{"id":644075,"date":"2026-05-02T03:13:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T03:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/644075\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T03:13:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T03:13:17","slug":"meekatharra-bike-donation-and-workshop-gets-kids-cycling-to-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/644075\/","title":{"rendered":"Meekatharra bike donation and workshop gets kids cycling to school"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘Creative community consultant’ Timika King aims to make Meekatharra, in WA’s Midwest, a better place to live.<\/p>\n

So, spotting a number of damaged, abandoned bikes in her remote hometown, she pursued an idea that has provided kids with new rides and also boosted school attendance.<\/p>\n

The town has a population of 850, of which just under half are Indigenous. Ms King herself is a traditional owner.<\/p>\n

\"Composite:<\/p>\n

Community leaders and kids came together for the workshop. (Supplied:Shire of Meekatharra)<\/p>\n

She worked with the shire and local youth workers to seek donations of bikes and get them delivered into the right hands.<\/p>\n

About 130 people joined a workshop to rebuild and repair 100 donated bikes, which were then passed on to those in need.<\/p>\n

“We had community volunteers, uncles, pops, youth workers, aunts and mums,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Everyone just chucked in, put chains on, put new handlebars on.<\/p>\n

“Some of them [bikes] needed a bit of re-pimping, so we did the spray paint and stickers, a few tassels, made it all glittery.”\"Timika<\/p>\n

Ms King (left) says some of the donated bikes needed “re-pimping”. (Supplied: Shire of Meekatharra)<\/p>\n

More kids at school<\/p>\n

Ms King said the project had had a “massive” impact on the young people who were able to keep the bikes.<\/p>\n

With around 100 students, Meekatharra’s only school had an attendance rate of less than 40 per cent last year, compared to WA’s average of 85 per cent.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Around 100 students attend the outback school. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Chloe Henville)<\/p>\n

The Department of Education could not provide current student attendance data, but Ms King said there had been a visible increase in students making their own way to school.<\/p>\n

“The school has an allocated area for push bikes to be stored, and that went from empty to full overnight,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We saw heaps more kids riding to school.”<\/p>\n

Local Youth Focus service manager Paulette Anderson agreed, saying more young people were heading to school and getting fresh air thanks to the bikes.<\/p>\n

“It’s a hell of a lot easier to ride a bike in 45 degree heat than it is to walk,” she laughed.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Ms Anderson says the bikes provide equal opportunities for local youth. (ABC News: Jake Sturmer)<\/p>\n

Ms Anderson said bike repair work helped teach young people personal accountability.<\/p>\n

“It creates a responsibility for them,” she said.<\/p>\n

“[The kids think] ‘this is mine, I’ve helped fix it, I’ve helped repair it, so I’m going to look after it.'”<\/p>\n

\"Composite:<\/p>\n

Young people got involved in fixing the donated bikes. (Supplied:Shire of Meekatharra)<\/p>\n

Ms Anderson said the workshop also helped foster connections in the community.<\/p>\n

“It wasn’t just one person doing one thing for a small group of people,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s about the very basics of relationship building that takes no effort from the adults at all. We’re there, we show up, and the kids can build a positive relationship based on those interactions.”<\/p>\n

‘A good thing to do’<\/p>\n

Some of the donated bikes came from Bicycles for Humanity, an international group focused on creating basic mobility for those in need.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

It is hoped the bike project will foster community connection in Meekatharra. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Chloe Henville)<\/p>\n

Peter Moore runs the Geraldton branch and said it was fantastic to see the impact of the donation on the kids.<\/p>\n

“They need something to do and they take pride in getting a bike and fixing it up and giving it a coat of paint,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s a good thing to do, I think.”<\/p>\n

\"Composite:<\/p>\n

Mr Moore says local kids have taken pride in the project. (Supplied:Shire of Meekatharra)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘Creative community consultant’ Timika King aims to make Meekatharra, in WA’s Midwest, a better place to live. So,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,47419,784,44023,18875,311667,311668,311666,296208,34583,55044,85,114331,45],"class_list":["post-644075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-community-spirit","tag-cycling","tag-donations","tag-education-access","tag-happy-kids","tag-meekatharra","tag-new-bikes","tag-outback-kids","tag-school-attendance","tag-social-justice","tag-sports","tag-volunteering","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}