RFDS Policy and Advocacy Manager, Doug Wyllie, was raised as a self-confessed, ‘five-acre free range child’ in north west Sydney. So his road-trip loving parents were constantly on the hunt for family adventures beyond the city limits. Which partially explains Doug’s current passion for Adventure Touring and his life-long love for riding motorbikes on many of Australia’s tracks ‘less travelled’. After experiencing so many incredible family adventures with his parents and brother, all around outback Australia, from smashed windscreens and flat tyres to creating make-shift rescue stretchers for an RFDS rescue mission on the Birdsville track, Doug carries the red dust of a million miles of the Australian outback in his veins.
In his current role with the RFDS Federation Office in Canberra, Doug regularly chats to politicians and policy makers about the integral role that the RFDS and its incredible front-line staff hold in some of the most remote and isolate communities around the country. But as he shares in episode #128 of the Flying Doctor Podcast, there’s also another, 'rev-head' side to Doug Wyllie, that blossoms far away from the office networks of Canberra politics. Doug is equally comfortable camping out in the extremes of Australia’s outback - from tackling sandstorms, bog holes and flooding rains, to coordinating remote RFDS rescue missions and working as a VKS-737 Radio Network volunteer. Established in 1993, the VKS-737 Radio Networks provides emergency and general radio communications assistance services to people who live, work or travel in rural and remote areas of Australia – often acting as the only emergency communications option for isolated travelers. It is a communications tool that Doug has often called upon, particularly in his role as a regular support driver for other motorists and motorcyclists.
While Doug officially became a ‘road motorcyclist’ in his 20’s, his passion for tracks less travelled later grew into an interest in driving support vehicles for a range of charity and outback motoring events. The crucial role of these support vehicles not only takes the ‘weight element’ out of the off-road motorcycle equation, but they also carry crucial spare motorcycle parts, manuals, water, fuel, first aid and communications that are so essential to survival in the bush. From the Birdsville track to the Simpson desert, Doug has happily embraced the often-challenging calls to go bush – regularly foregoing the creature comforts of urban living, to extend his outback journeys for as long as he can. In this heart-warming episode of the Flying Doctor Podcast, Doug also shares his opinions on just what people who drive cars vs motorcycles might be missing out on! From the smell of fresh farm pastures, the cool air temperature changes that only riders understand and even the regular whiffs of roadkill and dead wombats, there’s something truly unique about experiencing outback Australia from the back of a bike.
