Scootaville calls for riders

Veteran Ted McEvoy 

Trevor Benneworth, veteran and organiser of Scootaville, says the event will see veterans ride 50cc mopeds from Ipswich to the RAAF Base in Townsville over 16 days, leaving on 1 September. The event will raise money for Legacy.

“We’ve got a great itinerary planned, stopping in places like Kilcoy, Kingaroy, Barcaldine, Longreach, Winton etc. It’s been a long time in planning, with three of our previous planned trips being postponed due to COVID,” the former Air Force radio technician says.  

“We’re finally going to be able to set off in September and we’re hoping to have around 20 bikes, with 40 riders, taking it in turns.

“We’ve chosen scooters or mopeds because they are reliable and most of our members are able to ride them!” 

This isn’t Trev’s first event, having participated in a similar ride called Scootarbor, where a number of men and women rode 50cc mopeds across the Nullarbor in 2014.

“The Scootarbor event raised around $80,000, which was donated to Beyond Blue. And I thought, ‘Well, you know, we can do better than that,’ so we’re going to try and raise at least $100,000.”

Scootaville organiser and veteran Trevor Benneworth

The funds raised from this trip will be donated to Legacy. 

“It is important to us that we’re able to let veterans and the locals in each of the places we stop know what support is available to them or to veterans they may know,” he says.

But it isn’t only riders they need for the Scootaville adventure. 

“We also need volunteers, including cooks, marshals, medics and drivers for escort vehicles, so we want to hear from anyone who can help out – the more the merrier!” 

And Trevor is already looking ahead to future rides. 

“We’re hoping to make this an annual Queensland event, focusing on and promoting the small outback towns through which we’ll pass as they too can do with a ‘leg up’.”

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