China Mug, pictured on Mt Ohlssen Bagge, Wilpena Pound, South Australia

Tassie’s Turn

Some of you may have heard it’s our turn again at hosting the Australasian Rogaining Championships, this time in 2027. Given that our small state punches above its weight in interstate comps, it’ll be awesome to welcome our fellow interstate and international rogainers to our apple isle.
 

What’s been happening?

A small team consisting of Gary Carroll, Bass Burgess, Peter Tuft, Ross Kelly, Bernard Walker, Nick Bowden, and myself (China Mug) has met a couple of times, has started the initial process of identifying possible areas and dates, has started discussing the event documentation required (e.g. event management plan), and is identifying key roles.
 

We are currently exploring locations in the Midlands, for an event to be held in Autumn 2027. This will be 5 months before the World Rogaining Championships which are being held in South Australia in September 2027.

Who the heck is China Mug?

It’s vital we have someone take the lead very early on as 2027 is really not that far away, and as we all know, planning, organising and preparing for a successful event takes an awful of a lot of time, patience and perseverance, all of which rogainers are well known for.
 

We searched high and low, through prickly box and scoparia, and we ended up with some dude called China Mug. China is new to Rogaining Tasmania, having first volunteered as a First Aider, with his wife Margaret, at the 2024 GorgeUs Metrogaine and then at the 2024 Deddington Dilemma and recently at the 2025 Coffee Bean Metrogaine and Roche’s Rumble. He became a Committee Member last February.


China comes with more than 30 years of instructing bushwalking in Scouts and has managed large Scout events. He also has extensive project management experience, which should be useful for a complex event like an ARC.  Next time you bump into China, say hello and have a yarn!

What’s next?


The BIG next step is to start seeking volunteers to join our merry ARC2027 team. Roles required include Setters, Vetters, Logistics, Electronic Scoring, HH and Camp, Secretary, Event Administration, Volunteers Management, Safety, First Aid, Social Media (must be able to tweet faster than Donald), Promotion, Website, Presentations, Out-of-State Participants Coordination, Grants and Sponsorships, Merchandise and Photographer. Possibly more!


This is an excellent opportunity to take part in organising and managing a significant national rogaining event. If you are enthusiastic and energetic, have a chat with us. We can be contacted on email using 
 


See you at the next knoll.


China Mug - ARC2027 Event Coordinator

The Roche's Rumble setters, vetters and helpers. Oliver Bain, Jaymee Knoll, Gav Johnstone, Rowan Tilley, Bridget White and Maddy Hendy.

By Rowan Tilley and Jaymee Knoll

After a crash course from Simon Allen in setting checkpoints using Avenza Maps, we were let loose on Lauderdale. Chomping at the bit, we were perhaps a little too enthusiastic in our early setting sessions, dishing out checkpoints left and right before realising our pin density was blocking out important navigation features on the map! Once we reined it in - and figured out how to contend with the constraints imposed on the course by the shape of the land and many dangerous sections of road - the route options started to take shape. We tiptoed around answers involving colour and counting higher than 10, and were mindful not to repeat questions from the Hit or Miss Metrogaine of 2020. Somehow, the two of us managed to independently set identical questions based on the same sign in two locations (which we quickly rectified!).  After worrying that we had set too large a course and that many of the southernmost checkpoints may not be visited, we were pleased to learn that only one control was not visited on the day. We suppose enduring deep, soft sand for only 30 points was not particularly enticing.

Jaymee tackled the setting on foot and the less glamorous battle with paperwork, venue bookings and administrative tasks, with valuable support from Gary Carroll. Rowan tackled some of the Tangara Trails on an electric onewheel. The rocky trails were hard on the legs, and there were steep sections where the board became a 20kg burden that he had to carry. It was the first bike event we've had since the Lindisfun Metrogaine of 2022, and it was wonderful to see so many teams take on the event on bikes, including a tandem! A foot, bike and non-competitive ebike division, but we were wishing we could have squeezed a horseback division in there too!

