Why this wild ride is the most fun you can have with your clothes on

Sydney chartered accountant Scott Whiddett was the tallest person to participate in this year’s Outback Car Trek, squeezing into the smallest vehicle, a 1971 Blue Datsun, to bump along dirt roads to raise funds for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Whiddett and his co-driver, his 25-year-old daughter, Emma, one of the youngest participants, were among the 215 people in 80 cars (two-wheel-drive bombs at least 30 years old) to raise $1.2 million in the annual fundraiser.

On an outback road between Burra and Arkaroola.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Leaving Bendigo in Victoria eight days ago, they travelled about six to seven hours a day through outback NSW, South Australia to Queensland, ending at Sea World on the Gold Coast on Sunday morning.

Whiddett said it was a bit like an outback scavenger hunt. It required participants to follow and understand coded directions for 3898 kilometres.

Emma said she enjoyed visiting small towns such as Burra in South Australia.

Emma Whiddett with her father Scott have participated in the Outback Car Trek. Emma was the first young woman to join, and now many other women are signing up.Credit: Wolter Peeters

“It’s only when you get out and meet with people in these remote places that you can appreciate how important the Royal Flying Doctor Service is. We take for granted the ability to walk into our local medical centre and see a doc whenever we or a family member needs to,” she said.

Whiddett was inspired to join the trek in 2012 after riding a postie’s bike from Alice Springs to Birdsville in 2007 to raise money for the RFDS, which flies into remote towns to provide health and emergency services. Since then, he has driven the trek nine times.

Until Emma joined him the first time in 2019, Whiddett said most of the drivers, mostly men in their 50s, had brought their sons.

Since then, more men have brought their daughters, and more women and younger people have been participating.

Trek cars on an outback road between Burra and Arkaroola. The Outback Car Trek raises funds for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, which provides medical care for Australians in remote communities. Credit: Wolter Peeters

The Whiddetts are also part of a group who raise additional funds for the RFDS by making coffee for other trekkers each morning.

Scott said that the death of two coffee team members in their 50s was a reminder “there’s no guarantee of a long life or good health, so you have to get out and do things while you can.”

Trek organiser Bill Patrick drives the route three times in the six months before the event to organise the logistics of hundreds of people staying in small towns, needing toilets, rooms and fuel.

“On a normal day we need about 8000 litres of fuel,” he says.

To ensure they had enough petrol, Patrick organised petrol tankers at two overnight spots, including Hungerford, Qld.

Following the route requires cracking Patrick’s road book of coded directions and hazard warnings, said Scott.

“We do get lost. It is very easy to miss a turn, or misinterpret instructions,” he said.

Patrick uses acronyms when he writes the directions attached to odometer readings for each leg. RJSO means road junction straight on.

“At 126km, RJSO,” for example. DNFS means do not follow sign. Cat 7 advises the drivers to get out and look, and Cat 5 means proceed with extreme caution.

Leaving Sea Lake for Mildura, trekkers were warned by the directions not to follow the signs for Robinvale.

Using Google Maps is cheating, says Patrick. And most of the time there is no mobile phone coverage in these rural areas, and if there is, the directions are usually wrong.

Patrick said the trek was the “most fun you can have with your clothes on”.

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