Rowing Australia

I'm going to keep going back to this because I've got something about this story that I can't believe.

Rowing Australia's now slapped David Crissifulli down.

He's claimed that bullying inner-city elites are the only people opposed to supporting regional Queensland and the rowing that's going to be held in North Queensland.

I mean, the boss of Olympic rowing made the point that...

I just didn't have confidence that I... was capable necessarily.

The expectation, interestingly enough, around Rowing Australia and the world wasn't that the Orson Forsman was going to succeed.

In fact, people didn't expect it to succeed.

So a lot of the pressure we placed on ourselves and I placed on myself was, was I good enough to be a part of a great team like the Orson Forsman? And could I contribute and add value? That was the key.

And for kids who want to do that and keep coming back, you know, we've got to make sure we offer a good product.

And that's why we challenge sometimes Rowing Australia, Rowing Victoria about event schedules and structures.

Yeah, yeah.

Because as you're trying to think about it, Wanted to make sure our kids enjoy it at school, but then want to go on afterwards.

And if they don't make it as an elite athlete, they're contributing in other ways, aren't they?

Correct, yes.

And I had breakfast with Mel Batten, former president of Mercantile Rowing Club, world champion of a one and only ever winning ace race, and a board member of Rowing Australia.

We had breakfast because he came over to Europe to go to try to Colgan's 70th birthday party.

There are some conversations on Letters from Home that start out being about one thing and quite quickly become about something much bigger, and this is one of them, because today we're talking about rowing, but we're talking about rowing in Barkalden, on the Thompson River at Longreach, in Moree and Ningen, Cunnamulla and Chinchilla, and hopefully, if David Council gets his way, in another 10 or 20 country towns before too long.

My guest today is David Council, farmer, former boarder at Brisbane Grammar School and president of Outback Rowing Australia.

And I have to tell you, I came away from this conversation completely caught up in what David and this extraordinary group of people are building.

Because outback rowing is really about so much more than putting boats on the water.