Roby Curtis Walking 2,500km for the Homeless

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COZ153: A Catholic mission leader is walking 2,500 kilometers through the Australian outback to raise $1 million for homeless services, and the inspiration comes from a papal address made four decades ago.

Roby Curtis of Emmanuel City Mission in Brisbane has spent 16 years building a service that now welcomes up to 250 people a day with no barriers and no cost. With his Night Sanctuary expanding its evening hours, Roby and teammate Jeff set out on April 20 on a grueling walk from Brisbane to Alice Springs: 50 kilometers a day through Western Queensland and the Northern Territory.

The walk is a pilgrimage. 2026 marks 40 years since Pope John Paul II visited Alice Springs and delivered a historic address to First Nations Australians, acknowledging the Spirit of God moving in this land long before European settlement, honoring deep Aboriginal custodianship, and calling First Nations peoples to rise up and bring their gifts to the Australian Church. Roby draws from that address every day at his mission, where 35% of visitors are First Nations people.

Host Lindsay Sant speaks with Roby about how the cost-of-living crisis is bringing new populations through the mission’s doors, the physical and spiritual preparation behind a 2,500km walk (including an annual 300km Holy Week pilgrimage as a warmup), and what it means to undertake this journey as a father of seven.

Then Caroline Knight brings a science story that fits the theme perfectly. Bruce is a Kea parrot at Willowbank Wildlife Reserve in Christchurch who lost his entire upper beak to a pest trap. Without the hooked mandible Kea use for feeding, grooming, and dominance, Bruce should have been at the bottom of his group. Instead, he invented a new fighting style he calls “beak jousting,” learned to groom using pebbles, won 100% of 36 recorded dominance fights, and became the alpha male of his circus, with the lowest stress levels of any bird in the group.

Lino Saubolle joins the conversation as the panel reflects on resilience, behavioral plasticity, and what animals can teach us about adapting to circumstances we didn’t choose.

You can follow Roby’s walk and donate at robyswalk.com.au. 

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Catholics of Oz