It was a great opportunity to get to know a place we knew little about, as neither of us had previously spent much time exploring the Tangara Trail or South Arm. Now we feel we know the area inside out! Along with beautiful vistas there were some strange and memorable moments during the setting. We saw countless brown bandicoots, a mob of emus, a wrecked boat being salvaged near Cape Deslacs, and a blue-tongue lizard wash ashore on a beach.

A big thank you to our dedicated team of vetters: Charlotte Blake, Gav Johnstone, Bridget White and Michael Battaglia. We took on their helpful feedback, made tweaks and adjustments, revisits to various checkpoints, and at last, the day was upon us.

Last minute pumping up of tyres, broken mud guard removal and seat adjustments, and the teams were away. With enthusiastic competitors, friendly locals and the help from our hard working volunteers the Roche’s Rumble was pulled off without a hitch. Well, save some issues with disappearing flower pots, some debate over whether an orca is a dolphin or a whale (Fun fact: it’s both! All dolphins are whales.), and a shed transforming into a silo.

The mysterious disappearing shed. It was there when we set the course. Honest.

An enormous thank you to Simon and Gary for their mentorship, mapping expertise and patience with our ad-hoc setting style. Thank you also to Find Your Feet for generously donating spot prizes, John Dawson for valuable local knowledge and assistance with the map, members of the Rogaining Tasmania committee for assistance with proofreading and various tasks, Rebecca Risely from the Clarence City Council for assisting with the hall booking and permissions, and Duncan Oliver from Knuckle Sandwich for a very successful first time catering for a Rogaining Tasmania event. Thank you to our incredible team of on-the-day volunteers, including our vetting and mapping team, plus Maddy Hendy, Oliver Bain, Sean Carroll, Nicolë Carpenter, China Mug, Margaret Yam, Bronwyn Fuller, Judy Davis, Liz Canning and Hugh Fitzgerald. Without the dedication and effort from our volunteers, the success of the event would not have been possible.

Congratulations to the category and overall winners. Finally, thank you to every single one of the entrants. We admired your enthusiasm and high spirits, even if you arrived back a little late or struggled to find that mysterious buoy hanging in a tree! We hope to see you at future Rogaining Tasmania events, as competitors or volunteers. 

Rogaining Tasmania is looking for event organisers for 2026. Why not give it a go?

Full results and the routes of the winning bike and on-foot team are on the RT results web page. Photos from the event can be viewed here.

Roche's Rumble On-Foot Winners, Marc Iseli and Andrew Gaskell

By Andrew Gaskell, on behalf of Team Marc & Andy.

“I’ve got something that might interest you”. So began the intriguing message I received from Marc two weeks before my first rogaining event. Prior to Roche’s Rumble, Marc had competed in one other event, last year’s Lenah Valley Hops Again held near his home in Glenorchy. On that occasion, Marc’s endless pursuit of checkpoints had viciously chewed, swallowed and spat out his teammate and he was now on the search for a new victim. The prospect of spending a Sunday on what appeared to be some kind of scavenger hunt around Lauderdale was not a disagreeable one for me, and so, I agreed to join Marc’s team.

Knowing that the gun would be fired at 10:00, Marc and I agreed to meet and sign in at around 9:20am. That seemed like a reasonable amount of time to study the map but we quickly came to realise that getting there a bit earlier would have come in handy. We did a quick “eye-over” and thought that the northern section of the map looked a bit more “checkpoint dense” so decided to focus on that. Marc had come prepared with a corkboard, pins, string and measuring tape. I had come prepared to incline my head at a thoughtful angle and stroke my beard.

Marc cut off the scaled equivalent of 35 km of string, figuring that this would be a pretty conservative estimate of the ground we might cover during the four-hour event, and proceeded to mark out a route pinning each of the checkpoints we intended to cover along the way. Our plan was to pick up all the checkpoints along the western side going north and to then catch as many as possible along the eastern side on the way back south. There were a few sections which we didn’t include but flagged as “optional” depending on how we were tracking. This included the section near the airport (checkpoints 66, 90, 82), south of Seven Mile Beach (checkpoints 63, 102 and 43) and anything south of Ralphs Bay Canal for some extra points if we returned early (checkpoints 74, 21 and 107). Given that we ran out of time to consider any alternative routes, Marc described our method as a bit of a “brute force approach”, meaning that we may not take the most efficient route but expected to keep up a good pace and cover a lot of ground.

