Wayne Amor - 2024 Dubbo Black Dog Ride (20th February, 2024)

The Black Dog Ride in Dubbo is aiming to start a national conversation about depression and suicide prevention. The one-day motorcycle ride on March 17th is an opportunity to raise awareness and funds for frontline mental health charities. The event also provides a chance for riders to engage in conversations about these important issues. The ride will start at Memorial Avenue in Victoria Park and will include a break in Dunedoo before returning to the Western Star for a barbecue lunch. The event is entirely volunteer-run and donations go towards a grant fund for mental health organizations. Those who are unable to attend the Dubbo ride can find other rides throughout Australia on the Black Dog Ride website. It's essential to reach out to trusted friends, family, or helpline services for support if affected by depression or anxiety. Donations can be made on the Black Dog Ride website. While dark topics, there are essential conversations to have at some point in life, depression and suicide prevention. Eight Australians take their own lives every single day and three million suffer from symptoms of depression and anxiety. The Dubbo community is being encouraged to rally behind a cause known as the Black Dog Ride to help start a national conversation about the issues that can easily live in the shadows without proper support. The Dubbo one-day motorcycle ride takes place on Sunday the 17th of March and to spread the word further I have local coordinator Wayne Armour in studio. Good morning mate. Cheers for your time. Good morning. Yeah, how are you? I'm alright, but you have a big job to do and it's for a very worthwhile cause. Yeah, mate. We've been doing it now for sort of 10 or 11 years. This is the 11th year and we've got a few things nailed down, but obviously you've still got a lot of moving parts around it, whether you've got to get sponsorships or you've got to organise the routes and talk to the police and all of the different getting people to register and those sorts of things before the day or online anyway. It's one of those things that we're getting better at it and we don't do things that didn't work last year. Fair enough. Sometimes we try different things that hopefully will work better this year. What's the schedule looking like? Where is the ride taking place? Mate, we're heading from the Memorial Avenue in Victoria Park, so in front of the pool where the Cars and Coffee and a few other events happen from. Then we're heading out to Dunedoo. We're going to go out via Mendooran to have a bit of a break at Dunedoo, three quarters of an hour or so, and then we're going to head back to the Western Star. We're going to have a barbecue lunch there. The social club and the restaurants are going to sort us out there for lunch and we'll do a few raffles and those sorts of things. We're looking forward to the day. It's an early start for us and a long day for some of us, but it's well worthwhile. We get a lot of enjoyment out of doing it and a lot of satisfaction that we might be helping that just one person and that way we've done our job sort of thing. Doesn't the event itself sort of take the edge off the crucial discussions and make them more like just another social setting? Oh look, I think motorcyclists, when we're out riding, I mean if you roll into a town with 10 or 50 or a couple of hundred bikes and people will automatically ask the question, what are you guys doing here sort of thing. So I mean, there's a start of a conversation right there. Pretty simple concept that one, but I think motorcyclists are a bit of a, I dare not use the word, but a brotherhood. So even if you don't, you might not know that person, you'll go up and say g'day and introduce yourself and where you're from, all these sorts of things. So I mean there's a conversation starter straight up and service stations and those sorts of places are also a good opportunity when you're rolling with 10 or 20 bikes or something like that, they get fuel or have a cup of coffee or something like that. I hear it's also, as well as just raising awareness, it's a fundraising opportunity. What causes are being supported by the money raised? Look, we've got a grant fund, Black Dog Ride Australia has got a grant fund that any, I suppose, frontline mental health charity or event practitioners and that sort of thing can apply for. I think there's grants from between a thousand and up to $10,000 and that is open each quarter. So there's a fixed amount that they'll release each quarter sort of thing, but about 98% of our donations or something like that go into that grant fund. So we don't use any of the donation money for doing what we do, paying staff or driving cars around or all of those sorts of things. Right. So it's all done on just your own coin, the whole event? Pretty much. We're volunteers, I think there's one or two staff in the whole organisation nationally and I think there's 49 rides throughout Australia this year on the 7th and 8th of March. So if you can't get to the Dubbo ride and you're listening to us from somewhere else, look it up on the website and find your closest ride and like I say, there's 12 or 13 in New South Wales, another 11 or something in Victoria and you'll find a close one somewhere. We're chatting with Wayne Armour, the local coordinator for the Black Dog Ride here in Dubbo. We're going to take a quick break. We're going to discuss how people can get involved or donate some money to the fundraising. Hang on mate, we'll be back in a second. You're on Zoo's Brekky. It's Zoo FM, your home of Dubbo's best music from the 80s to now. Kegan with you, I'm with the local coordinator for the Black Dog Ride here in Dubbo, Wayne Armour. And I want to know mate, what bikes are going to be there? I'm sure there's a huge variety expected. Yeah, we're going to have everything right through from, I don't know, the latest and greatest Tarleys and Indians and there's the big trikes and then there's going to be posty bikes right through, there's going to be sports bikes, there's going to be a bit of everything there and there has been in past years, which is, it's quite a sight to see if you've seen any of the videos and stuff. I don't get very much of a chance to see the bikes certainly leaving apart from on a video, but when you're there walking around, you sort of sometimes notice a few different things and oh gee, that looks pretty cool. I'm sure you'd hear them coming. If I can turn the conversation topic slightly, what was your personal drive to join the organization and actually bring it to Dubbo and continue assisting? Yeah, a mate of mine and myself, we looked at it back 10 or 11, 12 years ago and we thought, oh that would be a good thing to do and get us out on the bikes a little bit and that sort of thing. And then it was, but it also was a good thing to do in hindsight because once I sat down and had a bit of a think about, well why am I actually doing this after the first ride or the second ride or something like that, I actually knew a few people within the organization where I worked had taken their own lives and then also I've got a brother that sort of suffers from mental illness. So it's one of those things you don't really know why you're doing something sometimes but there's drivers in the background sometimes. If there is people out there that of course, I'm sure there's many Australians that have either they know someone, they work with someone or they are the someone that's affected by depression or anxiety, but they don't ride a motorcycle, what could you recommend to them to also be able to help the cause? For them personally, I guess find somebody that you trust and have that person, not have them available but have them as a trusted friend. So if you feel like you need to talk to that person and it might be a work mate or it might be someone that doesn't live in town or it might be the end of the phone at Lifeline or one of those other services, but that's probably the first recommendation that I can make after making that decision to actually talk to somebody. Where can people head to join the ride or really help with fundraising? Look, if you go to our website blackdogride.org.au, there's a big red donate button there. If you just want to make a donation, we've also got on that page, you can get involved and follow the rides or join the ride or I think it's called in one of the tabs and then you can find, like I said, the ride that's closest to you if you're not around town. Thanks for coming on for a chat mate, a very important event with a very important message behind it. Cheers for your time. Not a drama at all. Thank you for your time. If this conversation has opened up concerns for you or someone you know, please call one of the following national helplines. You can call the Lifeline Counselling Service on 13 11 14, that's 13 11 14, or the Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467, 1300 659 467. You're on Zoom Breakfast.