Twelve years ago, Geoff Thomas’ son Nathan “came out” to his tradesman father, forcing him to reconsider the values he was raised with.

“I felt completely ashamed, because I’d tell jokes or make remarks and it hit me like a steam train that I’d been offending my own son and I’m deeply ashamed for doing that,” Mr Thomas said.

“That’s the way it was growing up, the standard of the day, but after my son came out I had to look at my own attitudes and what happened was I realised my fear and ignorance were founded on a lie. But when I came to realise my son was not equal under the law of the country I had fought for, that really got up my nose.”

The Vietnam veteran said he underwent a dramatic change in his own attitudes, going from “anti-gay” to a gay rights campaigner.

Eventually, his work led to a 3000-kilometre journey in the “equality ute”,  taking him on a tour of regional areas from Albury to Mount Gambier, Mildura and Echuca before he arrived in Wagga on Sunday night.

“It always struck me that you hear people in the country are not supportive of same sex marriage, so I decided to do a road trip and find out myself,” Mr Thomas said.

“The major polling companies tell us that 73 per cent of all Australians support marriage equality… I’m absolutely convinced this will happen before too long.”

While polls show majority support for same-sex marriage, opponents have been incredibly vocal in having their point of view heard, which has led to division inside the nation’s political machine.

Malcolm Turnbull’s plebiscite on same-sex marriage generated considerable debate both in and out of both houses of parliament, while groups such as the Australian Christian Lobby and Wagga’s Marriage Action Group have waged a war of words against campaigners.

However, Mr Thomas said no-one had jeered or booed at him during his trip.

“We’ve almost finished and the only way I can describe it is hugely successful,” he said. “It’s sad that some people don’t like others simply because they’re different , but I guess that’s one of the great challenges to humanity.”