STEVE Lindsell is on a long drive, but you won’t hear him complaining.
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That’s because he’s on the Belmore to Buffalo Creek Variety Bash and it’s giving him plenty of fun and family time in the arid Australian interior.
Mr Lindsell, his father John and his daughter Kiri Lindsell-Gillard are the crew this year for Bathurst’s well-known 1964 Wolseley 2480 entry, which carries an oversized Chiko Roll on the roof.
“It’s pretty iconic,” Mr Lindsell said of the car when he passed through Bathurst last week. “Dad's done 29 Bashes in it. There’s no other car like it. There are some longstanding participants, but they have not stuck with the same car.”
The three generations have travelled through outback Queensland and into the Northern Territory in the Bash, which is for vehicles 30 years of age or older and which raises money for Australian children who need support.
Mr Lindsell said the participants in the Bash spend tens of thousands of dollars as they arrive in their nightly destinations, including on accommodation and meals.
A tiny community might be trying to raise money to buy a PC for a school, he said, and then “we rock into town and we run a raffle and we can buy three PCs”.
Mr Lindsell said he was proud that the 1964 Wolseley 2480 was such a “Bathurst-centred entry”, which has a number of local business that have been quiet supporters it over the years.
“This support, purely through their own contributions, has over the years bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment, Sunshine Coaches [which provide transport to organisations that cater for children with physical disabilities or disadvantages], cochlear implants, prosthetic limbs, wigs, speech devices and playground equipment, to name a few, so dozens of disadvantaged kids can live a better life,” he said.
Those businesses are Simplot Australia, maker of the Chiko Roll, Panthers Bathurst, Bathurst Real Estate, Bathurst Betta Home Living, The Dental Practice Bathurst and Paul Smith Signs.
And how much longer can the Wolseley – which was used by Ms Lindsell-Gillard as her wedding car – last?
“It’s got to go at least one more year,” Mr Lindsell said. “It’s got to get to 30. We’ll see what happens then.”