Justin (Chub) Cullinane attended St Mary’s Primary School and Merredin Senior High School, and with friend Neville Sharp will be travelling from Karratha, around the southern part of the country and returning across the top end.

Mr Callinane met his sister Meagan Simmons and her family in Merredin last week and displayed the car to St Mary’s school children and their parents at an assembly on Friday.

He told the children two of his brothers were involved in a motorcycle crash near Karratha 20 years ago and without the help of the Royal Flying Doctors Service, they may have died.

“One brother made a full recovery, but sadly the other ended up a paraplegic and lost one of his legs,” he said.

“To show our appreciation for the flying doctor service, which saves hundreds of lives every year, we are collecting donations and will auction the ute for the charity at the end of the journey.”

The two mates expect their trip around the country will take a year and they will visit as many sporting events as they can, including the AFL grand final and the Bathurst 1000 race.

The pair is attempting to get 100 Australian sporting heroes to sign the ute and have so far collected Emma George, Margaret Court, Rick Charlesworth, Dennis Lilley, Mathew Pavlich, Dean Cox, Danny Green and Polly Farmer.

The ute is decorated with the faces and signatures of Kathy Freeman, Dawn Fraser, Jeff Fenech, Polly Farmer, Mick Doohan and Luc Longley.

The duo have given up their jobs to complete the journey and have so far raised $6,500.

They will pass on any money raised from the States to the respective RFDS branches and the proceeds from the ute auction will go to the organisation in WA.