Scuba’s Simpson Desert Bicycle Challenge

Hi, I’m Steve, 

I'm riding my fat wheel bicycle in the 2021 Simpson Desert Bike Challenge to raise money for charity!!

I’m a 53-year old retired soldier, medically discharged. I find keeping active and helping others helps with my PTSD. I spend a lot of my time volunteering in both drought and flood relief, recently in Winton and in Townsville (for which l was awarded the National Emergency medal). I’ve decided to take on this massive challenge to help raise money for a handful of selected charities. Specifically those that support returned servicemen with PTSD and regional mental health.

l have previously supported The Oasis Townsville, Team Rubicon, Disaster Relief Australia, Mates 4 Mates, the Volunteer Coastguard and being a part of Overwatch, which intervenes in times of veteran mental health crisis or need, aiming to prevent suicide. This is my first GoFundMe raiser. 

The SDBC is a 500km solo race, west to east across the Simpson Desert. Starting in Purni Bore on 28th September and finishing in Birdsville on 2nd October. Typically, the race includes up to 700 sand dunes with two stages per day each of 50 to 80km.  That’s right pedalling 500km in 5 days on fat wheel bike in the desert! 

The SDBC requires me to have a dedicated support crew experienced in remote 4wd’ing and a reliable vehicle , therefore some necessary costs (like fuel) will be met from funds raised.  For this epic trip, my cousin Ross will be my support - he will do everything for me except the actual riding. We have volunteered together before - at a remote mission in PNG in 2020, and we also made it to the tip of Cape York together during a 2018 adventure. I trust him to support us on this great effort.  

I’m currently training around my home in Townsville. You might have seen me riding a tandem bike around town with an injured veteran mate behind me who doesn’t see as well as he used to. I have found it’s a great thing for your mental health to achieve something again after leaving the ADF.

Any donation will help make an impact.  Thanks in advance for your contribution to this great cause that means so much to me. 

Stephen (Scuba) Moore.


About my Army career, I enlisted in the Army Reserve in 1992 as Infantry and crossed over to the Regular Army in 2001 as a carpenter before becoming a Combat Engineer. I deployed on SOTG1 to Afghanistan in 2005, TLBG2 in Timor Leste in 2007 and back to Afghanistan based in Oruzghan in 2009 for MRTF2. I also completed a number of tours in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and did AACAP tasks in Aboriginal communities.

Footnote for people that aren’t familiar with Australian military deployments:

SOTG1 is Special Operations Task Group1 (SASR specialist)
TLBG2 is Timor Leste Battle Group 2 (Peace keeping, but heavy going)
MRTF2 is Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force 2 (2009-10 were some of the hardest years for Australia in Afghanistan)