Boggabri Public School students meet The Travelling Jackaroo

Is there a better way to finish school on a Friday afternoon than to meet ‘The Travelling Jackaroo’?

Not according to Boggabri Public School students.

After spending Thursday night in Gunnedah and several hours at the Rural Museum with his old mate Ron Keech on Friday morning, Sam made his way to Boggabri.

The whole school went wild cheering and waving as Sam Hughes pulled his tractor and trailer into the school grounds just before school finished for the week.

Sam Hughes, also known as The Travelling Jackaroo, left his home in Maleny on the Sunshine Coast three and a half years ago with his dog Bitza, a 1960 Chamberlain 9G tractor named ‘Slim’, a trailer and boat hoping to raise $10,000 for charity.

After three and a half years he has travelled 25,500 kilometres around Australia, broken the unofficial record for the longest tractor ride in history and raised a quarter of a million dollars for his three charities.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service, Dolly’s Dream and Drought Angels.

The tractor has a top speed of 50km per hour, however, he travels around 35 to 40 km per hour.

He says, coming up the Dorrigo Mountain would have easily been one of the steepest and longest sections of a slope he had done on the trip.

He chose to go on a Sunday to avoid as much traffic as possible and was watching the gauges like a hawk.

He said: “In this sorta situation I just pick a gear and stay in it, no shifting.”

The trip down the Moonbi mountains coming into Tamworth caused him to think about safety as there are really no arrester beds open now.

All the small ones have been closed and you have to negotiate the road to the bottom.

One experience he will remember is passing two caravans during the trip as well as the drive across the Nullarbor Plain, you see a lot of sand, actually you see every grain of sand he said.

As well as his tractor, trailer, and boat Sam now has a plane, a Gyrocopter which he was given in Mt Isa, a motorbike and a small car in the back of the trailer and hundreds of stickers and hats.

The 21-year-old told his story and answered lots and lots of questions prior to Boggabri Public School students gifting Sam two hats to add to his collection and then having a look at the tractor and trailer.

After such a long time sitting on his tractor, his back started to give him some pain.

A kind person gave him a tube of Voltaren in Tamworth but he is now on the home run and had a stopover in Narrabri on Saturday before heading to Goondiwindi and hopefully arriving in Maleny within the week.

When the Gunnedah Times asked adults present what they thought of Sam and his efforts all answers were in the same vein.

“Inspirational, interesting young man that cares for others,” “Incredible young man doing good in a crazy world,” “A funny, interesting, very polite engaging young man.”