Melbourne couple Phil McDonald and his wife Susan are on a big adventure that doesn’t quite take in Mount Isa, but when it’s rodeo time Isa is worth the detour.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
And it was appropriate the McDonalds spent Saturday night at the city’s Burke & Wills Motel because that’s what their adventure is all about – following in the footsteps of the legendary explorers in their ill-fated 1860-61 trek from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Well Phil is – he is walking the entire 3200km distance to the Gulf – while Susan drives the support vehicle.
They set off from Royal Park in Melbourne on May 6 and had travelled 2400km to Duchess when they heard Rodeo was on and did their detour by car.
On Sunday the pair returned to Duchess where Phil will resume his journey on foot to Karumba via Cloncurry.
The journey is a the fulfillment of a near life-long love for Phil.
“I read the book about Burke & Wills when I was 15 years old and the adventure fascinated me,” Phil said.
“So when I got my licence at 18 the first place I wanted to go was up to central Australia and get to Birdsville, Innimincka and the Dig Tree where Burke and Wills died.”
Phil gradually got more adventurous himself and has been doing bicycle tours with Susan for the last two decades until ill health intervened.
“When 20 years came up I had a pain in my chest and had to have a stent put in my heart,” he said.
“I did sessions of rehab and they said to me ‘you should walk every day’.”
So on the way home from hospital, Phil hatched a plan.
“I got home and said ‘hey, Susan, they told me to walk every day, I was just thinking I might walk the entire Burke and Wills route, it’s only about 3000km’ and she said ‘I’d love to!’.”
It took almost one and half years to bring the idea to fruition.
“We planned it and we came up and did a reconnaissance last year and now here we are,” Phil said.
Each day Phil does an average of 30km walk while Susan drives to the destination, sets up camp and cooks before sometimes trekking back and walking with him.
Phil said they carry UHF 2 way radios to keep in touch with each other and passing vehicles, while also having a satellite phone.
“Unlike Burke & Wills – they had no communication whatsover and were racing John McDouall Stuart up to the centre unaware he had to return,” he said.
Phil and Susan are raising money for the Fred Hollows Foundation aiming to get $73,000.
“One thousand for each year of my life,” Phil said.