Sisters Beth Towers and Florence Ovenden are about to set off on an adventure through the heart of Australia, travelling over 3,000 kilometres through the back roads of Queensland and South Australia in a vehicle that’s frankly not up to the job.

Beth and Florence have signed up to take part in the Shitbox Rally 2023 Spring, joining teams from all over Australia as they attempt to drive vehicles purchased for less than $1500 from Port Douglas to Adelaide all to raise money for Cancer Council.

Beth got the idea in her head to enter a rally a few years ago, after seeing another local team take on the challenge.

“I went to a caravan camping show in Orange and Sean from Central West Trailers was actually raising money for the Shitbox Rally back before Covid,” Beth explained.

“He had his own beat up Mercedes that he was going to rally and I've sort of been thinking about it since then. Especially after going through Covid… this was a chance to do something a bit different.” 

“And Beth's a bit of a car nut,” Florence added. “I'm not, but it was me that she asked to come along with her.

“And because we've had family members that have suffered with cancer: leukaemia, bowel cancer, breast cancer… My grandfather died from cancer of the oesophagus and I've had close friends with breast cancer.”

The Shitbox Rally 2023 Spring is due to depart Port Douglas in Far North Queensland on October 14 for the small town of Einasleigh. From there, the rally travels to Winton, Windorah, Birdsville, and then into South Australia and down the Birdsville Track to Marree, Rawnsley Park Station and, finally, Adelaide.
That is if their vehicle makes it that far!

“It does happen that there's vehicles that don't make the journey, but we're hoping,” Florence said.

It’s all part of the adventure, Beth said.

“For me, one of the things that made me think about this was that it's cars worth under $1500 dollars going through the middle of Australia on rough roads. It seemed like a challenge and that was the reason to choose this over any other type of rally,” she said.

Beth and Florence are taking part in the rally as “Team Lion King”, the name inspired by the 2001 Holden Commodore station wagon they will be travelling in for the seven days.

“Well, our maiden name is ‘King’ so there's two Kings driving a ‘Lion’ — that's essentially where it came from,” Beth explained.

“So then we tried to use the ‘lion theme’ throughout and tried to use orange things as well because we come from Orange.”

Teams entering the Shitbox Rally must raise a minimum of $5,000 to take part, but Beth and Florence set themselves a $10,000 target – a target they have already topped by nearly $4,000.

They’ve also had a lot of support from local businesses, who’ve helped deck out the car and give it the best chance of arriving in Adelaide.

“The boys here at Speciality Paint Repairs, made me up a ‘bash plate’ to go underneath it, so hopefully they will protect us a little bit,” Beth said.

“And it's got a couple of unnecessary additions, like the crown around the top and our speakers so we can make lion noises as we go through the little towns.”

The Team Lion King car also features a hand QR code for anyone wanting to help Beth and Florence raise money for the cause. The Shitbox Rally 2023 Spring is just $50,000 shy of its $2 million fundraising target, which is used to fund cancer research projects across Australia.

If you would like to get behind Team Lion King, you can make a donation by visiting spring2023.shitboxrally.com.au/lion-king