Brisbane cyclist finds refuge in Busselton amid ride around Australia
![Maurie Laughlan on Busselton Foreshore.](https://images.thewest.com.au/publication/C-5898114/3469c7976f588f99eec09f27ab4bea12b766cd5b-16x9-x0y965w4000h2250.jpg?imwidth=810&impolicy=wan_v3)
A broken bike has led to a new home for Maurie Laughlan, who “fell in love” with Busselton on his ride around the country.
The 71-year-old has been on the road since February last year when he packed up his belongings in Brisbane to ride anti-clockwise around Australia.
![The track of Maurie's ride around the country so far.](https://images.thewest.com.au/publication/C-5898114/6b18fd889304435969ce2b67ae5cc1ecb2d39132.jpg?imwidth=810&impolicy=wan_v3)
“I just feel in love with Busselton,” he said.
“I’m a runner so I met people in the runners club, and because I’m in the music industry, I go down to the music every weekend and the jetty and it’s just fabulous.”
Currently unable to find a rental, Laughlan stays at the local backpackers offering work in exchange for a room.
“I work for nothing, I’m a volunteer,” he said.
“They give me a room and I work, and you learn something everyday it’s great.”
His ‘say yes’ theory has earned him myriad jobs on the road, a stark contrast to his previous life as a resort worker and DJ in Brisbane.
“One night I’m on stage dancing in front of people and then I was chasing cows on a cattle farm, I love it.”
The trip was prompted by the cyclist’s inability to travel during COVID. He would typically go to Japan to cycle in the resort’s off-season, in which he has accumulated nearly 20,000km across the Japanese mainland.
“I decided well, why don’t I get my bicycle and ride around Australia,” he said.
“My uncle was a cyclist, but I started just little in Japan, I studied there for three years full-time and catching public transport was expensive so I would ride everywhere and I got to know Tokyo like the back of my hand.
“Now I just have a bike there and go in the off season.”
Throughout his journey, he said above most he has learnt about the kindness of strangers.
![Maurie riding through the outback.](https://images.thewest.com.au/publication/C-5898114/a4f0837ef6214a4384a7eb941424db1149b5633d.jpg?imwidth=810&impolicy=wan_v3)
“I was riding along in the middle of nowhere, just south of Broome and I could see the cars for miles ahead, and I saw a car that went past me, it was about a kilometre or so ahead and pull over to the side and door opened and closed so fast, I thought they must have just went to the toilet or something but when I got up to there, it was a bottle of cold water sitting on the side of the road, ice cold,” he said.
“There was also a time I lost a pedal out north in Avon Downs, I had to walk my bike nearly 15km and I passed a police station and these guys took a bicycle pedal off their own bicycle and put it on mine, and I’ve still got it on, I deliberately kept it.”
Get the latest news from thewest.com.au in your inbox.
Sign up for our emails