Broken Hill’s favourite fund-raising, perambulating scientist, Dr Peter Hill, has completed his latest journey, traversing 530 kilometres across our great country from Broken Hill to Bourke.
This time around he was raising money for Big Sky Stories, and Mr Hill found the people he encountered along the way were much more receptive to the Milo tin, as opposed to donating online, as he raised a monumental $850.20.
“I think there was about $750 worth of mostly small notes and coins in the Milo tin. It got quite heavy, and there was about $100 of donations via PayPal,” Dr Hill told the Truth.
He managed to cover the 530km walk without picking up any major injuries, and his cattle grid resistance device, made up of corflute and fridge magnets, made the journey a little easier.
“I had some minor injuries going into the first day or so, but I have learnt how to sort of walk them off. I just didn’t push myself too hard and by the time I left Wilcannia I was good to go.
“There are around 70 cattle grids between here and Bourke. Around 50 of them had courtesy gates. On some of the more critical ones, shearers stopped, and they just lifted my board up and carried it across like it was nothing! That happened three times.”
Dr Hill told us how beautiful the landscape was, describing the colourful bush, thanks to all the flood irrigation.
“The colours of everything are really subtle. On the right side of the road you get the sun, reflected off the grass. On the other side, you get all the different grass types going from purple to greens. It is a very beautiful thing.”
As for what’s next, Dr Hill is remaining tight lipped for now but, health and weather permitting, he is not done with his marathon meanders.
“I always have things in the works. I can’t tell you what is happening officially yet because there is a whole lot of moving parts.”
