Toyota Tundra caravan rig prize worth $285K heads to Tassie

The winners of an awesome touring rig worth more than a quarter million dollars, are hitting the road on an East coast trek, after recently collecting the keys to their brand new ute and caravan in Brisbane. 

Robert Monks, from Hobart, won the $285,000 prize earlier this year, holding the winning ticket for the latest NTI Motor Neurone Disease (MND) fundraiser drawn at the NTI Townsville 500 Supercars event in July.

The 4500kg tow-rated Toyota Tundra named 'Dusty' and the 19ft New Age Manta Ray Expedition couple's off-road 'van is being put to good use straight away, as Robert and his wife Kylie make the 2500-kilometre trip back to Tasmania.

“It was an incredible feeling to slide behind the wheel of this new ute for the first time, and to think – it all came about just by helping a great cause,” Robert said.

“We’ll give the new gear a great test drive on the way home and then there will be plenty of adventuring and camping across Tasmania.

“NTI does an incredible job fundraising to support MND research, and I'd like to thank them again for their ongoing commitment to such important work.”

Each year, NTI runs its MND fundraiser in honour of former CEO Wayne Patterson who lost his battle with the disease in 2018. It's not the first time the prize in the annual raffle has been an RV, with a $265,000 Isuzu-based expedition motorhome raffled off in 2023.

This year’s fundraiser collected $468,000, with all of the $3million in funds raised so far going towards medical research though NTI’s official research grant.

NTI CEO Janelle Greene said it was heartwarming to see how much support the charity initiative received across Australia.

“We’re grateful that so many people around the country join us each year in the hopes of winning an exciting prize, but more importantly to work towards better treatments and a cure for Australians diagnosed with MND,” she said.

“Each day, two lives are lost to MND in Australia and two new cases are diagnosed. We hope our fundraiser will help researchers in their quest to crack the code of MND.