Its true the fishing rod holders are illegal, but i have been through many booze bus stops, pulled over once, and managed to get waved past a random roadworthy check by the police and iv been fine. My mate in a hilux has been done plenty times before for his rod holders, but i believe if your nice to the copper and have a clean record that might help for not getting pulled over or a fine in the first place.
Also my rods are tied down so they cant move and for the trip to or from the destination i put on some shitty old reels so they sit in there.
Main reason why i left the rods in there was we wern't allowed to fish in that section of the murray, so i didnt bother taking em out, but listen to this, my 3yo girl has been keen as to go fishing at the murray so i buy her a cheap $5 kids rod, its basically a toy and wouldnt reel in anything and most likely would snap with a big sinker, so it goes like this, we just got there, at the camp spot, my kid wants to fish so i first take her rod out put on 2 corn kernels and she casts it in about 1m max. NO SHit the fisheries were over in less than 3mins, they just grabbed the rod ripped it out of the water and threatened me with a $500 fine.
After a long discussion and no fines, but he did take my details, i asked if my girl could still play with the rod but with no hooks just a sinker, they said no, thats when i turned on them, when i say that i mean i was not nice and cheerful as i first was. Bloody fun police, i understand the no fishing part but denying a child a bit of fun cos she thinks she is fishing, thats disgusting.