Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun, so why was a mixture of locals and Sydneysiders crowing the car park at Moama RSL on Saturday morning, waiting for high noon?
And surrounded by dog barks, howls, growls and songs such as Hound Dog and Who Let The Dogs Out tearing apart the morning’s peace and quiet...
Simple really. Team Big Dog was gearing up to head for Bendigo and Sunday’s start of the 2024 Royal Flying Doctor Service’s Outback Car Trek.
And Moama RSL was chosen as its starting point because the club has also signed up as one of the team’s major sponsors.
From there to Bendigo, Team Big Dog is headed to Mildura, across into South Australia and the mid-north town of Burra, up to Arkaroola in the Flinders Ranges, up to Innamincka and the start of the Strzelecki Track (or the end, depending on your direction of travel), across to Hungerford in Queensland, through St George, Toowoomba and finally Sea World on the Gold Coast.
So who’s mad now.
Bendigo on June 2, Gold Coast on June 9, and a crazy, winding, torturous 4125.2km of driving in between.
That’s what Team Big Dog, and others, will be taking on to raise money for the iconic RFDS.
Moama RSL director Ken Jones said the club was delighted to back Team Big Dog because of the importance of RFDS to sick people in Echuca-Moama and surrounding regions.
“And it’s not just the vital work RFDS does for people here, it is a lifesaver across regional Australia,” Ken says.
“We loved having the team call in here for dinner on Friday night and to farewell them on their journey on Saturday morning,” he says.
“The Outback Car Trek has raised $33 million for RFDS since it was launched and they will be looking for another $1 million to $2 million this year.
“Even better, we have been able to include ‘Mutt’ – a Moama car – in Team Big Dog, with Gen Campbell, Renee Campbell and Marg Turpin in the crew.
“The cars in the team are fantastic, they are all covered in metres and metres of teddy bear fur to give them a canine character and have names such as Pup, Scruffy, Dumb, Dog Catcher (whose signage promises to lead you astray) – and, of course, Mutt.”
Renee said her crew was a late inclusion for the 2024 event.
It was, she laughs, “one of my mother’s barnstorming last-minute ideas”.
“When she told me about it, and that she wanted me to go, I was already organised for a trip to Europe and forgot about the conversation,” she says.
“Then the other day she rang and said ‘we’re in’.
“Farewell Wimbledon, farewell London, farewell trip, hello outback, hello dust and long drives – woof, woof.”
To support Moama RSL’s Team Big Dog and the RFDS, go to https://outback-car-trek-2024.raisely.com/teambigdog