Club founders Brendan Baker and and Mark Segafredo hatched the idea over a coffee in 2011 with the desire to create a platform to raise funds for local causes.

“We wanted to have a Bendigo charity where any money raised didn't leave Bendigo,” Mr Baker said.

“The reason we’re well supported by the community is because they know their money stays local, that’s why we’ve got a lot of groundswell support in Bendigo.”

Over four race days the club has raised funds for various causes from helping send local athletes to sports championships to providing furniture and support for families who have lost their homes or whose children have been unwell.

The club also makes an annual donation of $5000 to Horizon House, helping to provide accommodation and care for vulnerable young people in the region.

“At our race days we average about $30,000 a year and we have about 200 people there,” Mr Baker said.

“That $30,000  goes into a charity account and we distribute that money throughout the year  to anyone that needs it but it doesn’t leave the City of Greater Bendigo.”

This year Baker and Segafredo are set to embark on their most ambitious fundraising effort to date.

Joined by 17 other local businessmen, they will walk the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea over nine days, starting on April 15.

The other Bendigonians joining Mr Baker and Mr Segafredo on the 96 kilometre trek are Darren Rogers, Tony Harrington, Peter Sartori, Scott Hosking, John McGrath, Craig Halliday, Brett Crapper, Wayne Simpson, Dick Townsend, Chris Garlick, Paul Byrne, Peter Rainey, Bart Leahy, Dale Clark, Mick Robertson, Rob Anderson and Adam MacKenzie.

Dubbed the Walk for Wheelchairs, the trek will raise money to buy wheelchairs for children whose families would otherwise struggle to afford them.

For Mr Rainey the charity aspect was a big driver behind putting his hand up for the trip, for which all members have paid their own costs of about $8000, plus a further $1000 they each to put towards the cause.

“To raise money for these kids, it’ll change their life forever," he said.

"Some of these kids can’t get wheelchairs for years and by the time they can afford it they’ve grown out of them. It’s quite sad really, it’s upsetting, so if we can help in any way it’ll be good."

Mr Rainey said that while there was some government funding available to assist with the cost of wheelchairs, there was a shortfall which had to be met by the families before they could access them.

“The chairs cost anything between eight and 15 grand and the families have to come up with the gap which is about two grand, with some of these families it can take them two years to get the money so it could be two or three years down the track and the kid’s already grown out of it," he said.

The good cause aside, Mr Rainey said the trip would also be important in other ways, predicting that it would be a challenging, rewarding and emotional experience.

“It’s an opporunity to represent the Returned and Services League and Bendigo and also raise money for the kids whilst undertaking something that’s pretty challenging," he said.

The walk will conclude with a dawn service at the Bomana War Cemetery in the Papua New Guinean capital, Port Moresby and fellow trekker John McGrath said part of the reason for the journey was to recognise the ANZAC spirit in the centenary year of the Gallipoli campaign.

He said finishing the journey with a dawn service on the April 25, ANZAC Day, was something that was very important to the group.

“The Kokoda Trail is what our diggers went through, it's obviously a bit more sanitised now, but it's still a difficult track. We don’t have any enemies shooting at us or anything though and the poor diggers had nothing but ration packs and dysentery to combat,” he said.

Mr McGrath said the group had just ramped up their training recently by carrying their packs up One Tree Hill to try to emulate the conditions that they’d come across at Kokoda.

"It’s going to be difficult to emulate of course because it’s extremely hilly and extremely steep and we can’t emulate the humidity or the mosquitoes and those sorts of things,” he said.

Mr Baker said many of the group's members hadn't known each other prior to embarking on their challenge and training together had meant they had shared similar camaraderie to a sports team while the amount of weight loss had been astounding.

"It’s like a footy team, the boys have got very close because we train together. And the men’s health angle’s been really important, I reckon the 19 of us have probably lost 130 kilograms in total,” he said.

"The boys did Mount Donna Buang, from the base to the summit was 19 kilometers, and on Saturdays and Sundays we meet at 6am at One Tree Hill and we do about 16 kilometres."

"Some guys have been doing both days and it takes us eight hours to walk eight kilometres, I've lost about eight kilograms, Tony Harrington I think has lost 13, most of the boys are probably seven or eight kilos down."

"The hardest thing will be backing it up every day when you're sore and stiff and you've got to get in the river of a night time and do some stretching and do it all again the next day."

The group has raised about $50,000 so far, including $12,000 at a golf day in December last year, and hopes to go as high as $75,000 – $100,000 over the next few months.      

“The big dream is 100 grand which is probably not achievable, but it’d be lovely to get a bit more corporate support and get to 75 grand,” Mr Baker said.

"Everyone said (of the Hindsight Club) this won't work or it'll last a year but now our brand's pretty strong, the Kokoda stuff's really made the brand a lot stronger. If we have a function now I reckon we'll sell it out pretty quick."