Travellers Auto Barn have been working in conjuction with Australian Backpacers Netherlands for the past five years. Since 2005 every September TAB have been giving away a vehicle for one lucky winner from the ABNL JUMBO group that comes to Australia.

ABNL are a company that coordinates a packaged trip to Australia for Dutch backpackers. Upon their arrival into Australia they are picked up at the airport and begin their orientation through Sydney, lead by the team leaders. One of their stops is at TAB, where the group are given a presentation on “Driving Australia”. They are made aware of the advantages, benefits and pitfalls of driving yourself around our vast country. Every group consists of around 8 – 15 people, however in the last week of September, Sydney is faced with the ABNL JUMBO, a group of 75 -80 people embarking on the trip of a lifetime.

This year the ABNL JUMBO theme was “Over the Top”. The group had to dress accordingly and make there way to the Coogee Palace Hotel, on Tuesday 29^th. The five bessed dressed contestants went into the draw to win a car, supplied by TAB. Five car keys were placed into a hat and all contestants choose a key. Richard Swanton TAB’s Sydney Manager, took the five contestants down to the carpark and everyone had a chance to start the car. First attempt failed, second attempt SUCCESS!! Giel Hendriks from the Netherlands, aka “Toilet Man” was the winner. Giel was estatic with his prize! When asked how was he feeling he said, “I cant believe it! It has been the best week ever, thank you so much TAB this is the best car, I just can’t believe it, I only just purchased a plane ticket to Cairns, oh well, now Im driving all the way up the east coast.

Richard Swanton, manager of TAB Sydney said, “Congratulations to Giel, what an experience he will now have, a lot of preparation went into making this competition a success, we started with a plain vehicle and had it painted with flames and logos, we also provided Giel with some camping gear to make his trip that much easier.