By Ern Meharry
BACK in Autumn 2022 just as we were emerging from the Covid pandemic, Ern Meharry’s son-in-law Amba Allan rang him and asked if he wanted to do the “Shitbox Rally” that spring.
When told that the Rally involved 250 cars worth less than $1,500 travelling from MacKay to Darwin via the Gulf, Ern’s response was “You idiot” followed by “OK when do we go?”.
In a nutshell, the Shitbox Rally is a dedicated fundraising event for the Cancer Council research projects.
Over the past 13 years, it has raised over $40M for research into such things as developing a vaccine for lymphoma cancer and research into new treatments for pancreatic cancer.
Ern and Amba found an old Holden Commodore for $1,000 and completed the rally in Darwin in October 2022 raising over $16,000 plus $2,500 raised by the auctioning of the car in Darwin.
They were fortunate that the only real problems they had were three flat tyres.Some cars weren’t so lucky and failed to complete the journey.
All up that rally raised just short of $2M for the Cancer Council.
Fast forward to 2024 and the Spring Rally is from Bendigo to Townsville via Innaminka and Beetoota.
Ern has roped his neighbour and golfing buddy David Baldwin into doing the rally.
After a couple of dead ends, they found a 1996 Ford Courier Dual Cab for $1,000.
Their team’s name is ‘The NAGAS’. The golfers amongst you will understand!
Ern and David’s fundraising has been going well with the major event being a BBQ night to watch Carlton v Geelong late in June which raised over $3,000. Other fundraising has been from friends, and local businesses and collecting container deposit refunds.
Currently, they have raised $16,152 with five weeks to go and the total raised for the Spring Rally by all 250 teams is over $1.6M.
A massive effort you will agree, more impressive when you think they do three of these rallies every year.
On this page you will find a QR code that takes you to ‘The NAGA’S’ fundraising page. All donations are tax-deductible.
Dave and Ern leave from Bendigo on the October 19, hopefully arriving in Townsville on Friday October 25 and they plan to drive their Shitbox back home and keep it for another Rally.
More information is available from https://www.shitboxrally.com.au/
