Regular entries for the Midlands Muster close this Friday night, 20 October. Late entries will be accepted until the following Sunday night, 22 October,  but at twice the price. After this, entries will be absolutely closed and we’ll permit only team member substitutions. For detailed event information and online entries, visit the RT website. 

We look forward to sharing with you some of the best of the Midlands. There will be expansive open and grassy paddocks, rolling woodland hills, some big hills with dazzling views, wet gullies, and historic huts. The event area extends from near Ross to Lake Leake. Everyone will enjoy navigating in this unique Midlands environment. There are lots of critters to be seen. There are many native species, as well as herds of cattle and sheep, and you’re likely to spot some deer. The hash house (assembly area) is located off the Lake Leake Highway. Allow 2 hours from Launceston, and 2 ½ hours from Hobart. 

There will be multiple sub-events: the 24-hour State Championships, a roving 15-hour (choose your own up to 15 hours during the event) and a 6-hour, which would be ideal for those who’ve just attended metrogaines previously as you should be back well before sunset, and there are plenty of checkpoint sites close to the hash house.  

Your entry fee includes camping from Friday night to Sunday, as well as catering during and immediately after the event for the 24-hour and 15-hour entrants, and Saturday dinner for the 6-hour entrants. 6-hour entrants can order Sunday meals for an additional fee. 

Get a team together, polish up your optimal route algorithms, dig out those course planning pins, pack a pair of spare socks and get your entry in for the event. 

By the Midlands Muster Team 

We're running an online information and Q&A session on Tuesday 24 October 7pm to 8pm.

The session will cover:

• what to expect when you arrive at the event
• rules of rogaining
• 'how to' and tips and tricks of planning and completing a rogaine
• differences between a metrogaine and a bush event
• Q&A

To attend, please register your interest by emailing Kristin Raw by 3pm Tuesday 24 October. You will be emailed a Microsoft Teams meeting link which you can join as a guest via your web browser - there is no need for you to download any software or have an account if you don't already have one.

At a Glance

Rogaining is a team sport involving navigation to checkpoints on a map. Teams are 2 to 5 people. This event is a 4-hour Aquagaine, with the checkpoints in the lake or near the shoreline. This event is intended to be enjoyed with a watercraft, but you can also participate just on foot. There will be no separate category for on-foot only entrants, however.

Camp at the hash house on the Saturday night, for an 8am registration opening on Sunday. No Catering. BYO food.

About the Event

Detailed event information is available HERE

A current list of entries is available HERE

Entries

Normal entries close on Friday 16th February at midnight. However it will be possible to enter late up to Sunday midnight the 18th February for a substantial extra fee. For related information see - Refunds & Team Changes

Queries

For enquiries specifically about using the entry system, or team changes up to the close of entries date, contact Bernard Walker: or ‭0417 163 961‬.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

For other enquiries, please contact Simon Allen: or ‭0438 086 322‬.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

About the Event

For the first time in many years, RT is holding a metrogaine in the beautiful metropolis of Launceston.  Many are saying that this is going to be the premier event of the decade! Launceston is home to the Cataract Gorge, Trevallyn Reserve, the UTAS precinct, many, many parks, and of course…. the monkeys!

The course is varied. You can rough it in the gorge, take in incredible views of the city, visit art galleries, and chill out at one of the many fine cafes in the city. Wander along the nearly pristine waters of the Tamar, scramble up to an eagle’s eyrie (or at least a spot that would have been a good spot for one), and even have an icy swim at The Basin.

Detailed event information is available HERE

A current list of entries is available HERE

Entries

Normal entries close on Friday 26th April at midnight. However it will be possible to enter late up to Sunday midnight the 28th April for a substantial extra fee. For related information see - Refunds & Team Changes

Paypal

Payment for entry is taken using Paypal. Lately some people who do not have a PayPal account have had issues when they tried to finalise their credit card payment using a "guest" PayPal account. If you strike this problem, you have a couple of options. First, ask your team members and if one of them has an account, use that account to make the team payment. Alternatively go to the official PayPal site and create your own account. 

Queries

For enquiries specifically about using the entry system, or team changes up to the close of entries date, contact Bernard Walker: or ‭0417 163 961‬.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

For other enquiries, please contact contact David Cole: or ‭ 0429 325 311

Notice of Extraordinary General Meeting

An extraordinary general meeting of Rogaining Tasmania Incorporated will be held at the Legacy Park Savige Pavilion, Queens Domain on Friday 1st December 2023 at 6.00 pm.

AGENDA

To consider and, if seen fit, pass a special resolution:
i.   to adopt the proposed constitution as tabled at the meeting and displayed on the RT website; and
ii.  to approve, as a transitional measure, that the 2024 financial year to be for the period from 1 October 2023 to 31 December 2024. 

