Wagon ride for charity

A central Queensland man is planning to cross three states in a homemade wagon to raise money for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Charles Rayner, from Gracemere, will leave central Queensland in early September, and hopes to arrive in Ceduna in South Australia about 12 months later.

Mr Rayner says he will be travelling with his two Clydesdale horses and his dog Minnie, and hopes he may get some other travelling companions as well.

"At this stage, I think my nephew Joel Parsons will be travelling most of the way with me and there's two or three people that are interested in doing it for a couple of weeks and that sort of thing, both ends of the trip," he said. "You've sort of got to have someone with you in case you trip and break a leg or something.

"I've always wanted to do the trip. Clydesdales have been in our family for a lot of years and I always wanted to do a trip like this.

"And I had 20 odd years on the Nullarbor in South Australia and had a fair bit to do with the Royal Flying Doctor Service over there and I thought it was a good way to, seeing as I was doing the trip anyway, raise some money for the doctors."

adapted from
ABC News Thursday July 20, 2000
www.abc.net.au/news