Wonka - Car 1021

Wonka - Car 1021 2026 Variety Vic Bash to Exmouth, WA, fundraiser for Variety - the Children's Charity. Message us about car sponsorship in return for your sticker on the car.

Here's the link to our donation page https://fundraise.variety.org.au/fundraisers/WonkaCar1021 Introducing the Wonka team - Steve and Louise McMahon, Catharine and Peter Dack

This is a bucket list challenge for us all. Bashing through the Aussie outback in a 1998 Ford Fairlane visiting towns and schools along the way and donating to children's charities. Our aim is to raise $5,000. There's a lot of work to do on the car so it can survive the 4000km distance from Melbourne to Darwin - mainly on dusty dirt roads. So buckle yourself in, follow this page and join us in the adventure.

Day 7 - Kalgoorlie to CueA fantastic breakfast was put on at the Kalgoorlie primary school and the students just about f...
28/08/2026

Day 7 - Kalgoorlie to Cue

A fantastic breakfast was put on at the Kalgoorlie primary school and the students just about finished our supply Wonka's lollipops.

Recent rain meant that the Kalgoorlie council had closed some of the roads and we had route detours keeping us on the sealed roads at the start of the day. But we did manage to get onto the dirts roads eventually and the car started to get dirty!

Lunch was provided by the lovely ladies of Sandstone, a small town of only a couple of hundred people, but they were delighted to host us. The ladies had been baking for weeks to make us cakes - we were limited to 2 each. Being such a small town, there was only 1 servo and for the first time there were long lines to fill up - it took about an hour for us.

The Car 245 Variety Bash Bowls Club team (the ones that look like cricketers) saw this delay as a great opportunity to try out the local bowls green and suddenly everyone wanted to join in - it was an unusual and unexpected sight!

The afternoon drive to Cue was a bit shorter than the morning, but with the fuel delays we only managed to get there just before sunset. This was another compulsory camping night (and the last) with everyone setting up camp at the footy ground. It was all going great until the toilets couldn't cope with the sudden increase from barely ever being used to a few hundred people in one evening and the septic overflowed and the toilets had to be closed. .Not ideal.

Day 5 and 6A chilly start to the day and as we packed all the camping gear away and put it on to the gear truck. The dri...
28/08/2026

Day 5 and 6

A chilly start to the day and as we packed all the camping gear away and put it on to the gear truck. The drive today was fairly unexciting as we finished off the Nullarbor, turned right at Norseman and finished in Kalgoorlie, around 700km on the sealed roads.

Next day was a day to check over the cars. The mechanics were available at a local workshop for cars that needed a hoist and repair work, but fortunately we just needed a basic check of the car and a crawl around underneath to make sure everything was looking ok.

We still had some time to go to the observation area of a pretty big hole in town that's the second largest open pit gold mine in Australia. Later was the auction night to raise more funds for Variety.

A special shout out to the Bash’s photographer Frank for his incredible photos - you can probably work out which ones he...
23/08/2026

A special shout out to the Bash’s photographer Frank for his incredible photos - you can probably work out which ones he takes compared to ours. He outdid himself with these amazing photos taken at a Bight lookout - just stunning 🤩

Day 4 - Ceduna to Madura (part way across the Nullarbor)What a great day! Brekkie and presentation of resources at Cedun...
23/08/2026

Day 4 - Ceduna to Madura (part way across the Nullarbor)

What a great day!

Brekkie and presentation of resources at Ceduna area school before heading off to cross the Nullarbor.

A quick stop at the Penong Primary School along with the presentation of resources definitely hit the feels. The whole school came out to see us and one of the teachers told us of the importance of the Variety visits and how previous Variety funds had paid for the construction of their playground - she was quite emotional and so grateful 🥹

The lunch stop at Head of Bight was amazing and if you’re ever in the area, go and visit it. Viewing platforms allow you to see the spectacular 90m Bunda cliffs. But there’s more…….from May to November, Southern Right Wales arrive to give birth in the area and hang out there, just relaxing before continuing on. They’re now a protected species and you are guaranteed to see some, up to 100 a day. We didn’t see that many, but it was a great experience.

Then back on the Eyre Highway and across the Nullarbor to WA. We (nearly) all had to camp at the Madura roadhouse and the Variety staff provided our food and drinks. 😎

Day 3 - Port Lincoln to Ceduna Yes, I’m a bit behind in posting and I’m going to blame lack of reception and time, so no...
23/08/2026

Day 3 - Port Lincoln to Ceduna

Yes, I’m a bit behind in posting and I’m going to blame lack of reception and time, so now we’re in Kalgoorlie and I’ll catch up.

Started day 3 with brekkie at Port Lincoln Special school and a grant presentation to them.

The Eyre peninsula is beautiful - yellow canola fields stretching as far as you can see and stunning coastlines

An oyster shucking competition at Streaky bay was interesting and oyster sampling for those that wanted it.

Great sunset at Ceduna 😎

21/08/2026

A quick stop at Penong primary school this morning. Except for a few absentees, this is the whole school. Kids were very excited and staff were so grateful that their little school received boxes of goodies from Variety. The playground had been built with a previous grant from Variety.

Great to see the recipients of the fundraising 😎

Day 2 - Barossa Valley to Port Lincoln. A long day that started with a grant presentation and ended with presentations f...
20/08/2026

Day 2 - Barossa Valley to Port Lincoln.

A long day that started with a grant presentation and ended with presentations from Variety for amounts raised including our award for over $20,000 raised 🎉🎉 We’ll get to know the total raised by the whole Bash later.

We had 4 detours along the drive from start to finish due to the recent heavy rains closing the dirt roads.

Missing! 🤷‍♀️😳Please be on the lookout for a Wonka apron - last seen in the men’s toilets at Tanunda footy club, South A...
19/08/2026

Missing! 🤷‍♀️😳Please be on the lookout for a Wonka apron - last seen in the men’s toilets at Tanunda footy club, South Australia, this morning.

Modelled here by its previous owner who has no chance of keeping his white shorts clean without it 🤦‍♀️🤣

Day 1 - An early start today with brekkie at the Halls Gap oval and a number of grant presentations to local kids. The o...
18/08/2026

Day 1 - An early start today with brekkie at the Halls Gap oval and a number of grant presentations to local kids.

The official start was delayed by about an hour as the route had to be changed due to wet road conditions making some dirt tracks impassable. Changes to the route kept being sent to us after we left which made it a fairly long morning.

A great lunch was put on by a farm in Wirrega and they even organised an aerial display for us.

We finished the day in the Barossa Valley just in time to catch the sunset 😊

And we’re heading off to Halls Gap for the official start of the 2026 Vic Bash 🎉😎On the way, we and some of the other te...
17/08/2026

And we’re heading off to Halls Gap for the official start of the 2026 Vic Bash 🎉😎

On the way, we and some of the other teams stopped by at the Ballarat Special School. The school community has been fundraising to develop an inclusive playground for students. Variety presented them with a cheque for $50,000 which allows them to start developing the area within the next few weeks, hopefully with completion of the project before the start of the next school year. This is 2 years ahead of the schedule without the grant 😃

Great to see where some of our fundraising goes 🙂

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