Two steelworkers and a plumber made a 5000km round trip to Cairns driving pint-sized motor scooters with a maximum speed of 85km, all for their love of a little girl.

Chris Newbold, Kirk Smith and Paul Smith arrived back exhausted in the Illawarra yesterday after the 22-stop journey which took three weeks and one day and raised almost $60,000 for much-needed classrooms at the South Coast School for Children with Autism in Corrimal.

When the convoy, including a support van, arrived at Bald Hill a teary Mr Newbold embraced his spirited six-year-old daughter Courtney, who was diagnosed with autism four years ago and was the inspiration for the trip.

"There is an eight-year waiting list to get speech therapy through the public system so I was pretty much paying $130 for a half-hour lesson, but the costs of everything are high," Mr Newbold said.

"The school has got an old miner's shack that was donated to them about 30 years ago and they have a few demountables but that's it, so if we can build two more classrooms that would get another 12 kids into the school - there is a waiting list of 180 children."

The two buildings would cost about $300,000.

"The issues that we have here in Wollongong with waiting lists and services are just like everywhere else all through NSW and Queensland," Mr Newbold said of the lessons he learned on the road.

"And if anything, our services here in Wollongong are better.

"We met autistic people who were 18, 19 and 20 who virtually had no help at all, and never did have help."

To make a donation, visit: www.therideforautism.org