How climate change in inland Australia is affecting the Shitbox Rally

Usually in the fall, James Freeman is surrounded by dirt, dust and diesel fumes as he navigates his “Shitbox car” through Australia’s arid outback.

But if he tried that next year without checking the weather first, chances are he would get stuck.

For the better part of 15 years, Mr. Freeman, the founder and CEO of the famed Shitbox Rally, has raised money for cancer research with five rallies a year across the country.

In 2024, all but one of the rallies had to be rerouted due to extreme, unpredictable weather over several seasons.

Mr Freeman says the last five years have all been subject to very noticeable climate changes.

Although he is not a meteorologist and his fundraising activities are so dependent on the weather, he has been keeping a close eye on conditions for some time.

“We have found over the past five years that the amount of unusually wet weather in outback central Australia, extending beyond normal periods, is becoming increasingly common,” Freeman said.

The Shitbox Rally is known for its flamboyant cavalcades of cars that drive through Central Australia and typically stages its rallies during the traditionally drier months for those areas between April and October.

“Historically, these times of year tend to be very dry and very favorable for the types of projects we do,” Freeman said.

“It’s going to be a lot more challenging because the weather patterns seem to have changed a little bit.”

Since the start of the Shitbox Rally in 2009 in memory of his mother and father who both died within a period of Over 12 months, Mr. Freeman has raised more than $50 million for cancer research.

Cars taking on the challenge must stay true to the rally’s name and be ‘shitboxes’. That means they can’t cost more than $1,500 and be two-wheel drive.

Suffice to say, this number of cars of questionable reliability require support vehicles.

Although these vehicles have well-equipped four-wheel drive with satellite phones, recent extreme weather conditions have left even the support cars in conflict and requiring rescue.

Neil Starrett and his partner Nikki Wickham, who are already established rally drivers, had such an experience.

In late 2022, while en route to Glengarry Hilton with the support vehicle from Tibooburra in far north-west New South Wales, she and the other support vehicle became stuck in black mud.

“Then we spoke to a farmer who said, ‘Even if you could have gotten through here, the bridge about two kilometers away had been under water for weeks.'”

Both support cars were able to get each other out of trouble, but the rally had to be diverted to Nyngan in central NSW.

“We were able to divert the rally that day and ensure we could do that before rally cars ended up somewhere where the roads were not suitable.”

What happens to the weather?

Janette Lindesay, a climatologist at the Australian National University, says there is an explanation why the outback’s weather is unusual.

“What we’re seeing with global warming affecting the climate system is different impacts in different parts of the world, and also in different parts of Australia,” Professor Lindesay said.

“But essentially we have a warmer atmosphere, which has more evaporated water from the ocean. That atmosphere contains more energy and can therefore contribute that energy to rain-producing weather systems.”

Professor Lindesay said there was also more extreme weather.

“We have larger extremes because the overall weather systems are changing and destabilized a little bit, and we also have this extra energy in the atmosphere, which then plays out in more extreme events and less predictable patterns,” she said. .

Cancer doesn’t stop, so the rallies don’t stop

Despite the change in weather conditions, Mr Freeman is not concerned about the future of Shitbox Rally.

“We’re not going to stop doing what we do because of the weather,” he said.

“Box rallies are all about raising money for cancer research, so cancer doesn’t care what the weather does, and neither should we.”

While the Shitbox Rallies will reroute and divert each rally if weather affects it, organizers will not be making major changes to the rallies based on what the weather might do in the future.

“It doesn’t mean that farmers and station owners are going to turn around and just say, ‘Okay, let’s just stop doing what we’re doing now because we’re worried about a future drought.'”