Meet Rusty, the hitchhiking dog who travelled 1,500kms across Australia while owners went on holiday

An Australian terrier bitten by the travel bug has made his way 1,500kms across the country's outback recently. Three-year-old Rusty recently set off to explore his country as a stowaway on a truck.

According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the dog was staying with her owner's in-laws at a cattle property outside Goondiwindi, on the Queensland and New South Wales border, while the rest of the family went on a holiday. Earlier this month the pet hopped on board an interstate truck and made his way to Snowtown, South Australia.

The truck driver Paul McDowell noticed that he had a four-legged companion onboard and took him home.

"He got up at 5am and was checking the tyres before he started off again, and there's this little dog sleeping [in the cabin]," Heather Reid, the driver's wife said.

"My husband's a real dog man. He just said he couldn't leave him on the road, he'd die."

McDowell reportedly searched the area for the dog's owners but could not find any houses in sight. He decided instead to let the dog accompany him on his four-day drive home.

Using the information on his dog tag, McDowell's wife Reid called Rusty's owner Laura Scudamore to inform her of the pet's whereabouts.

"I get sent photos everyday of him being pampered ... he just loves being in the middle of all of the attention so this is just suiting him down to the ground," Scudamore said.

She is now attempting to find a way to bring Rusty back home and shared a post on Facebook asking for help.

"I've been looking into dog couriers and they're quite expensive, so I'm trying on the off-chance that someone on my Facebook knows someone, and it's just gone crazy," she added.

This is not the first time Rusty has gone off on one of his adventures. In 2016, the pooch travelled 230kms away from home, to Chinchilla.

"He's really upped the ante this time making it all the way to South Australia," Scudamore said.