Lise Kelly and Shé Hawke, now in their 60s, have remained best friends and have continued to live lives of service, advocacy and activism. Photo: Supplied.
It was an initial sense of helplessness that made Judy (now Shé) Hawke and Lise Kelly come up with the idea of a Bike Ride for Peace almost 40 years ago on Palm Sunday 1985.
Inspired by activist and scholar Joanna Macy’s work on despair and empowerment, the two best friends from Canberra – freshly returned from a trip in Europe – felt compelled to do something about the nuclear threat following the geopolitical tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union at the peak of the Cold War.
They planned to cycle from Sydney to Western Australia in the ‘Peace Pedal to Perth’ to raise awareness for peace and nuclear disarmament.
Little did they know that this epic journey across Australia was going to be life-changing.
“I suddenly realised I might not see 30 and neither might the rest of the world, and I really felt I needed to do something, and Lise felt the same,” Ms Hawke told Region.
Although not describing themselves as “politically awake”, it was the sound of Australian folk and rock bands such as Redgum, Goanna and Midnight Oil who delivered a call to protest through their lyrics that made the two 23-year-old women join the Nuclear Disarmament Party (NDP).
The NDP Canberra welcomed Ms Hawke and Ms Kelly’s grassroots protest ride idea from the outset and, with the help of the branch’s secretary Erica Denborough, the two cyclists were ready to spread the message of peace across the continent.
Ms Hawke’s brother, Geoff, trained them by riding up and down the Great Dividing Range. But as they would soon find out, it wasn’t going to be a smooth ride.
First, the NDP branch in Sydney left them off the agenda at the Palm Sunday Peace rally, where their departure was supposed to happen, but eventually agreed to add them as a postscript.
“We later understood how two women cycling across Australia for peace, as a form of gentle but enduring protest, was not a priority,” Hawke wrote in an essay to be published in 2026.
She Hawke and Lise Kelly Leaving Sydney to commence the Bike Ride for Peace on Palm Sunday 1985. Photo: Supplied.
By the time they made it to the NDP Conference in Melbourne a couple of weeks later, the two women had cycled about 1500 km down the Princes Highway and met small peace activist groups.
During these meetings, they learned about the inevitable teething problems of a party like NDP and the difficulty that personalities like Peter Garrett, the lead singer of Midnight Oil and NSW Senate candidate, would pose.
The NDP’s future was indeed short and ill-fated, with the party effectively splitting at the conclusion of the conference in Melbourne in April 1985.
Undaunted, Hawke and Kelly decided to continue riding around the southern coast of Australia under their own steam.
“We stopped riding for 24 hours to think about it. But then we just got up and said, ‘We gotta keep going’. And we just kept going,” Ms Hawke said.
They crossed the Nullarbor and continued to talk to schools, social justice groups and people from all walks of life.
“I don’t know if we changed anyone’s mind. The point was, we kept the conversation about peace and disarmament going and alive in places where those conversations might not have otherwise happened.”
At the launch of the NDP National Conference in Melbourne in April 1985. Midnight Oil lead singer Peter Garrett is in the background. Photo: Supplied.
The journey lasted more than three months. On 7 July 1985, the two women arrived in Perth via a brief stop at Cockburn Sound, which is the former site of the Women’s Peace Camp where a party was held to celebrate their achievement.
Forty years on, Ms Hawke believes the world is still, in some ways, being held hostage by Russia and the US. But would they do it again?
“Everyone knows the story of Hiroshima and what happened there,” Ms Hawke said.
“We don’t need any more evidence than that to the power of nuclear bombing. So we can’t let that happen.
“I would take to the street again over that, if it came to it.”
Now in their 60s, both Ms Hawke and Ms Kelly remain good friends and continue to live lives of service, advocacy and activism.
Some artefacts from their epic ride have been donated to Canberra’s Museum Of Australian Democracy, including painted anti-nuclear T-shirts and one of the original bike seats.
An essay written by Ms Hawke will be published next year by Bloomsbury, and an exhibition is in the works.