Note:  
The RT website (www.rt.asn.au) includes links to the existing constitution and the proposed new constitution, together with an outline of the significant changes proposed.

As a special resolution, this motion requires a three-fourths majority of members present and voting.

---

Notice of Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting of Rogaining Tasmania Inc. will be held at the Legacy Park Savige Pavilion, Queens Domain on Friday 1st December 2023 immediately following the Extraordinary General Meeting.



AGENDA

1.     Attendance and apologies
2.     Minutes of previous Annual General Meeting
3.     President’s Report
4.     Treasurer’s Report
5.     Election of Office Bearers


• President
• Vice President
• Secretary
• Treasurer
• Committee (up to six)

6.     Other business

Ross Kelly

Public Officer

(10th October 2023)

The RT constitution was first adopted in 1995 and has had only minor amendments since. It seemed time to bring it into the 21st century and recognise innovations such as digital communications and banking so we are no longer required to issue notices by mail and make payments by cheque. While we were at it there were numerous other revisions that seemed worthwhile, too many to list in detail but they include areas such as:

• The financial year is proposed to end on 31st December each year, in line with our events calendar, in place of the present 30th September.
• Classes of membership, recognising that we don’t charge membership subscriptions but people become members by participating in an event or helping to run one.
• Composition and election of the committee (did we really need two vice-presidents?).
• Fine-tuning of the requirements around meetings.
• Removal of the Rules and By-Laws sections, which covered matters that didn’t seem appropriate in a constitution (e.g. "Any participant of a Rogaine upon experiencing any form of abnormal discomfort shall communicate immediately with other members of the Party and steps should be taken to procure first aid.”)
• Countless editorial refinements and general tidying-up.

Overall the objective of the revision was to make the constitution reflect the way that RT currently operates.

The current constitution can be read here. The revised constitution, which you can read here, will be put to the Annual General Meeting on the 1st December 2023 and we hope your approval will be a formality. 

Peter Tuft, on behalf of the constitution review subcommittee.

At the 2023 Australian Rogaining Association AGM, held on September 11th, changes were made to the Australian rules of rogaining to bring them into line with international rules. The changes are that:

• Age categories will be based on the year you were born rather than your age on the first day of an event. This was changed on the basis of simplicity and privacy.
• The veteran age class has shifted from all team members being 40 or over to being 45 or over. This was changed based on evidence showing that rogainers over 40 are very competitive in the open categories.

The definitions of the age categories will be:

• Under 23 - all team members must be 23 years of age or under on the 31st December of the 
year of the competition
• Veteran - all team members must be 45 years of age or over on the 31st December of the year of the competition
• Super Veteran - all team members must be 55 years of age or over on the 31st December of the year of the competition
• Ultra Veteran - all team members must be 65 years of age or over on the 31st December of the year of the competition

These rules come into effect in 2024.

Gary Carroll

The 2023 WRC was held in the Lake Tahoe area of California. The Hash House was in the ski resort area known as Northstar. Usually, in the summer the area is flooded with mountain bikers and in winter skiers of all persuasions. This summer there was an influx of rogainers for the last weekend in July.

The weather had been very hot and dry leading up to the rogaine and whilst the temperatures started out a bit cooler than previous weeks, it was still plenty hot enough to be slogging up and down the extremely steep hills. The terrain was criss-crossed by an extensive track network to support mountain bikes and skiing. They also proved helpful for rogaining.

Course planners had been very skilful in distributing the controls and their values across the map area. Perhaps the biggest challenge of the weekend was deciding on which route was going to be the most lucrative for the least amount of climb, distance and energy expenditure. Having competed in the WRC rogaine in a similar type of terrain in 2019 we knew it would be easy to waste energy on unnecessary climb.  Loops were planned, kept or discarded until we felt we had the right route for us.

We started with one of the biggest climbs we would execute all weekend. We were fresh and whilst tough to do it was best to get it over early and set up the flatter loops for later when we were tired.

In the early part of the rogaine, Chris was bothered by a sore knee. In the week leading up to the rogaine we went hiking in Yosemite National Park and Stanislaus National Forest. Maybe it was a bit much for her knee, but it is amazing what Nurofen can do. The hikes in Yosemite and Stanislaus were amazing and good preparation for the high altitude, mountainous rogaine. The scenery in Yosemite was stunning; the weather was hot and dry; the mosquitos prolific and the crowds phenomenal. We won’t mention the dreadful booking system that needs to be navigated to do anything in Yosemite. It was a great experience, but the next visit might be outside peak season.