Marc and I know each other from local trail running events, where we charge up and down hilly trails until our lungs burn, our legs ache with fatigue and we collapse in a heap with exhaustion. When we recover enough to get a few words out, we rattle on about how much “fun” it all was and, with a crazed look in our eyes, how much we look forward to doing it all again at the next event. 

In our first event as teammates, we set out as planned, heading north along the western side. At first, it felt like we were meeting with checkpoints regularly, ticking off 35, 13, 47, 53, 20, 104, 46 and 28 in quick succession. I quickly fell into the role of quizmaster while Marc was in charge of keeping us on our nominated route (not that way, this way. I think you’ll find its… oh I see, the map was upside down).

As we progressed with an out-and-back to 85, the checkpoints started to spread a bit. It still felt like we were ahead of where we needed to be, so we decided to go all the way out to checkpoint 91 via 105 and 38.

From this northernmost checkpoint we headed towards the eastern side of the map, continuing to tick off checkpoints as we went. When we got to 22, we felt like we had plenty of time to head up towards the airport and proceeded to do the extra loop of 66, 90 and 82 without much trouble.

We grabbed 40 and then went out and back to 63 before climbing up Single Hill for 102. Not only did this add nicely to our total but we felt that some uphill running was necessary for us to stay “on brand” as trail runners. There wasn’t much time to take in the views from up top and we quickly descended down to checkpoint 67 which had us a little unsure of the question being asked (What is written in red writing on the tin shed? What shed? The tin one. There is no tin shed. Red writing, tin shed. It should be over there. There’s red writing on that nearby tank. A tank is not a shed. Well, maybe this one identifies as a shed?). It was at this point when a gentleman from a neighbouring property waved us over to explain that the shed had been pulled down the previous week. We swiftly noted down the writing on the tank and moved on in the hope that this would still get us the points. 

From here we continued to head southwards and picked up 29 and 44. With an eye on the clock, we decided to go straight to 60 and 71 and skip 52 and 34, with the intention of then heading south to have a late crack at 74, 21 and 107. Time seemed to slip away quickly, however, and we only managed to get to 74 before making the call to turn around and head for home. 

We crossed the finish line with three minutes to spare. I was rather hungry and pleased to be offered a cardboard box full of goodies. After a very short time, the cardboard box was empty and we whiled away the afternoon discussing the joys of running around Lauderdale, chasing a series of seemingly meaningless clues and wondering if the writing on that elusive tin shed had in fact held a key, life-changing piece of wisdom…

Reflecting back on our route, it didn’t end up turning out too bad. Getting 52, 34 and possibly also squeezing in 43 instead of going south for 74 would have been a better option but, then again, if we’d pushed the pace a bit harder then 21 and 107 might have also still been on the cards.

I was jolted out of my reverie by the announcement of our names at the final presentations and Marc and I accepted our award for accumulating the most points in the foot category at Roche’s Rumble. I thoroughly enjoyed my first rogaining experience, despite not receiving a much-anticipated piggy-back ride that Marc had needed to give his former teammate at the Lenah Valley event. Notwithstanding this minor shortcoming, Marc and I had managed to cover 46 km in our “brute force” approach and befriended a confused water tank along the way. I guess what I’m trying to say is that it was a Sunday well spent and our thanks go out to all the volunteers for putting on such a great event. 

Bike category winners - Euan Best and Robert Ravani

By Robert Ravani

In the lead up to the event I was excited at the chance to take part in an event with the Bests however I was somewhat underdone and knowing that I would be riding with my nephew brought with it certain trepidation, you see Euan was coming off the back of a long training stint that culminated at the Junior World Orienteering Championships.  I, on the other hand, was coming off the back of a long stint on the couch.

