Charity runner completes continental crossing

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- A 19-year-old man has run more than 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) across the breadth of Australia to raise money for charity.

Human movement student Don Maclurcan completed his run at around 11 am (midnight Tuesday GMT) Wednesday, arriving at the steps of the Sydney Opera House nine and a half weeks after setting out from the Western Australian capital city of Perth.

Maclurcan had to run at an average of 60 kilometers (37 miles) -- almost one and a half marathons -- a day for 66 days to complete the feat.

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The run included crossing the 1,200 kilometer (750 mile) Nullarbor Plain in the height of summer, because Maclurcan needed to fit the run into his university schedule.

Apart from raising money for the Fred Hollows foundation – a charity that works to reduce preventable blindness – the run is also part of Australia's 2002 Year of the Outback celebrations.

The Outback is the Australia term for the vast, mainly desert interior of the island continent.

Maclurcan was given a police escort for the final leg of his run through Sydney's city streets to the Town Hall and then on to the landmark Opera House.