Back to the rogaine. With Chris’s knee placated, and about 3 hours done, it was back to business. As the rogaine progresses, you have no idea how any other team is going. We bumped into fellow Aussies Geoff Lawford and Rod Gray a few times and we knew that we were only a few points behind them. That was encouraging.

As day turned into night, and fatigue set in, Thor went through a patch of feeling less than ordinary and needed Chris to solo navigate for a while. But in typical Thor fashion, she soldiered on  and eventually felt better.

We made one mistake in the dark, overshooting a checkpoint and relocating a further 600m later on a water checkpoint. Once fixed and back on track, navigation was again under control. We had our second big climb behind us and were travelling well. We used as many tracks as possible, and this meant we could keep up a solid pace. Despite Thor having another go-slow and a brief lie-down during the night due to nausea, we were several hours ahead of our planned schedule. Perhaps we were too conservative in our planning, but you never know until you have boots on the ground. As daylight dawned, we were both feeling good and knew we had time in hand. We were able to add in more checkpoints as there is no point in getting back to the HH too early.

Our feet were sore and our bodies tired, but the goal was always there. Could we be world champions? Thor was already the current world champion and wanted to repeat the feat; Chris had unfinished business from 2019. On we marched, adding in extra controls as we headed for home.

Once finished, we had no idea how we had done. We knew we had a competitive score. Any team that beat us would have also done well. What transpired at the end could not have been scripted beforehand.

We finished with 2440 points and so did another team from Latvia. However, we had finished 12 minutes earlier, making us the champions. When we reflected back there were so many “sliding doors” moments when the outcome could have been very different. When we had a two-minute rest during the night, Chris suggested that we could make it a bit longer, Thor said “This is the World Champs, let’s go”. After daybreak we navigated to a checkpoint but couldn’t find it. We were sure we were in the right gully. We couldn’t see it. We were on the verge of giving up and not wasting time on it when Chris looked right and saw it flutter in the breeze. It was hanging on the other side of a tree trunk from the side we were on and therefore not visible. That was worth 40 points. We added in a 70-point checkpoint in the furthest corner of an area where we were tempted to just bypass it. Heading back to the HH, we picked up a 20 pointer and a 30 pointer. It would have been so easy to just head straight into the HH. It was getting hot by midday, and we were cooked. It could have been so different.

In the end, it was our day, and we became the 2023 Women’s Super-Vets World Rogaining Champions.  We were also surprised to finish second in Women’s Veteran behind another Aussie duo, Gill Fowler and Liz Dornam.

It was a hard day at the “proverbial office”. The navigation wasn’t hard, but you had to keep your wits about you, especially when tired. The area was physically challenging. The planning was critical. And the teamwork vital. Everything that makes the sport so great. 

Despite the hot weather, Tasmanian rogainers did very well in this year’s Australian Rogaining Championships in Goobang National Park, NSW. The night before the rogaine reached sub-zero temperatures, but the cold wasn’t to last long. The temperatures during the event reached 34 degrees, with an overnight low of 17, testing some of the cool-loving Tasmanian teams. With most of the creeks running dry, water drops were an essential part of the planning process. Given many of the hills were covered in unusually thick regrowth with a rocky base, these dry creeks were also key thoroughfares, even if the odd cliff face complicated matters. 

The Tasmanian recipients of The Nigel Aylott Memorial Sports Foundation subsidy, Will Whittington and Xavier Scott, won the intervarsity competition, as well as the M under 23s, with 2080 points. Thorlene Egerton and Jonathan Sutcliffe won the XSV category with 2320 points, and Bernard Walker and Sara Brain followed close in second place with 2040 points. RT president Gary Carroll and his trusty partner Ken McLean were the top scoring Tasmanian team, coming 11th overall with a whopping 2570 points. They also came second in the MSV, and third in the MV category.

The trail running trio, comprising Mandy Mcintyre, Jacqui Guy, and Toni Spinks, lived up to their team name of "Mandy's Minions" by fulfilling Mandy's desire to stay awake for a full 24-hours, resulting in a score of 1250 and a 6th place in WV. Neil Hawthorne and I took the opposite approach, enjoying a luxurious 1am-8am pitstop at the HH. Thanks in part to a midnight visit to the 100 point cliff checkpoint, we ended up with 1440 points and 15th in XV. The same cliff forced an early retirement from power duo, Meisha Austin and Mick Cooper, but not before gaining a worthy 310 points in tricky terrain.

Thanks to the NSW Rogaining Association (NSWRA), for organising a challenging course in an unusual national park. And hey, at least the scrub wasn't horizontal. 

Visit the NSWRA website for results and analytics.

-Lucy Hawthorne