A century after Adventist missionary Nevill Westwood set out on his second historic journey around Australia, church leaders, health advocates and supporters gathered at Wahroonga Seventh-day Adventist Church on 13 May to launch a modern re-enactment inspired by his legacy of health outreach and service.
Re-enacting the historic journey are Ryan Taplin, portraying Nevill Westwood, and Jared Walton, portraying Rudolph Schick.
The original journey built on Westwood’s pioneering 1925 trip around Australia in the small Citroen 5CV known as “Bubsie”, the first car to circumnavigate the continent. But while the first journey focused largely on literature evangelism, the second trip carried a stronger emphasis on health ministry.
In 1926, Westwood travelled around the country in an Essex Super Six alongside Rudolph Schick, a graduate nurse from Sydney Adventist Hospital with training in dentistry and basic medicine. They travelled through remote parts of the Australian outback, where Schick provided free health and dental assistance to communities with little or no access to medical care—particularly among Indigenous communities and isolated station settlements—while Westwood sold Christian literature.
Now, 100 years later, The Incredible Journey ministry is retracing the 1926 expedition, again travelling around Australia once more with a renewed focus on health ministry and wellbeing.
Church leaders and supporters gather outside Wahroonga Seventh-day Adventist Church for the Right Around Australia launch event.
The project is a joint initiative of The Incredible Journey, South Pacific Division (SPD), ELIA Wellness, Greater Sydney Conference and Wahroonga Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Pastor Terry Johnson, director of the SPD ministry and strategy team and director of youth, said the re-enactment was a timely opportunity to again share Adventist health principles with the wider community.
“The more we look at it, the more we know that this is a great opportunity for us to share the health message again,” he said.
The Incredible Journey speaker Pastor Gary Kent said the original expedition effectively became a “mobile health clinic” for remote Australia and that the modern re-enactment continues the same spirit of service and outreach.
“I am delighted to be here to participate in this celebration where again we are setting out to share our health message—and that’s best-practice medicine—with the people of Australia,” he said.
Greater Sydney Conference president Pastor Alban Matohiti offered the commissioning prayer at the conclusion of the launch event.
Beginning the journey: the Essex Super Six sets off.
Published by Adventist Record
