Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 17 May I joined a group of junior cyclists from the Parramatta Cycling Club and rode from Parramatta down to Liverpool to meet up with 16-year-old Michael Walsh. While we had been riding down from Parramatta, which is about 50 kilometres, Michael had ridden from Melbourne over the preceding six days to raise money for cancer research as part of the Relay for Life. When we joined Michael at the beginning of the M7 he had 50 kilometres to go back to the Castle Hill Showground, and I have to say that he made it very difficult for us all over that 50 kilometres into a headwind up at the front. After six days on the bike on his own, he was not going to let any of us lead him into the Castle Hill Showground.

The event was all Michael’s idea, an extraordinary undertaking for a 16-year-old. It was his idea. He put together the team that made it happen. He enlisted the support of the school at Castle Hill and Excelsior Public and both helped to raise money. In fact when he rode into Castle Hill, the students from Castle Hill High School as an act of support had all dyed their hair red to match Michael’s. It was a great greeting from the crowd at Castle Hill Showground. Denlo Subaru sponsored the Relay for Life and donated a Subaru Forester for Michael’s parents, Jenny and Terry, to use as a support vehicle.

I was lucky to be invited. I was riding around Parramatta Park one morning and met Michael. He knew I had done the ride from Melbourne to Sydney a couple of months earlier, also raising money for medical research, so he invited me to do the last 50 kilometres. It was an absolute pleasure to support such an extraordinary young man in what was a phenomenal undertaking—for the information of people who do not ride bicycles, it is about 150 kilometres a day, each day, on his own. It is much, much harder to do it on your own than it is to do it in a bunch. But even more than the feat of doing it is for a 16-year-old to come up with that idea and to actually make it happen. He rode out of Melbourne and through Albury, Wagga Wagga, Wollongong and Goulburn on that 900-kilometre route. He stopped at schools and community groups all the way who supported him and made donations to the cause. It was quite a phenomenal undertaking. I also know he went out and cycled 100 kilometres the next day so that he would not miss the opportunity to have done 1,000 kilometres in a seven-day period. Once again, a great job by Michael: not just the ride but also the idea and making it happen. I also congratulate his parents, who spent probably quite a nerve-racking six days following Michael along some fairly rough highways.