IT’S nearly time for the annual national one dayer Black Dog Ride (BDR) which raises funds to support community mental health and suicide prevention initiatives.

Taking Place on Sunday, March 17 at the Lake Hamilton boat ramp car park, check in will begin at 7.30am, followed by a briefing at 10.00am, and then at 10.30am the BDR will kick off.

Hamilton’s BDR coordinator, Ben Gay said they were open to including as many as possible in the community and were therefore expecting a range of participants on the day.

 “(We have) open arms to anybody from any background and all walks of life,” he said. 

“All models of bikes and anyone from the very experienced to the inexperienced are more than welcome to partake in the ride - we’ve had people on the ride who are still on their L’s and they’re on small bikes.

 “There’s no rush in this ride - we cater for everybody, and we look after everybody.

“The whole purpose for the ride is mental health so we don’t exclude anybody for any reason,” Ben said.

“We’re all about getting people out and social on a similar goal of being involved in something they enjoy.

“For people who are a little bit anxious or worried about joining in the bike ride - just come along and they’ll see for themselves that we don’t exclude.

“Even if they don’t want to do the actual ride, they can just come along and mingle.”

Rotary Hamilton Victoria Australia will be supporting the BDR again this year and they’ll be cooking up some breakfast.

Ben also said that anyone is welcome to come along and pay for an egg and bacon sandwich, tea, coffee or juice, and just have a mingle and a look at the bikes.

“They’ll get to see a lot of bikes that they may not see in a normal day to day life,” he added.

“We’ve got 40 bikes signed up already and we’re hoping to reach 100.

“Last year we ended up with 102 bikes plus 18 passengers.

 “Probably two-thirds of them are close locals and the rest we get from Mount Gambier, Horsham, Portland and Warrnambool,” he said.

“It’s not a Hamilton ride - it’s a south west ride so we do encourage people to get up early if they can, make the ride here for registrations and get involved.”

The Black Dog Riders won’t be traveling through the main street this year due to the Cox Street redevelopments, but locals will be able to spot them heading down North Boundary Road and near Bunnings area soon after 10.30am.

The group will take a 182 kilometre route travelling through Cavendish, Dunkeld, Glenthompson and Caramut ending up in Woolsthorpe where they will enjoy lunch at the Woolsthorpe Union Station Hotel.

There they plan to draw an array of raffles and auction off a couple of items - all proceedings going towards the charity.