"It's a pretty unique design, paddle companies are already contacting us about how unique it is and what we did to design and build it," Mr Evans said.

"Everyone's gone 'this is amazing'."

Mr Evans is the founder and owner of Lithgow’s Secret Creek Sanctuary, which is home to native animals such as the Tasmanian Devil and Eastern Quoll.

He called upon his background in engineering to construct the vessel, named Mr Percival.

Mr Percival will be piloted by Secret Creek volunteer Matty Hunter over a long stretch of the Murray River in an effort to raise awareness for the plight of our endangered species.

Mr Hunter will be raising funds for the Australian Ecosystems Foundation, an organisation co-founded by Mr Evans.

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The pair purchased a canoe equipped with outriggers for balance and then made a host of additions to tackle the mighty Murray.

They added the driver’s seat from a Toyota Landcruiser Troopcarrier and a canopy with a solar panel.

However the most innovative part of the build was the pedal and paddle propeller system, designed by Mr Evans.

Mr Hunter said the mechanism was constructed from three bikes that were “attacked with an angle grinder.”

"We cut the rims off a ride-on mower and attached the paddles to that."

Watch Mr Percival in action in the video below.

Like all good ideas, the design for the bike configuration came to Mr Evans in the early hours of the morning.

"I was laying there just thinking about how I'm going to make a paddle craft for a single person to actually be efficient enough to do 2,500 kilometres,” he said.

"But I couldn't use chains or a gear box or paddles under the boat. I had to do something really simple that could be fixed on the water.

"This canoe is something that you do as a walking pace, but it actually goes faster because you got one person pedalling and you got eight paddles actually doing the work.

"Once you get to a certain speed, the momentum, and it's just like walking. That's how we designed it.”

Mr Hunter began his MATES journey on Tuesday, December 12.

The start of the trip was done on foot and by whitewater rafting. He will then travel for several days in a regular canoe before taking Mr Percival to the water on New Years Eve near Yarrawonga west of Albury.

He will then spend 65 days in the boat before finishing at Goolwa in South Australia.

To find out more about the MATES journey or to donate visit give.everydayhero.com/au/m-a-t-e-s.