Motion by the Ocean was one of the organisation finalists in the recent 2025 WA Seniors Awards. Their team has been supporting the coastal community since 2017, offering WA’s first Cycling Without Age service. Find out more about their wonderful work.
Alanagh Godderidge founded Cycling Without Age Sorrento and later created Motion by the Ocean in 2020 to better respond to the unmet needs they were seeing. At the heart of everything this group does is a simple belief: everyone deserves to remain socially relevant and connected within the communities they live in and love. Since they began, more than 10,000 passengers have shared the joy of being out and about on wheels.
Cycling Without Age Sorrento offers free trishaw rides for seniors and people with disabilities, restoring confidence, sparking conversation and bringing joy through connection with the outdoors.
As Alanagh says, “We all want to be heard, and we all have a story – unless those stories are shared, they are lost in time.”
Motion by the Ocean is now supported by many like-minded people whose diverse strengths add depth to its work and make the charity more capable of serving those older people who are reliant on them. These days, their cycling fleet operates free rides seven days a week making it the most regular service of its kind, in the country.
Beach bikes go to the bush
Recently their bike-riding project delivered its first ‘Beach to Bush’ initiative with the full fleet of bikes and volunteers heading to Kalgoorlie. Over two full days of rides, many people shared that they had never visited Karlkurla Bushland Park due to mobility limitations. Some had never been on a bike before, making the experience even more meaningful.
Long-term, Alanagh says Motion by the Ocean visits are intended as part of a bigger commitment to rural communities, keen to build stronger, ongoing relationships within Kalgoorlie and Esperance, instead of being seen as a one-off presence.
“Our focus is on concentrating our efforts within the same communities and establishing deeper, more meaningful connections over time, rather than travelling to multiple rural areas for single, standalone initiatives”.
We asked Alanagh what her proudest moment has been so far since commencing. “It’s having the passion to start this project and seeing it come to life. Every morning, seeing our bikes out on the shared path gives me the warm and fuzzies as our supported people reconnect with their community.”
But there’s more…
Motion by the Ocean’s second program, Moving Food, provides essential groceries and care packages to seniors living alone, single-parent families, large families, refugee families and others struggling with the rising cost of living.
Moving Food began at the start of COVID, as a result of older people not being able to safely access shops, so Motion by the Ocean’s volunteers partnered with SecondBite, a supplier of free food donations, to safely deliver meals and socially distanced support to people isolated in their homes.
If you’d like to be part of the inspirational work going on through either of these Motion by the Ocean programs by volunteering, donating, partnering with them or simply spreading the word, find out more here at www.motionbytheocean.org.au. Every act of support keeps their wheels turning.
