Welcome to Rogaining in Tasmania in 2026.

This year we will be running four events, as listed in Upcoming Events at the end of this newsletter. The first of these will be a 4-hour metrogaine starting from Kingston in late May. This will be followed by a 3- and 6-hour bush event in late July. This rogaine will be sponsored by Paddy Pallin and is an opportunity to introduce newcomers to bush rogaining. There will be a metrogaine on Hobart’s Eastern shore in early September and we will finish the year with a 6- and 12-hour bush event in late November at Bangor near Dunalley. 

So much to look forward to but (here comes the pitch) these events don’t run themselves. Many roles have been filled but we are looking for volunteers to help with all of these events, with a priority for setters and vetters for both the May metrogaine and November bush rogaine.

On top of all that we will also be preparing to host ARC2027, The Australasian Championships in April 2027. During this year you’ll be hearing more from Stephen Yam who is coordinating ARC2027. We need to fill some key roles for this event now, and to start putting names to roles requiring less commitment.

We also have some vacancies on the committee. You may wish to join us, particularly if you have an interest in managing social media or wrangling newsletters.

If you’ve attended a few events and not volunteered yet, maybe it’s time to find out how interesting and enjoyable being part of an organising team is. If you feel that you can help, express your interest via the contact form.

Thanks to Bernard Walker and the team that organised the Stagger On event held late last year. It was a great event, with record attendance (242) for a Tassie bush event that wasn’t an Australasian Champs. There are reports on this event below.

See you at an event, and at the AGM.

Gary Carroll (RT President)

By Bernard Walker

The course setting and vetting team for this rogaine consisted of Bernard Walker, Darryl Smith, Jeff Dunn and Sara Brain. Many thanks to these individuals for the kilometres walked and the feedback provided. It was a nice area to work in and we enjoyed the experience!

Setting for a 24-hour Tas champs involves trying to set a winners course of over 110km. This requires a large land area but in the case of Stagger On the area selected had to be balanced with restricting the number of landowners to a sensible limit. As it turns out, we ended up with ten very helpful landowners. Many thanks to Nick Bowden who did a lot of early work making contact with these and obtaining permissions.

We selected a hash house location that wouldn't get blown away in the frequent strong winds. We also wanted somewhere pretty and in a location that would allow 24-hour competitors to build loops that would allow them to return for food on Saturday night. All in all, we were very happy with the location.

We tried to set a course that would not be too demanding for inexperienced rogainers doing the 6-hour or 24-hour events but would provide route choice and physical challenge for the more experienced teams. We also tried to include some of the nice features of the area - good views, sandstone rocks and pretty forest. All of this was mixed in amongst farmland that made for relatively fast travel, assuming you stayed off the ploughed bits!

The days leading up to the event were challenging. Thursday saw winds over 100km/hour and we were concerned that some checkpoints would not survive the punishment. Some didn't, so many thanks to the teams that took time out to rehang or reposition checkpoints that had blown off. On Friday, there was also the risk that a wildfire in the north-east of the area would burn out a significant portion of the course. Thankfully, in the end, only two checkpoints were affected.

The weekend of the rogaine threw up more challenges - warm, cold, wet, dry. Literally four seasons in one day. But it was great to see that teams handled the changeable conditions well and most finished with a smile on their faces.

We congratulate the very strong Under 23 mens teams that won both the 24 and 6-hour events. The 24-hour winners "cleaned" the course with 15 minutes to spare so we really needed the two checkpoints burnt out by the fire! Also congratulations to the significant number of first timers. We hope you had fun! And finally, many thanks to the 30+ mainlanders who made the trip to experience rogaining Tassie style.

Big thanks to Paddy Pallin for the generous spot prizes.

The results are available on the RT Event Results Page, and at rogaine-results.com where you can view all the teams' routes under the "Tasmanian Champs" tab.

In conjunction with the 2026 Annual General Meeting to held on Saturday 21st February, RT will be hosting a social event at the Waterworks Reserve site 9. This is the shelter at the end of the internal Waterworks Reserve road. Come for a chat about the Stagger On event or any of the other events held by RT during 2025.

Start arriving at 5:30pm for a 6pm AGM start. The AGM will be brief.

RT will provide nibbles, pizzas and salads, as well as juice, wine and beer. For catering purposes, please rsvp to   by Tuesday 17th February. In accordance with rogaining tradition please bring your own plates, cups and cutlery.

The notice for the Annual General Meeting can be viewed here.

The Annual General Meeting of Rogaining Tasmania Inc. will be held at the Waterworks Reserve, site 9, on Saturday 21 February 2026 at 6pm. Entry to the reserve is off Waterworks Road, Ridgeway. Site 9 is at the far end of the reserve's internal road.

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

(14 December 2026)

State Champions! Jett McComb, Sam Woolford and Euan Best

By Sam Woolford

We (Sam at least) came to the event with the plan to stay out for the full 24 hours and not sleep. Euan tried his best to disadvantage us by rocking up well after maps were released, cutting into our valuable planning time. Our planning method was dividing the checkpoints into sections, working out the best routes within each section, then linking them up in the way that made most sense.

Quite early on we decided to do the western half of the map first, due to it being generally more open and faster looking, saving the north and north-eastern section for the night, where the higher track density and longer distances between checkpoints would make navigation easier. The only potential issue with our route was one rather long stint from the last water checkpoint to the finish (which, as it eventuated, was close to 6 hours in the increasing warmth of the morning). Our plan did involve cleaning up from the start, although with Jett on the team, the intention sheet was never going to show anything else. We had left a group of low-mid scoring checkpoints close to the Hash House for the end, so if we were tight for time it wouldn't have been too hard or costly to skip a couple at the end.

