Gloucester Rotarian Peter Markey has just been exploring the outback on a fundraising adventure.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
He set off with a couple of mates as a participant in Destination Outback 2016 raising money for groups in tiny communities.
There were 56 vehicles carrying 147 people for the eight day event organised by the South Dubbo Rotary Club, run every second year since 1990. The trek was for four wheel drives only, travelling to remote areas of NSW and Queensland.
It was a back to basics adventure where participants toured along sandy tracks, lived among the wildlife, experienced camp oven cooking and slept in swags under the open night sky.
Along the way, the group would pull up to a pub and spend time with the locals. Then donate money.
They donated $5000 to Yowah Opal Fields to help put up light on the air strip for the Flying Doctor Service. The Ladies in the Bush Group at Haddon’s’ Corner received $4000 to help support the local women. Tooraweenah’s Sporting Club was given $5000 for a solar pump for irrigation. Just to name a few.
All the meals were served by local groups as another way of injecting funds into the isolated communities, with $110,000 spent on the 3,500 meals.
Peter’s favourite spot was Milparinka. He said it was in the middle of nowhere, with one house, one pub and one stone courthouse.
He said it was a fantastic experience and he would do it again.
“It was a chance to get to the outback and raise money for some of the communities out there,” he said.