Rally brings welcome rain

Raising more money than last year and completing the off the beaten track 3500-kilometre drive were the key boxes ticked by Rokeby’s Martin Gwynne at this year’s “ShitBox rally” to raise funds for cancer research and prevention.

Another, but unexpected box, might have been “drought breaker”.

Two days out from the start at Mackay in North Queensland the 200 rally cars were “washed out” and couldn’t make it to Thargomindah in south-west Queensland across the dirt roads that turned to mud after the area got its first real rain - about 50 millimetres - in more than two-and-a-half years.

Martin said the course had to be quickly redesigned to put them briefly on the bitumen to continue the trek south.

Of the 200 cars, none could be worth more than $1000, that drove out of Mackay only eight didn’t make it to the finish in Hobart seven days later.

Martin’s “old Rodeo ute named Brown Cow” had only one minor problem, a flat tyre, along the way and that included the extra 3000 kilometres he and co-driver Alistair Duncan of Yallourn North drove to get their car to the start.

Although Martin flew home after the end of the rally Alistair bought the ute at the after rally auction and spent the next week on a sight-seeing tour of Tasmania.

It was Martin’s second rally and he achieved his target of raising more money than he did last year, $6600 compared to $5700.

And he’s pretty sure he’ll be at the starting line again next year in Adelaide heading to Cairns via Oodnadatta.

As well as the hiccup with the rain in Queensland there were plenty of other challenges along the way through central western New South Wales, across the Alps, the ferry trip across Bass Strait and travels around Tasmania.

Martin said the cars ran into snow and minus one degree temperature at Mount Hotham.

The snow halted progress briefly, not because it couldn’t be driven through, but to enable some of the participants from West Australia and Queensland to stop and take photos of the first snow they’d ever seen.

The rally travelled via Warragul on Princes Freeway on route to Port Melbourne for the overnight ferry crossing and the last leg around Tasmania.

All up this year’s ShitBox rally raised a record $1.52 million to bring the total since the event started seven years ago to $7.8 million.

It is a great cause and great fun, Martin said.