By Gary Carroll, President, Rogaining Tasmania, 21st February 2026
2025 was a great year for Rogaining in Tasmania. During the year, we ran three well-organised and well-attended events.
- The Coffee Bean: on-foot-only Metrogaine; key organisers Christine Brown and Paul Pacque; 128 entrants at our second event in consecutive years in Launceston.
- Roche’s Rumble: bike and on-foot Metrogaine; key organisers Jaymee Knoll and Rowan Tilley; 225 entrants.
- The Stagger On: 6-hour and 24-hour bush event; key organisers Bernard Walker and Sara Brain; 241 entrants, a record for an RT bush event that isn’t an Australian Champs. Many event management, safety, and admin procedures were overhauled as part of this event by Bernard, which have us well-prepared for future bush rogaines.
The 2025 Australasian Champs were held in March in the Kosciuszko National Park. Many teams wilted in the warm conditions, but Jon Sutcliffe and Thor Egerton toughed it out, winning the open mixed and multiple age-based mixed categories. Their performance resulted in Tasmania winning the Interstate and Trans-Tasman Trophy for the third time in the last five years.
The 2025 Intervarsity Champs were hosted by NSWRA at Mt Werong in September. Tasmania was represented by UTAS students Sam Woolford and Xavier Scott. They came second in this competition.
2026 marks the 50th anniversary of rogaining, although there were predecessors, in particular 24-hour Walks and Intervarsity Orienteering. The first event named as a “rogaine” was held in Victoria, with the sport spreading across Australia and worldwide, with the first Tasmanian event held in 1992.
We have four events to look forward to on the programme for 2026: Metrogaines in Kingborough in May and Hobart’s Eastern Shore in September. A 12- and 6-hour bush event in late November. We’ll be introducing a winter 6-hour that will be sponsored by Paddy Pallin. This event will have something for everyone, but will have a focus on newcomers, and there will be training opportunities.
On top of the 2026 events, we will be preparing for Tasmania to host the 2027 Australasian Champs. Huge thanks to Stephen Yam (aka China Mug) for taking on the event coordinator role.
We have begun using a new version of the Navlight (electronic punching) software written by Stephen Gray from South Australia. The rewritten software is a big improvement on its predecessor and was successfully used at the Stagger On.
At this AGM, we say goodbye to Jaymee Knoll, who joined the committee in 2023. Jaymee has been an asset to the association with her eagle-eyed attention to detail. We are sad to see her leave the committee, but she assures us she’ll still be around to help!
Special thanks for their willingness to volunteer during 2025 to:
- John Dawson – Website administration, newsletter distribution and internet techy stuff.
- Donelda Niles – Navlight and event administration.
2026 promises to be a busy year for RT. Not surprisingly, we’ll need volunteers to make these events a reality, so please carefully consider whether you should have a turn at volunteering. We offer on-the-day jobs requiring little commitment, and for the more major roles there is considerable support and mentoring available. Volunteering is a rewarding experience.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to RT events during 2025.