Written by Maya Auld
Held almost every year since 1962, the concept of Inward Bound was first created by former ANU Physics lecturer and founder of Questacon, Dr Mike Gore.
His idea was inspired by the memory of his friend Jason Ryan, who is said to have completed the ’first’ IB after embarking on an unmonitored journey through the Canberra Bushland in 1962, taking two days to complete his run.
Envisioned as a physical and mental competition by Gore and supported by fellow Bruce Resident Julian Hartley to organise the first race, it was set to complement ANU’s second-semester induction week, ‘bush week’ in 1963.
Speaking to 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?”
Gore further reminisced on similar exercises he completed in the RAF military reserve at Leeds University. Called “escape and evasion exercises”, these exercises were training for pilots who got shot down behind enemy lines.
The first IB race involved all competitors being blindfolded and driven in groups to point approximately 20 miles from Bruce Hall, in the middle of the night. The winners were the first team to make it back to Bruce Hall.
In the years that followed, Bill Packard and John Foster assisted in developing IB from Gore’s idea into an annual endurance race, with basic elements of IB becoming visible in 1963.
To avoid restricting route choices, ‘end point’ was changed to locations other than Bruce Hall, and when teams were dropped, they were given a map reference for end point as well as an envelope to open in case a team got lost which provided information of where the team got dropped.
While the exact format of the race has changed over time because of safety and insurance concerns, the core challenge and elements have remained the same. Most significantly, the details of a new end point location, which is always kept secret until the Divisions have been “dropped”, and is chosen each year by the race setters and IB committee.
As time went on, and colleges were added to ANU, it became an inter-hall college event.
To ensure the longevity of the event, the IB committee and event organisers implemented hugely improved safety mechanisms following a cancellation in 2008 due to safety concerts. The competition now has safety standards in line with those of premier endurance challenges and has raised IB to a professional standard.
2012 saw IB’s 50th anniversary which involved a dispute over private property that extended most Divisions’ routes by 50km. Less than half of the 64 teams made it to the end point with several teams running close to 100km and still failing to finish. The Division One winners ran over 140km throughout two nights.
Following the chaos of this race, the event was altered to a 24-hour event which required teams to finish by 7pm Saturday evening after starting a day prior. Another significant change to the event was that IB replaced 1:250000 scale maps to 1:50000 scale maps, expanding IB’s horizons beyond the 15516 Canberra Map in 2015.
Cancelled due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, the most recent change took place during 2020 & 2021 when the committee implemented groundwork for the IB’s gender equity policy, ensuring it was an event for all.
In 2022, IB was almost cancelled for a third year due to the wet weather threat of La Niña, but was instead postponed by a few weeks with end point at Maloney’s Beach on the South Coast.
With B&G the strongest looking college with 5 consecutive winning years, they seem to be the team to beat in this year’s upcoming race.
Set to be held on the 6th-7th of October, the IB committee will withhold end-point information until all runners have departed on the buses to be dropped.
During the event you are also able to follow the runners with a live blog called IB Live.
Graphics by Will Novak
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