1962
Introduced: An Idea is Born
Inward Bound (IB) has been held almost every year since 1962. Dr Mike Gore, then an ANU Physics lecturer and later the founder of Questacon, is credited with dreaming up IB. Gore came up with the idea in memory of close friend Jason Ryan. Ryan is considered to have completed the ‘first’ IB by embarking on an unmonitored journey through the Canberra bushland in the early hours of Friday the 17th of August 1962 and returning two days later. The exact reason for this journey is disputed, with some reporting that Ryan set out on the run as a way of dealing with mental ill-health and others suggesting the run was a challenge Ryan was set by Gore.
In 1962, Canberra had a population of only 50,000 and there were only around 200 full-time undergraduates at the ANU with about 160 living at Bruce Hall. Fellow Bruce resident Julian Hartley assisted Gore in putting together the first race. It was envisioned as a complement to ANU’s second-semester induction week, ‘Bush Week’, which in those days “consisted of heading out to Bungendore and drinking the pub dry”.
Speaking to the ANU Reporter in 1996, Gore recalled that, “because it was Bush Week, everybody was dead keen on having the bush as the theme, so I thought why don’t we have something where people’s skills in the bush are tested? I reminisced on similar exercises we did in the RAF when I was in the military reserve at Leeds University, called escape and evasion exercises, which were training for pilots who got shot down behind enemy lines.”
The first IB involved all competitors being blindfolded and driven in groups to points about 20 miles from Bruce Hall before being dropped in the middle of the night. The winners were to be the first team to make it back to Bruce Hall. About half of Bruce Hall’s residents competed in the first race, with most others being involved in some way. According to Bill Packard, whom many regard as the patron saint of Inward Bound, the winning team were “a couple of attractive girls who hailed a passing car and were back in Bruce Hall in next to no time”. This led to the rules against accepting any form of outside assistance to be introduced.
1963-2008
Expansion of IB and the ANU: Emergence of a Basic Structure
Bill Packard and John Foster assisted in developing IB from Gore’s idea into its infancy as an annual endurance race. The basic elements of IB were visible from 1963. For safety purposes, teams were made up of four members who had to stay together. To avoid restricting route choices, Endpoint was changed to somewhere other than Bruce Hall. When they were dropped, teams were given a map reference for Endpoint. They were also given an envelope to open if they got lost, which told them where they had been dropped.
While the exact format of the race has changed over time due to safety and insurance requirements, the core challenge and these basic elements have remained the same. A new Endpoint location – always kept secret until Divisions have been “dropped” – is chosen each year.
IB grows firstly by a largely failed experiment to incorporate competition between Bruce and RMC Duntroon in 1965 and then grows as more colleges are added to ANU with Burgmann first winning the event in 1977.
2009-2011
IB Enters the Modern Era: How Good is Safety?
In 2008, the event was cancelled due to insurance issues, council permissions, and safety concerns raised by ANU. In response, the 2009 event organisers implemented hugely improved safety mechanisms to professionalise the event. These have been credited with ensuring the longevity of the event, with IB now having safety standards in line with those of premier endurance challenges.
2012
Happy Birthday, Let's Run 200km! IB Goes Silly for it's 50th
2012, IB’s 50th anniversary, involved a dispute over private property that extended most Division’s routes by 50km. Less than half of the 64 teams made it to Endpoint – with several teams running close to 100km and still failing to finish – and several participants experienced severe dehydration. The winners of Division 1 – Johns XXIII – became legendary for running over 140km throughout two nights, reaching End Point on the Sunday morning. As a result of this chaos no winner was declared this year.
After 2012 making clear dangers of running this long without appropriate food, water, or training, rule changes led to IB becoming a ~24hr event requiring teams to finish 7pm on the Saturday evening, and contact the Race Director prior to 6pm if they have not already finished. Teams must also pull out of the race if directed to do so by the Race Director.
This Year B&G won both Division 1 & Overall.