To help keep things fairly even I got a hold of the map and thought through how to effectively manage our route for the next 4 hours and not fatigue to the point where I would let Euan down, thus no steep inclines or their close relative: Long Grinding Hills. This meant sticking to gradient's and avoiding peaks. Upon first assessment of the map with Lauderdale being a pinch point the layout seemed to preference sticking to either the North or the South, however both sides contained lots of points that were quite close, further to this the Northern side appeared to be a bit more hilly, whilst the Southern side was very spread out but quite flat, in order to balance this we chose a circular route on the Southern side that went around the main hills but didn't venture too far into any area that would require back tracking, and we worked out that the Southern side would take us roughly 2 hours whereupon we could get into the Northern half with lots of points close to the finishing area - which meant we could pick up as many way points as possible until it was time to turn back.

It quickly became apparent after we set off South that something wasn't quite right with Euan's bike, the rear tyre was rubbing against the frame and no amount of adjusting and tightening would hold it in place, after a few goes of trying to resolve the issue we accepted it was not going to behave itself and so long as the rear derailleur didn't get dragged into the spokes or the rear wheel fall off entirely we agreed the bike was compromised but working, if a little harder to pedal.

The route we chose worked out in part due to the tracks being firm and not too boggy or the sand being heavy to ride through, if any of those tracks were hard going we would not have been able to move as easily around the course, but with the fine weather we got pretty lucky, many of the tracks were very firm.

Once we'd completed our Southern route we moved onto the Northern half of the map and then with about 40 minutes to go we were simply assessing how to pick off a few more waypoints without venturing so far out that we wouldn't make it back in time, this was an ongoing balancing act as I was running on fumes just trying to keep up with Euan who was riding strongly.

We made it back with a few minutes to spare and whilst we were tired we were happy with how we had gone, we had a lot of fun cruising around Lauderdale and didn't really think we would have been in with a chance at winning, and it was only following the event that we found out that Euan's bike had a broken rear axle, how that wheel stayed on is a miracle.

Overall it was a great day out and I'd like to thank the organisers for a really fun challenge.

 

UTAS Intervarsity Team Sam Woolford and Xavier Scott

By the Tasmanian Team, Xavier Scott and Sam Woolford.

This year the legendary Samborghini and I competed in the NSW Rogaining Championships, which doubled as the Intervarsity Champs. We came 2nd in the Intervarsity and 7th overall. Less hills would have been preferable, and we went for the full 24 hours this time round.

Our chosen route was well planned and calculated to have high points per kilometre, if we were capable of doing it all. We covered the left side of the map with the initial daylight so that the steepest and slowest part of the map was done during the night. Those hills were huge and I have nightmares about them till this day. Arrived at the All-Night Café at around 2am. This was very difficult to leave, but supplied the necessary refuelling and rest needed to push on through the night until the expected energy burst of the rising sun. No real navigation mistakes were made on course, and we picked up some solid checkpoints early on. Samothy also yoinked a Water Dragon Lizard who was chill about it … until he wasn’t.

That said, not everything went perfectly. By the time we arrived at water station 2 and were having breakfast with other teams, we both agreed we needed to cut the upper loop we originally had planned short and ensure we could clean up the checkpoints towards the hash house. This again came to contention as our pace came to a crawl given my lack of strength from being punished by the endless hills and Sambos ‘trench foot’ starting to assault him as he had carried water in his socks from creek crossing dating back to the first hours of the event. Thus, we yet again had to cut out another loop and aim straight for the HH, acquiring any checkpoints that were in the vicinity of this line.

The Intervarsity Champs was won by the ANU (ACT), by a team with Sam’s brother. We suspect foul play as there’s no way he could’ve legitimately beaten us. 

A huge thank you to the NAMSF for the funding support. Without it, the trip to NSW and competing would not have been possible. It was a fantastic experience to be part of the intervarsity champs.

Results are on line at https://rogaine-results.com/event/results/2025/nsw-championships/24hr, where you can also see the entrants’ routes. The event map can be viewed here.

Stagger On - 2025 Tasmanian Rogaining Championships

6-7 December 2025

A 6- or 24-hour bush rogaine, to be held near Oatlands. Entries will open in early October.

Australasian Champs - The The Ironpot Forge

29 - 30 August 2026

3.5 hours NW of Brisbane.

For a full list of rogaines in other states, visit the Australian Rogaining Association calendar.