We set off at a pretty good pace, jogging the downhills and walking the uphills, and made very good time through the first section of the course. It started raining a little over two hours in, which was fine except for the fact that it made the vegetation wet, which prevented our feet from ever drying out. The wind did a very efficient job of drying out everything else, so we weren't cold for too long.

We'd (Sam at least) originally wanted to cover as much ground before sunset as possible, and have a dinner break only when it became necessary to get out the torches. However because we were a democratic team who voted on everything and never argued and had equal say in every decision Sam is a benevolent dictator we decided to have dinner a couple of hours earlier. Night fell just as we were entering the steeper, greener northern section as planned, and we crossed over from the western to the eastern map at around 10pm. At this point, around halfway through the course distance-wise, we were 2 hours ahead of time and feeling pretty confident about cleaning up, but the second half of the rogaine, still with most of the night and elevation ahead of us, and fatigue starting to build up, was always going to take significantly longer.

The least common phrase uttered by our team members during this time was ‘I love rogaining’ and I won't tell you what the most common phrase was but you can probably take a pretty good guess. At around midnight Euan wanted to take a quick nap behind a log while Sam wanted to keep moving (by this point, strictly walking) but because Sam is a benevolent dictator we had a break (part of why I [Sam] like to keep moving, is that it's hard to get going again after a break, and I find my legs ache the whole time anyway so I don't really feel better afterwards. Euan was very happy to lie back with his feet up on the log though, and he ended up being the freshest of us in the morning, so maybe I need to work on my powernaps too). It rained briefly after this but we are hardcore and didn't even notice (the wind dried us off pretty quickly again, and I was not cold wearing full body thermals. The boys in shorts…).

There was also one point where we ran into Kris and Ella and they were absolutely fanging it. Sam followed them out of a checkpoint and took a pretty dodgy line, Euan straightened us up and then we had a minor disagreement about our route choice. We had all originally planned to go straight, but having seen Kris and Ella return to the track to the right, Sam was reconsidering whether the right hand track route might be better, but Euan disagreed and because Sam is benevolent dictator we continued straight.

Just as the sun was about to rise we encountered a creek which was choked with gorse. Euan decided this was the perfect spot for a quick powernap while Sam attempted to find a path through the gully (strictly within eyesight and earshot the whole time). Sam eventually resorted to a cliff scramble as the opposite bank was impenetrable everywhere else, and advised Euan and Jett to try slightly further along, which didn't turn out any better as they ended up with a cliff scramble too (least common phrase said here was ‘I love gorse’).

Morale was boosted soon afterwards with sunrise, and we started jogging again, with Jett's gorse anger directed towards finishing the course giving us a boost. We made another minor plan change here, running slightly further to pick up 82 on the northern side of the area that isn't Lovelybanks (but Euan insisted was. Really, orienteers should know better) to avoid crossing the steep, cliffy gorge on the way back (this wasn't a unanimous decision, but Sam is a brutal dictator).

We had hoped to get to the south-eastern most 100 pointer by 6am, however we didn't reach it until around 7 so we knew we'd have to push, but having already picked up 82 we pretty much had a straight line back to the Hash House and knew it was doable. By 9 we were confident we were on track and it made the last few hours slightly less painful knowing we were going to clean up.

We'd like to thank RT and Bernard Walker, plus everyone who volunteered to help make it a great rogaine. We might be back for the next one. I'll reveal now that the most common phrase said by our team was ‘I hate rogaining, why do we do this?’ but I'm pretty sure they were just using some reverse psychology to get themselves motivated.

6-Hour winners. Niko Stoner and Albin Sundström

By Albin Sundström (visiting Swedish orienteering coach)

Going into the Rogaine, my friend Niko and I were planning on entering the 24-hour Rogaine, but I got cold feet the same night as entries closed. Even though I think it definitely would have been possible, the risk of injury was too great to push through with 24 hours. Looking back, it was a very wise decision.

The Rogaine in itself was great! I personally loved the planning of the route. I had never done a workout that long before, but had done some cross-country skiing races and workouts in the 5-hour region, so I knew my body would need A LOT of energy during the race.

Right before the start, I collected some food with the other boys before walking off to change into racing gear. I got back and put on the backpack, and off we went. For the first 50 minutes, it was heaven. Long control legs, nice terrain, and weather, and energy on top. Then we decided to stop and refuel, but I realised that all my energy wasn’t in my backpack… (later turns out it got put in Jett’s car with the rest of the food we had before the race). Through the good hearts of friends and strangers, I received some sweets to keep us going. 

Once the rain hit after about 3 hours, it got hard for me. I was cold and tired. But Niko kept me going, and through communication, we kept on navigating correctly through the mountains in the west end of the map. 

Then, all of a sudden, only an hour remained. The rain had stopped, and we were closing in on the hash house. The last control turned into a “sprint” to make it back in time. 

When planning, we measured that the route would be about a marathon distance. So when I took out my watch and saw that 700 metres were needed to get to reach 42.2 km, we just had to do those as a cooldown. Probably the hardest cooldown of my life… 

Afterwards, I was sooo tired. It took me probably 3 hours to eat dinner.

Someone told me afterwards that there are two types of fun. Type one: fun in the moment. Type two: fun afterwards. Rogaining is definitely type two! If I get the chance to do it again, I would. But that was not what I told myself after 4.5 hours into the race… 

Lovely event filled with lovely people! 

Thanks a lot! 

Kingborough Metrogaine

Sunday 24th May, Kingston

Bush 3-hour and 6-hour

Sunday 26th July, Southern Midlands

Australasian Champs - The The Ironpot Forge

29 - 30 August 2026

3.5 hours NW of Brisbane.

Hobart Eastern Shore Metrogaine

Sunday 6th September, Howrah

Bush 6-hour and 12-hour

Saturday 28th of November, Bangor, Dunalley

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