Tom's brutal news cycle takes him from headlines to headwinds

by Matt Webber

“I just wanted to do something grand.”

After riding his bike 4700km over 48 days from his home on the Gold Coast to Perth – raising more than $80,000 for charity in the process - it’s fair to say Tom Forbes (Class of 1997) can probably tick that goal off his list.

The 19-year ABC veteran completed his journey in May when he dipped his tyre in the Indian Ocean at Perth’s Cottesloe Beach in front of delighted family and friends.

There was much he loved about his great adventure, Forbes says. There’s also lots he won’t miss. The headwinds, for instance. And those road trains can get in the bin. But mostly he won’t miss headwinds with road trains.

“I didn’t go on about it too much because I didn’t want to upset people back home, but there were lots of near misses. Too many in fact,” he says.

“You can’t hear what’s coming up behind you when you’re cycling into a headwind.

“You feel pretty bloody vulnerable pretty bloody quickly when you’re tangled up in the turbulence of a 100km/h road train, especially when you had no idea it was there.”

Although the weather was reasonably kind across the month-and-a-half Forbes was away, the wind was definitely his biggest day-in-day-out challenge.

“The Nullabor was a predictable breeze-affected slog, but it definitely wasn’t the worst of it,” he says.

“There was a stretch across the Hay Plain in southwest NSW where I had to turn off my cycling computer because I didn’t want to know how little progress I was making. It would have been way too depressing.”

Even for a bloke who’s spent plenty of time living and working in the bush, the sheer magnitude of Australia still surprised him.

“There were constant reminders along the way that would blow your mind. I remember talking to a fella at a roadhouse along the way. He lived on a property that covered a million acres. There was 95km between cattle grids.”

Often the intimidating scale around him would give way to breathtaking wonder.

“The Bunda Cliffs along the Nullabor were an absolute highlight,” he says.

“All that flat earth to the north that just falls away into the Great Australian Bight. Dolphins playing in the ocean below contrasting with all that emptiness inland. It’s just beautiful.”

It wasn’t achievement just for achievement’s sake.

Forbes attached his adventure to charity Redkite because of the wonderful support it had offered his in-laws when their son was battling leukaemia.

“I set out to raise five grand. It ended up being $83,000. It’s been an extraordinary response from all sorts of people. For a small charitable organisation, it’ll make a pretty significant difference.”

So now that he’s back, any plans to jump back in the saddle?

“My bike is packed up in a box,” he says.

“I don’t think it’ll be coming out any time soon.”