The Australian’s Australian of the Year: Bright spark lights up nation with cross-country trek

Sydney sparky Nedd Brockmann inspired the nation when he pushed his body to its absolute limits and ran an unfathomable 4000km across Australia in 46 days.

Nedd Brockmann ends his journey at Bondi in October. Picture: Richard Dobson

Sydney sparky Nedd Brockmann inspired the nation when he pushed his body to its absolute limits and ran an unfathomable 4000km across Australia in 46 days.

The 23-year-old electrician, sporting a blonde mullet and a black cap, took off from Cottesloe Beach in Perth on September 1 in the hopes of not only smashing the world record for the fastest crossing of Australia but raising $1m for charity.

While Brockmann failed to break the record when he burst across the finish line at Bondi Beach in Sydney on October 17, he raised $2.5m for Australian charity We Are Mobilise, which aims to develop solutions for those ­experiencing homelessness.

He had hoped to not only break the record of 43 days set by a German ultra marathon runner in 2005 but to smash it – by crossing the country in 39 or 40 days.

This meant running 100km a day or, as he put it, he needed to “get comfortable being uncomfortable”.

His legions of fans, who cheered him on as he completed his 3953km journey and then downed a champagne “shoey”, could not care less that he was unsuccessful in his record attempt. To them, the lengths he was willing to go was inspiring enough.

It is this dogged determination to finish “Nedd’s Record Run” that has earned him a nomination for The Australian’s Australian of the Year.

But the journey across the vast continent was far from smooth sailing.

Twelve days in, his team determined he would not run his usual 100km that day but only 40km, to give his depleted body a chance to rest. But Brockmann was adamant the world record was still within reach.

“I will bust my balls to make sure I get to Bondi over the next 27 days,” he wrote to his followers in an Instagram post. “If that means walking for 20 hours a day, that’s what we will do.”

But 24 hours later, Brockmann was forced off his feet for three days by a swollen ankle.

He had to be driven to an MRI scanner 13 hours away, which revealed he would require two cortisone injections to continue his journey.

“We don’t quit. I never have and I never will,” he wrote.

And that was much clear, as he ran 100km the day he returned to the track.

Over several gruelling weeks, Brockmann battled blisters, sleep deprivation and maggots in his toes while accepting he would fall short of the record.

“I really didn’t think it was possible to keep going,” he wrote with two weeks to go.

But the 23-year-old gritted his teeth and “got comfortable being uncomfortable” until he crossed that finish line sporting the same – but now wildly weathered – black cap.

“I don’t think I can explain the depths I’ve had to go to,” he told his supporters in Bondi.

Brockmann is now on a long road to recovery, having sustained multiple serious injuries, but he has not discounted doing it all again, his sights still set on cracking that world record. 

Prominent Australians can be nominated for The Australian’s Australian of the Year on our website, by letter or email to [e-mail]. Nominations close on Friday, January 20.