The boys, who were keen to break the 2015 record of 5,195 laps, worked hard to successfully ride 7,622 laps – the equivalent of riding from Dubbo to New Guinea in just 12 hours.

The bike relay initiative was developed in 2015 by Clontarf Delroy Campus director Michael Lee.

“One of the directives of the Clontarf Foundation is to actively encourage our boys to stand up against domestic violence and we thought this was a positive way of doing that,” Mr Lee said.

“At Senior Campus the boys make the ‘Walk a Mile in Her Shoes’ statement and we wanted to give our boys another difficult challenge that would make them work hard to achieve their goal.

“The boys are always involved in rugby league and the 12-hour bike relay was something different but very challenging for them.

“Meeting and exceeding challenges like this is very impressive and works to boost their self-esteem.”

The 2016 challenge was organised by Clontarf’s Mark Prince and started at 6am on Friday. The ride rules saw a minimum of at least four boys riding bikes around the oval at any one time until 6pm on Friday evening.

The Dubbo College students were joined by Clontarf and College staff, as well as students from Dubbo Public School and youth from Apollo House.

“I would say there were at least 70 of our Clontarf boys involved in the relay and they received great support from police, ambulance and the fire brigade, which was able to spray the riders with a water mist to cool them down,” Mr Lee said.

“Local mental health and domestic violence workers were also on hand, as well as Alan Hall and Yvonne Hill from the Dubbo Aboriginal Education office, who provided outstanding support to the boys.

“The community was very helpful and Alan Shillingsworth also worked with the boys to paint a mural depicting their stance against domestic violence.”