Barwon MP Roy Butler stopped in Dubbo on Wednesday, April 29, during his motorcycle road trip from Sydney to Broken Hill supporting the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS).

Accompanied by the RFDS mobile education unit, which is a mini-replica of a plane fuselage that the community can visit, Mr Butler’s 1300km three-day journey was part of the “Lighting the Way Flare Relay” to celebrate the service’s 90th anniversary in NSW.

Flares have often been used to light up remote airstrips in the dark to help guide the RFDS to a safe landing, and Mr Butler carried a few flares with him on his motorcycle road trip.

As well as raising awareness of the important work of the RFDS, especially within the vast Barwon electorate which covers almost half of NSW, the road trip was also raising funds for the vital medical and retrieval service. People could choose to donate 1c per km ($13), 5c per km ($65) or 10c per km ($130) or other amount as preferred.

After visiting the RFDS Visitor Experience and overnighting in Dubbo, Mr Butler travelled on to Warren, Bourke and Cobar, before finishing the final leg of the journey to Broken Hill on Friday, May 1.

Mr Butler said the importance of the RFDS to rural, regional and remote communities as a provider of medical services in some locations as well as an aero-medical retrieval service cannot be underestimated.

“In a lot of my communities, [the RFDS] is the only medical service that people receive. There are communities in Barwon that would not have any medical services at all without them. So it is that important,” he said.

“There are probably a lot of people in the city who wouldn't appreciate just how significant it is to have a health service travel to you and provide services in your little community, rather than sending you on a six-hour round trip or more,” he added.

During his Dubbo stopover, Mr Butler met with local RFDS officials, staff and volunteers at the Visitor Experience Centre in Judy Jakins Drive. And just as the RFDS fuselage has attracted attention everywhere it goes, some Dubbo locals also enjoyed the chance to take a look through the mobile education unit.

“I know that not everyone can afford to donate, but for the people who can, the RFDS is an organisation that is certainly worthy of consideration for donations,” Mr Butler concluded.

At the time of writing, Mr Butler had exceeded his fundraising goal of $3000 by more than $300. If you would like to support the cause, visit the Roy’s Road Trip fundraising page at https://se.doyourthing.org.au/fundraisers/roysroadtrip/roy--s-road-trip.