14/12/2024
The Journey Comes to an End.
Warning - long post. The TLDR - We're done.
With 2024 coming to an end and after a wild 10-year ride, the boys and I have decided to officially wind up the Ro ‘n’ Slow BBQ team.
Whilst we are still passionate about BBQing and still love low and slow, life has led us to larger families and more responsibilities which means our hobby has had to take a back seat, well maybe more like the Ute tray as our kids are all on the back seats these days!
Back in 2014 I set up what turned out to be Tasmania’s first official Low and Slow BBQ team to compete at the 2015 Creekside BBQ Battle, an event being held in a small country town in Victoria called Warracknabeal.
I remember at the time speaking to Sally the owner of the pub who was hosting the competition, and Sally said “What is the team’s name?” I said, “we don’t have one, do we need one?” She replied, “Ah yes, you’re going to need one!” After being caught out I told her I would ring her back with a name and finish signing up.
I quickly rang my little brother as he’s the brainy and creative one in the family and said, “Mate I need a name for the team, have you got any suggestions?” He said, “Well your names Rohan, so why don’t you just call it Ro and Slow, ya know like low and slow”. I quickly replied saying “that’ll do” and rang Sally back to finalise our registration.
At the time we thought we cooked up some tasty low and slow and figured we’d go across to the mainland to see how and what techniques and flavor profiles the mainlanders were using, as quite literally no one in Tasmania was using wood fired off set smokers to cook low and slow. Yeah, ok, old-style bullets and kettles that used charcoal were about but that was it. Effectively our goal was to learn from others and get a gauge as to the quality of our cooks.
Back in 2014/15 the main team members were living in Fingal and Mangana and to be honest our skills were honed using all manner of wood, pits and cuts of meat whilst throwing back tins on the weekend.
This is where the team motto originated “you haven’t learnt it til you’ve burnt it”.
There was very little info on sites like YouTube back then and old style forums were still the norm, so there was a lot trial and error when it came to learning the trade.
In Tasmania back in those days you quite literally couldn’t buy pork ribs, brisket, beef ribs, well any low and slow cuts at all in fact. To get a brisket you had to ask the butcher for a rolled roast and the beef ribs we purchased were about 14 inches wide – we nick named them Dino ribs.
This resulted in the team learning how to butcher cuts ourselves and as irony would have it, we taught quite a few butchers how to cut and trim American style low and slow staples such as St Louis style pork ribs in the years that followed.
When the media, namely Leon Compton from ABC Tasmania got wind of what we were up to we were invited to go on the radio to be interviewed, and even had an article written about our competition aspirations, all very flattering but also intimidating as we were literally rough as guts country bumpkins at the time!
If you want to have a laugh the article is still available online https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-25/tasmanian-barbecue-blokes-prepare-for-national-bbq-championship/6721274
At this stage I think it’s only appropriate to say a massive thank you to Leon! Due to his interest and the subsequent exposure from the ABC, the team was able to acquire sponsors to help us out with the expenses of competing on the mainland and more importantly Tasmanian meat.
One of our ambitions was to represent the state and as we believed, and still do, that Tassie has some of the world’s best produce and one of our goals was to only take Tassie meat and products to the mainland competitions. Again, mainly thanks to Leon and the ABC we were able to acquire Pork from Scottsdale Pork, Lamb from Rupertswood farm (funnily enough from a bloke called Rowan) and Beef from Landfall Farm.
We were also lucky enough to score team uniforms thanks to Paul Byers from Great Water Filters Australia, proper knives and catering equipment (a health and safety requirement to compete) from Tas Hospitality and Catering and a sweet custom-made knife roll and thermometer case from Justin Mayo ex Walkabout 4wd.
Thankfully, we were also offered a second offset smoker at cost price, which we desperately needed as we were still cooking on a modified Chargriller Deluxe (the cheapest smoker you could buy from that big hardware store) with thanks to Brendan Ayres from Hark Tas and Sam from Allgoods Launceston.
As icing on the cake when we got to the mainland a bloke called Ben Tantau from small company that was just starting out called Smoked and Cured sponsored us for Charcoal and smoking wood.
Thanks to all of our original sponsors we actually looked like a pretty professional outfit.
