. Photo: Supplied
Pastor, Author and father David Riley was travelling around Australia with his wife and their three children when he stumbled upon an extraordinary piece of history that reshaped their journey.
A century earlier, in 1925, two adventurous young men left Perth bound for Darwin in a small French car they affectionately called Bubsie. Their trip wasn’t for fame or fortune — they had been sent by their church with a simple but daunting task: establish a mission in the Northern Territory and then make the long drive back home.
The journey tested them at every turn. Neville Westwood and Greg Davies faced endless mechanical failures, wandering livestock, leaking fuel, flooded rivers, navigational mistakes, and growing friction travelling together. Survival often depended on the generosity and guidance of First Nations communities and remote station owners who helped them push forward against the odds.
Reaching Darwin should have marked the end of the mission — but instead, they pressed on. What began as a church errand evolved into an unlikely competition, as they found themselves vying to be the first people to drive all the way around Australia, up against a retired butcher and an armed mother-and-daughter pair.
For David, uncovering and documenting this forgotten adventure became deeply personal. Writing the story, Bubsie and The Boys offered him a way to hold onto the moments of his own family’s lap around the country, especially in the shadow of devastating news that would forever change their lives.
He speaks to Maggie Tweedie and Mark Williams about how the great Australian road trip changed his life, researching this epic tale, now coming to terms with his own terminal cancer diagnosis and keeping the memory of his daughter Jessica alive in the books pages.
