1966 BEDFORD J5 BUS

There are lots of ways to raise money for charity.

Raffles and fundraising dinners, selling cookies door-to-door, a charity auction – these are all noble ideas.

Or you could, as Carl Agnew does, raise money by doing something a little more extreme.

For Carl and his brother Chris are committed ‘bashers’ for Variety, the children’s charity.

In fact, the owners of Sommerville Smash Repairs on the Gold Coast are stalwart members of that hardy group of men and women who clamber into old vehicles once a year to test themselves and their machines on a wild trek through the Aussie bush, all while raising quite astounding amounts of money – $40-$50,000 in a good year.

For those who don’t know, the Variety Bash is held every year to raise money for the Variety charity and the disadvantaged and special needs children it seeks to help.

And the rules are simple – every entrant has to raise at least $8000 and use a vehicle that is at least 30 years old that they don’t mind . . . well . . . being bashed up.

And Carl has a rather unique vehicle in which to undertake this annual outback odyssey – a 1966 Bedford bus.

So how did they get involved with the Variety Bash, and why the bus?

‘We knew some people that needed help and we knew of Variety so we looked into that and we were hooked,’ says Carl. ‘We had a great time doing it, saw some great country, met some great people and raised plenty of money.

“Out on the bash we actually go to schools who have put in for a grant for equipment and we get to kick a bit of footy with the kids – it’s good.

“From 2004 we were driving a Ford Galaxy, but the trip just grew and grew with friends who wanted to do it. So in 2009, we thought ‘bugger this’ let’s get a bus.”

This is no ordinary bus, mind you.

It has had a few eyebrow-raising ‘amendments’ – a viewing platform up top for one thing, and beer taps that poke from the side of the bus and feed the frosty beverage from kegs inside, for another.

“We do pull up and have a beer,” says Carl. “And when people break down we pull up and have a beer with them. We’re not in a hurry on the Variety trips.”
Just as well, for the Bedford is hardly built for speed – though with its Chevy V8 and the fact it weighs a pretty trim 3800kgs, it isn’t a complete tortoise.

“It doesn’t weigh much,” says Carl. “It’s all timber and aluminium other than the steel chassis.”

Which is good, since once you get into strife and are hung up somewhere, shifting a really hefty piece of machinery would be a problem.

“We’ve got into trouble a few times. There’s actually a video of us on youtube trying to get back on the road on one trip. We split the bum of the bus that time. We pushed it down a big dip onto the road but because its bum is so long it dragged and split right up the back.”

Over the past few years, the bus has become something of a party fixture on the Bash, but it is thanks to some generous souls that it got there at all.
“We found it in Auckland,” says Carl.

“It was an old school bus that had already done 10 Variety Bashes in New Zealand. It cost $7000, but the real cost was more like $20,000 by the time I got it shipped over here. So I rang everyone up – all the regulars that come with us – and we raised the money overnight.

“We ‘Australianised’ it when we got it over here.

We ripped out the old seats and put something more comfortable in. It did have a kitchen sink, but that had been used as a toilet so we got rid of that! And we put the cooler in for the kegs.”

Such is its reputation that some famous names have dropped by the bus, leaving scrawled messages of support on the walls.

“Dick Johnson and his boys helped us at a fundraising function,” says Carl. “And Tommy Raudonikos and Arthur Beetson came and helped us at a Birth of Origin Show.

“Another time we were out at Mt Isa having a few beers at a creek when Dave Gleeson from The Screaming Jets came out and had a jam with us.”

Outside of the Variety Bash, the bus has found a bit of work ferrying people to weddings and formals, but it’s the Bash where it truly belongs – raising money, eyebrows and perhaps a bit of hell along the way.

Long may it continue to rock and roll.

The Variety Bash takes place from Friday, August 8 to Sunday, August 17 this year. For more information go to www.variety.org.au/qld