News

The 41st Australian Rogaining Championship, postponed from 2020, was held on 29-30 May 2021 north of Burra, South Australia. The SARA organising team produced a detailed technical challenge on the Deceptive Lands map at Bri Glen Springs. At close of entries there were 108 teams and 251 competitors in the 24 hour event. A Covid outbreak in Victoria during the week before the event lead to last minute border closure, preventing Victorian teams from attending. Consequently, 22 teams had to withdraw from the event. Organiser Craig Colwell said there were heart breaking tales of Victorians trying to beat the border closures and restrictions, including two who made it all the way to Burra on the day before the event, before having to return as additional restrictions were imposed.

The Winners of the open categories were:

• Julie Quinn, David Baldwin (ACT): First Mixed
• Ronnie Taib, David Williams (NSW): First Men
• Anna Sheldon, Kate Houghton (Qld): First Women

The Interstate Trophy was won clearly by Tasmania, with ACT and Queensland almost tied for 2nd and 3rd. Some notable performances: Julie Quinn and David Baldwin won clearly by more than 400 points. Tasmanians Christine Brown and Karen Pedley won the Women's Super Veterans category, Women's Veterans, and came second in the Womens overall. Winners of the Mixed Ultra Veterans: Jean Douglass, Grant Battersby from ACT and Richard Robinson from Qld were 12th overall.

The official results are now available on the ARC 2021 website including the category results and ARC 2021 map.

ARA was recently contacted by Gavon Balharry, who won the Intervarsity 24 Hour Walk in 1967 and 1968.

Gavon is now retired and resident in Switzerland. Gavon related that in the 1960's he and David Moriarty were postgraduate students at the Waite Institute at Adelaide University.

According to the Phillips' rogaining book and David Hogg's article, the 1967 24 Hour Intervarsity was held in Adelaide and won by Adelaide University, the 1968 event was held in Newcastle and again won by Adelaide.

Gavon has kindly sent a copy of the 1968 Intervarsity results and his trophy. Intervarsity "24 Hour Orienteering" was unofficial until the 1969 event held in Victoria, whose 50th anniversary was celebrated last year.

Rogaining Tasmania conducted the highly successful 40th Australian Championship (including the regional Australasian Rogaining Championship) near St Helens on 9-10 November 2019. The unique and scenic coastal granite terrain was contrasted with the complex hills interspersed with thick gullies and button grass, found further inland. The full moon was out and weather was pleasantly fine and cool.

The leaders from 2018 were reversed. Winners of the open categories were:

• Julie Quinn, David Baldwin (ACT): First Mixed
• Paul Williams, David Symons (WA): First Men
• Gill Fowler (NSW), Joanna Sinclair (Tas): First Women

The Interstate and Trans-Tasman Challenge Trophy was won clearly by ACT, ahead of a pack consisting of Tasmania, NSW, Western Australia and Victoria.

The full results are now available on the ARC 2019 website. This includes photos, the map, routes and analysis.

The 2019 World Rogaining Championship delivered an epic and picturesque event at La Molina ski resort in the Pyrenees mountains of Catalonia.

The organisers promised a 140km2 course of 86 controls requiring 103km with 9000 metres climb to complete. Postcard perfect weather in the preceding days did not last, with thunderstorms during the planning on the Saturday morning, another storm with hail in the afternoon, followed by gale force winds on the high open peaks all night. The event finished in glorious sunshine.

Standout performance of the 56 Australians in the field of 866 (386 teams) was Julie Quinn and David Baldwin, 1st in Mixed Veterans and 2nd in Mixed Open with 349 points.

The 2019 Intervarsity was held in conjunction with the ACT Championship in Bournda National Park and Nature Reserve near Merimbula NSW on 18-19 May.

Superb warm sunny weather on the weekend ensured that the scenic coastal terrain was at its best. The hash house was situated at a disused adventure park featuring a scenic lake and golf course.

It was a special occasion for the 50th anniversary of the Intervarsity. David Hogg, who organised the first official intervarsity in 1969, presented the trophies to the winners and placegetters.

ACT again provided the bulk of the 13 Intervarsity teams, with 10 teams from Australian National University (ANU). Tony Newman and Mikey Dimuantes, were first in Mens Open, second place overall and winners of the 13th Nigel Aylott University Championship.

First mixed Intervarsity team was Kelvin Peh and Holly Ashburner of ANU, whilst the women's IV winners were Alice Schacher, Zoe Oldfield and Rhea Papadopoulos from ANU. Results are posted on the: ARA website.

by David Hogg

May 2019 is the 50th anniversary of the first official intervarsity competition in the sport that is now known as rogaining. The origins of this competition, and indeed of the sport of rogaining itself, can be traced back to a weekend in 1947 when the five members of the Melbourne University Mountaineering Club (MUMC) embarked on a competitive 24 hour walk through the hills east of Melbourne. Despite the low numbers, the competition proved popular and was repeated the following year, this time attracting about two dozen competitors in teams of two or more.

The 24 Hour Walk continued to grow in popularity and remained a highlight of the MUMC event program for over 40 years, also attracting participants from the equivalent clubs in Melbourne’s other universities, Monash and Latrobe. The idea was also exported to Adelaide, when an MUMC member moved there and became active with the Adelaide University Mountain Club.

In the early 1960s, MUMC was the only club belonging to the Melbourne University Sports Union that did not participate in an intervarsity competition. The Club therefore initiated a move to establish an intervarsity 24 Hour Walk, with the support of its counterparts at Monash and Adelaide Universities. Unofficial competitions were conducted from 1964, while the Club endeavoured to gain approval from the Australian Universities Sports Association (AUSA) for conducting the event on an official basis.

A major early stumbling block was that the AUSA did not see the 24 Hour Walk as a ‘real’ sport, as there was no national sporting organisation with formal rules for conducting such events. A breakthrough came in 1968 with the discovery of the official rules of the English Orienteering Association, which had been formed when orienteering became formally established in England in the early 1960s. While occasional orienteering events had been conducted in several parts of Australia prior to that time, these were informal events with no standard rules or established organisational structure. (The current orienteering movement began in August 1969, with the Orienteering Federation of Australia established in April 1970 and its first official rules adopted later that year).