On Wednesday afternoon nearly 400 people, 118 classic cars, 25 official vehicles, two fixed-wing planes and a B-double semi-trailer stopped in Walgett to make a special presentation of touch screen computers and sports equipment, worth more than $5000 to the Walgett High School.

Walgett is one of many stops the participants will make during their 3557km journey, which started on Sunday August 22 at the Sydney Markets and will finish on Monday August 30 at Byron Bay, donating over $75,000 in equipment and resources to help local communities and schools.

On their way from Bourke to Walgett, the participants or, “bashers” as they are more commonly known, came via the Culgoa Sports Grounds, where they took on the locals in a cricket match.

They also stopped at “Kurrajong,” a property on the McPhees Yards Road near Cumborah, where they caught up with a group of students from the Bourke Walgett School of the Air.

The Bash is not a race or a rally, but an opportunity for like-minded people to enjoy travelling through outback Australia while raising money to support children in need.

Entrepreneur and philanthropist, Dick Smith, started the Bash in June 1985.

He charged everyone an entry fee (this year participants had to pay a minimum $8500), which is donated to charity.

There are few other rules - participants must travel in a vehicle made prior to 1974, decorated as weirdly and wonderfully as possible, while blatant cheating and bribery are not only allowed, they are encouraged.

Bashers can even be fined for taking the event too seriously.

Variety’s motoring events manager Stuart Telfer, who has been involved in the Bash for the last 21 years, said the bash was about ordinary Australians doing extraordinary things for our kids.

The annual Variety Bash is Australia’s most successful charity motoring event, having raised more than $107 million for kids in need since its inception.