2014
Perhaps wanting a short trip to Endpoint or wanting to celebrate its recent enlargement, Race Director Em Cheyne set Endpoint at everyone’s favourite water catchment. Whilst this post is obliged to mention that Johns won overall and B&G won Division 1, the real highlight was all of Division 5 entering an out of bounds area.
The final IB conducted on 1:250000 scale maps. If you think the current 1:50000 scale maps lie, you’ll love post-truth levels of deception offered by them. 2015 was made it particularly challenging by placing some drops in the far corners of map where no one expected them to be (proving predicting endpoint is a fruitless task). 2015 also marked the final IB being held in Autumn, with Burgmann winning overall and B&G winning Division 1 (again).
New maps made not only the task of navigation mildly easier but expanded IB’s horizons beyond the I5516 Canberra Map. Runners for the first ever time had to deal with the annoyance of having to deal with sand in their shoes. This marked the final win of David Baldwin and B&G’s 4-year stretch of taking out Division 1, but also began the Redbacks’ ongoing streak of winning the event overall.
2017 marked a spectacular return to the mountains (a good thing too as otherwise Race Director Brad Valette may have been tempted to add in a sea kayak leg). This race featured a long leg along a section of the Australian Alps walking track renowned for sections only noted by the presence of trail markers leaving many teams asking, “Where’s that road?” This featured one of the most iconic Division 1 finishes with Griffin despite taking a seeming circuitous route overtaking B&G with about 2km to go from Endpoint at Denison Campground, leaving B&G with only the overall title.
Potentially inspired by the Dish, or more likely by its central location enabling Divisions to come to end point from all directions or even homage to the classic routes of the past. This year saw the introduction of DIV X, granting the ability of those not affiliated with an ANU college or ADFA to participate for the first time. This year featured the fun navigational challenge of having the teams pass through Wyora and Pierces Creek pine forests and over many vertical metres. Burgmann won Division 1 leading the pack from 1am, and B&G again won overall.
Seeming determined to include routes across all the main ranges between Namadgi and Tallaganda, 2019 featured teams coming across vast swathes of the map towards this picturesque rural property. The Course Setter this year included the lovely addition this year of off-road bush bash prior to Endpoint to ensure the team’s navigational skills were tested at their most fatigued. B&G pipped Griffin to win Division 1 and the Overall after realising they were going the wrong way first, after both colleges must have been worried about both teams missing initially missing the crucial turn taking them to Endpoint.
2020-21
Running on Your Own? An Interregnum?
Whilst COVID-19 prevented the running of the 2020 & 2021 Inward Bound events, the event did not stop moving forward. The committee during these years implemented the groundwork for the IB’s gender equity policy cementing it as an event for all. Further despite the official event being unable to be held due to event size restrictions in 2020 colleges were able to hold their own mini versions of IB. Whereas the 2021 event in being scheduled to be held during a lockdown made even the college-based alternatives impossible. These years also implemented the foundations for the IB live blog.
After 2 years of event cancellations La Niña threatened, to put off IB for another year. Due the tenacious efforts of the IB committee (rivalled only by Mr Bean’s efforts to reach Cannes in a 2007 film) we eventually saw runners reach the pristine white sand of Maloney’s Beach, albeit in merged divisions. Despite only Bruce’s Division 1 picking their drop they could not hold off Griffin who eventually went on to claim Division 1. Other highlights/lowlights included tides forcing Division 7 teams to swim across Cumbralaway Creek, and B&G’s Division 2 who kept soldiering on after initially heading the wrong way only to finish 2 hours after the previous team to reach Endpoint but scoring the vital points to secure B&G a 5th consecutive win (seems IB is indeed about keeping on keeping on).
After a smaller 2022 event, IB 2023’s course marked its full scale post-covid return. It did so by being as big and as just as bad as ever with teams across the divisions running an extended course in comparison to previous years with for the first time teams being dropped prior to sunset. 2023 also marked the debut of Yukeembruk in the event.
2024’s IB was the largest event ever, with 74 teams and around 700 spectators making their way to endpoint. It also saw a non-B&G overall winner for the first time in 6 IBs and 8 years, with Bruce taking home the trophy of the sport they founded for the first time in 42 years!