The Hear Our Heart project was launched in late 2011 to improve the ear health service for children around Dubbo and the surrounding area.

Mr Rutter was back in Dubbo last week to perform tests and he knows how far the project has come since his first visit.

"It's a fully-fledged organisation and with structure and they are running it really well now. Obviously the bus was always the intention from day one to have an up and running ear bus, but now it's a reality for these guys so that's fantastic," he said.

READ ALSO:

"It's an enormous achievement to think that they have come from where they were to where they are now but just the volume of kids that have been able to be positively affected through their actions.

"All of the programs that Rach (Rachel Mills), Gini (Virigina Redenbach) and Donna (Rees) and all those in the background have done to keep this massive scale operation up and running and to the point they're at is an enormous achievement."

Volunteer co-director Rachel Mills said Mr Rutters visit as a whole had been surreal for her and the organisation.

"It is actually (surreal). We are very proud to have Gordon see all of this and obviously (he has been) a part of it right from the beginning he was and now being actually able to get in the bus was a pipe dream and it has been a bit a bit of reflective week for Donna and I," she said.

Mr Rutters joked about his first trip to Dubbo when he had the basic equipment necessary to perform screenings compared to what the project has now.

"We were saying the other day, our very first screening seven years ago we didn't even have any gear back then, I turned up with an old second-hand bought set of equipment that I got as a not-too-recently-graduated audiometrist," he said.

"It still did the job but it was probably $500 or $600 worth of gear at the time but it did the job and to look at what they have now they have got top end equipment now and all the high tech stuff that's needed to do the job."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: