Variety's 800 bikes for bush kids

THE generosity of Variety Queensland will see a staggering 800 BMX bikes given away to primary school children in the Central West, but organisers have hit a snag: where do you find 800 kids?

Head of the cycle construction team John Palmer has been scouring the countryside for children to ride the 16- and 20-inch bikes.

"The guy who rang from Variety was from Cairns I think, and I told him we don’t have 800 kids in Longreach but I would see what I could do.

"Each of the schools are going to run a little competition and then what we are going to do is give away around 250/300 to the kids in Longreach and, hopefully, the visiting Variety bashers will be able to deliver them to outlying towns like Ilfracombe, Stonehenge and Jundah."

Mr Palmer said despite the initial difficulty of find ing enough children he can really only see one problem with the generous giveway: the bikes only come in two colours.

"The kids are going to have to get a bit of spray paint out to avoid the confusion of whose-is-whose, but I don’t think you will hear any complaints.

"It is great Variety can do this for kids in the Outback and while they are not a top level bike, they are more than good enough to cruise around on and have a bit of fun."

The big bike giveaway has also posed a third unusual problem: assemblage.

After being delivered in hundreds-of-thousands of pieces, the Longreach Scout Group has taken on the mammoth task of putting the two-wheelers together.

In a stroke of luck, six of the Scout’s venturers had already started campaigning to raise money for their planned trip to next year’s World jamboree in England.

Venturer leader Gary Muhling said his group has been burning the midnight oil assembling, with his group delighted to find the bike construction industry more lucrative than sausage sizzling.

The big bike giveaway on August 27 will coincide with the arrival of over 200 cars and 500 bashers in Variety Queensland’s 2006 XXXX Gold Reef to Races Outback traverse which starts in Cairns and finishes in Birdsville.