SJC retired to its campfire and someone picked up some pizzas for a second dinner with drinks and we retired around 2:30am!
Sunday - This was Show and Shine morning (no trips until the afternoon). We all lined up on the hillside (nothing is flat at Lardner Park - my quads are like mountain goat's now). Somehow I got the job of being one of the judges in the JK Unlimited Extreme 35"+ tyre category. There weren't many of them, ten in total, but they were all very nice machines. I don't know alot about them but that didn't seem to matter to the organisers, so I did my best.
They divided the KJs into two categories: stock and modified. They judged the stock KJs first and then I had to leave to judge the JKs so I don't know if they ever did the modified KJs. Gi-frog tells me they did come around but most of my mods can't be easily seen (and the engine compartment is locked when the KJ is locked). Not that I cared at that point.
Some people went on trips Sunday avo but I had had enough at that point and wanted to prep for the trip home. SJC was packing up, and some went out to recover Hunno's vehicle which blew its fuel pump the day before. I left the site about 2pm and headed back up the Hume. Stopped that night at ALbury with some of the SJC people and returned the rest of the way on Monday.
All in all a great experience and I enjoyed the offroading in a very different sort of location and set of conditions from what we see around Sydney. The mud, while in good supply everywhere, was no where near as daunting as the many kilometres of tracks coming out of Innaminkca in July with no depth reference and no trip leader to follow. That's my mud reference scale from now on.
From a fuel economy perspective I was getting 12.4L/100kms towing the camper on the way down. The strong head winds on the return trip dropped that back into the 13Ls. There was one leg on the way down from Seymour to Warragul where I managed to get 9.2L/100kms but that was all very flat to downhill from Seymour on good freeways without stopping - but still excellent figures for towing or otherwise.
I will keep an eye out for the 'C' grade trip HD film link and add it to this when it is available.
As far as still photos are concerned, I only have a few as I was too busy driving or recovering when out on the tracks and I just plain forgot about the camera. Hopefully gi-frog has some.
I'm now dreaming of MOAB wheels and a set of muddies.
Finally, there are not many chances to walk the deck of a submarine.
The Otway at its permanent mooring in Holbrook NSW.
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..........then 2k's 
this way 
.travel time 6hrs 475km