Sarah Wheeler trekked over 5500 kilometres to honour her late parents

In February 2025, Sarah finished her 5500 kilometre trek. Graziher caught up with Sarah in October 2024, when she was six months and 3200 kilometres in. This article first appeared in the December 2024/January 2025 issue of Graziher magazine. 

Before Sarah Wheeler set out on her 5500 kilometre trek to honour her late parents, she rigged up her mum’s old horse float with solar panels and power outlets so she would have somewhere to sleep each night.

She’s hardly had to use it. As she’s travelled through some of the most isolated regions of Queensland and New South Wales, people she’s never met before have opened up their homes — and their hearts — to her.

“I’ve slept more nights in a bed than I have in my swag,” Sarah tells Graziher, while she’s enjoying two rest days at Moree in northern New South Wales, six months into her trek, having covered more than 3200 kilometres.

Property owners have not only invited her into their homes but they have also played a game of phone tag, calling ahead to their neighbours to make sure she has a place to stay for the following night.  “Some of them haven’t even been home at the time. They’ve just said, ‘Here’s where we keep the key, let yourself in and make yourself at home.’”

The 27-year-old grew up on a property outside Rowena, a small town in the far north-east of New South Wales, with her mum, Therese (Terri), her dad, Gavin, and her three sisters Emily, now 28, Jessie, 25, and Millie, 22. When Sarah was 12 years old, Gavin, 46, died suddenly. “He had an enlarged heart. He didn’t know about it and we didn’t know about it. One day his heart just stopped. It gave out,” Sarah says.

For the next ten years, Terri ran the farm with the help of her daughters. In 2021, at the height of the pandemic, Sarah travelled to the Pilbara to spend a year working on a remote cattle station. She was out on the tractor one day when her sister called to say Terri had been diagnosed with an upper gastrointestinal (UGI) cancer. The cancer was aggressive and within a few weeks, Sarah travelled home to be by her mother’s side for her final days.

In the months following their 56-year-old mother’s death, the four Wheeler sisters arranged for some close family friends to lease the farm. It was around this time that Sarah decided she wanted to honour her parents and raise awareness about UGI cancer so, inspired by Hollywood movies such as Tracks, she began planning her own trek.

Her first task was finding the horses, Shifty and Sally, who have been by her side every step of the way.

“I feel as though my parents sent me those horses,” says Sarah. Shifty, the gelding, came first. Sarah spotted him at a sale in Armidale, New South Wales, and instantly fell in love with the way he moved. She spoke to his owners and they let her ride him before the sale the next day.

“As soon as I sat in the saddle on him, I just felt at home and safe and like it was meant to be,” she says. “And that day was the anniversary of Dad’s passing.”

A few months later, she took Shifty to a campdraft, where one of her mum’s friends introduced her to a mare named Sally.
“She’s golden, like the sun, and she’s resilient, just like Mum.”

The next steps were rigging up the horse float and organising a support vehicle and a roster of drivers to accompany her. She’s already used 20 different support drivers, with kind strangers stepping in along the way.

Setting off in February 2024, Sarah has travelled through some of the most isolated regions of New South Wales and Queensland. From here, she will trek through the Central West, Riverina and Hay Plain regions of New South Wales, stopping to spend Christmas with her extended family in Dubbo before arriving back at Rowena in February. She hopes others will join her on the final leg, as a fitting tribute to Terri and Gavin.

“I’d really love to have one more day and invite as many people as I can to come out and ride their horses with me from my place to the Rowena pub.”

In February 2025, Sarah completed her trek. To continuing following her story, to donate to UGI cancer research, or to offer your support in another way, visit The Long Outback Ride or follow Sarah on Instagram.