To this day I am still appreciative of and humbled by the support we were given as amateurs just having a go.
After we loaded up the old 1987 Navara D21, hitched the 6x 4 trailer, travelled over night on the Spirit and drove halfway to South Australia we arrived in Warracknabeal, already spent but excited nevertheless!
How did the comp go? What’s the saying, the best laid plans? Things certainly went awry after 3 of the 4 team members got absolutely leathered and left me to cook all four proteins, not much different to how our normal cook ups went on the farm 😊
To be fair though, when it came time to tidy up, pack up the 6 x 3 marquee, load the Ute and trailer the fella’s came good!
We didn’t bring any trophies home but what we did bring back was experience, knowledge and as it turned out, the birth of the low and slow movement in Tas.
This is the origin story of the Ro ‘n’ Slow BBQ team Tasmania.
Since then we’ve competed on the mainland several times, held the first ever Australian Pitmaster Invitational competition in 2016 – mostly from teams we met at the Creekside comp but hey back then the scene was pretty small, built the first ever twin cylinder offset trailer smoker – in fact Tassie’s first ever trailer smoker (getting that pit passed was a laugh), helped establish several professional and amateur Tasmanian BBQ competitions, bought out our own range of rubs and sauces, had a couple of restaurants, hosted Tassie’s first ever low and slow BBQ classes, as well as butchery and sausage making classes, catered for numerous events, helped expand the quantity of bbq products available at Tassie retail stores by doing free BBQ demos and introducing them to mainland suppliers, promoted Tassie butchers that came to specialise in low and slow cuts, we even helped a famous bloke from Smithton bring out Tassie’s latest range of BBQ rubs 😉 Long story short – we did all we could to boost the scene at home.
On a personal level, during the 10-year period, the various team members and ringers have lost and found the loves of their lives, had several children and grandchildren, moved houses, moved interstate, taken on new careers, worked through various illnesses, been hospitalised with severe injuries (not BBQ related), lost dogs, had puppies and to date approximately 40 different smokers between us 😊
We’ve won some and lost some comps, won some and lost some categories, met some di*****ds, met some legends, lost some friends and made some lifelong friends, but all in all, everyone who has competed on Ro ‘n’ Slow team are a family that has bonded through the heat (excuse the pun) of intense competition and a passion for the craft, and to this day we’re all still good mates.
To the current team members:
Owen ‘Big O’ & Gina Bessell without you two it wouldn’t have been a party!
Rae ‘Razer’ & Gabby Karas without you two, it wouldn’t have been a laugh!
Rohan ‘Junior’ & Rachel Sheehan, without you two, it wouldn’t have been a team!
To Junior – thanks mate, without your help and support over the years I most definitely would have gone insane – although the jury’s still out on that one.
It really has been an amazing time!
Finally – thanks to all the ringers that have helped at events/comps, and of course our loyal followers on social media.
We hope you all have a joyous festive season and a prosperous 2025.
Original Team: Rohan Peterson, Alex Murphy, Robbie Mathews and Jethro Nykiel.
Ringers: Dan Nykiel, Justin Mayo, Shane Sos King Mundy, Shayne Lewis, Gavin Davis, Iain Rawnsley, Rowan Armitage, Rocco Mangone, Kirk Cooper, Tadhgh Riley and Gordeaux Holder.
Special thanks to all our sponsors and supporters over the years:
Shane & Brian Death for helping and building numerous pits, Heidi Howe, Cape Grim Beef, Robins Island Wagyu, Scottsdale Pork, Justin – Walkabout 4WD, Tudors Pack and Wrap, Tasman Sea Salt, Tas Hospitality & Catering, Brendon - Hark Tasmania, Frank & Ellie – Landfall Farm, Rowan & Anna – Rupertswood farm, Paul – Great Australian Water, Sam – Allgoods, Mark – Hunters Cleaning Products, Abel – Cleanheat Charcoal, Josh – Perry’s Meats Smithton, Marcus – Vermeys Meats, Nigel – Nigel’s Gourmet Meats, Glen – Char Char Char Butchers, Scott – Fingal Meatworks, Maka – Maka’s Leather Goods, Ben & Brenton – Smoked & Cured/Misty Gully and to anyone I may have missed, thank you 💗
