The Lottery Office Outback Air Race has finished in Coffs Harbour over the weekend after raising a massive $750,000 for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. 86 people and 34 teams set out from Darwin on the 29th August and flew to Cooinda, Adels Grove, Karumba, Shute Harbour, Gladstone, Roma and Goondiwindi before landing in Coffs on Saturday.
The amount raised for this 11th event is a record amount raised. The Outback Air race is held every 3 years and is getting bigger and better each time.
Julie Jardine handing over a chq to Justin Marr, GM of RFDS Aviation
“When we fly through the Outback and visit remote towns and cities, you realise what a vital service the RFDS is. Everyone has a story to tell of family members being saved by the service and are only too happy to donate to the cause. As pilots, we get to see first hand what conditions are like for the Royal Flying Doctor Service and how important it is to keep the planes in the sky.” says Julie Jardine, pilot and committee member for the race.
Julie said “The race is an excellent test of our skills, it is a time and accuracy trial and we are awarded points for each leg of the race, so it is good for us as well as loads of fun along the way. We make great friends, see great towns that we will visit again and meet lots of wonderful locals.”
The Wacky Warbos from Canberra are the winners of the 2022 Lottery Office Outback Air Race, Team Tait from Goondiwindi won the fundraising with a whopping $106,000 raised and John Rafferty from Coffs Harbour won the official OAR raffle for a trip to the outback.
Stuart Payne, Outback Air Race Manager and Jaclyn Wood, The Lottery Office.
The donation line is still open on the website at the moment and live tracking is still going, watching all the planes as they head home to locations all over Australia. The team from New Zealand have made it to Lord Howe and will be flying back to Auckland in a few days and the Vintage Stearman is still in Coffs for a month and will be doing some joy flights from time to time to raise some more money.
For more information, check out our FB page or www.outbackairrace.com.au
