Each year, Black Dog Ride Australia co-ordinates long distance rides around the country to raise awareness and start conversations about mental health and suicide prevention.
And motorcyclists from all corners of NSW recently met at Narrabri to embark on a ride for awareness across the north west, including a stop-over at Moree.
The 26-strong group were hosted for morning tea by Thomas Lee principal Col Thomas and staff at Harley Davidson headquarters on Frome Street – the first leg of their north-west sojourn.
Black Dog Ride NSW co-ordinator Nerolie Falconer and her husband Bear, from Wagga Wagga, supervise each leg of the journey.
Nerolie is with the Australian Defence Force and Bear is employed in the health service industry.
“We’ve both got full-time jobs, and this is our second job,” Nerolie smiled.
“These rides are not so much about raising money, but raising awareness about mental health and suicide prevention.
“We do raise funds, however, and any donations we do get go to the Black Dog Ride to assist with grants for mental health first-aid courses for businesses and anything else that may benefit staffing programs centred around mental health,” she said.
“We thought we’d come up and just talk to people, see how they’re going, and put a little bit of money into the towns we visit along the way. We all need to eat and drink and buy fuel, and we like to have a chat and create awareness. We’re just normal, run-of-the-mill people saying ‘hey, there is help out there’.”
After morning tea, the group returned to Narrabri through Gravesend and Bingara and on the following day ventured west to Burren Junction via Wee Waa.
“We’ll spend a bit of time there at the bore baths and then head back to Narrabri,” Nerolie said.
The group also visited the CSIRO Narrabri Observatory before riding to Tenterfield.
“We’ll have a night at Tenterfield and then go to Grafton for two nights before heading to Yamba,” Nerolie said.
The Black Dog Ride was founded in 2009 by Western Australian businessman Steve Andrews, who rode 14,500kms around Australia on an epic 26-day odyssey to raise awareness about the black dog.
“We do a State ride every year and every second year there’s a combined State ride, meaning all the States will converge at one centre. Last year it was Alice Springs and next year it will be Busselton in Western Australia, where the Black Dog Ride was created,” Nerolie said.
The group always has cards and information packs with contact details for all the right people.
“We try to hand them out to a lot of the younger people and ask them to hang onto them. They might not need them, but one of their mates might,” Nerolie said.
- By Bill Poulos
