The Australasian Debating Championships ('Australs') are held annually in the winter semester break. They are attended by teams representing universities in the Asia-Pacific region. It is conducted in a '3 on 3' style, with reply speeches to conclude.  It is one of the highlights of the Australian debating calendar.

Australs 2008

In 2008, the Championships will be held at the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, from July 3rd-11th.

The registration cost will be PhP 18,000  (approx. $AUD490) each for debaters and adjudicators. Sponsorship for the top teams has been available in previous years, and is likely to be available again this year; details will be released closer to the registration date.

For more information about the tournament, visit the Ateneo Australs website, or for information about the MUDS contingent specifically, email mudsonline@gmail.com.

This year's Australs are being hosted by Universiti Teknologi MARA ('UT Mara') in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from Monday 2nd July to Tuesday 10th July. WIth over 100 teams from all over the Asia-Pacific debating, the tournament will feature 7 rounds of debating, 5-star accommodation, prominent keynote speakers, nightly social events, tasty Asian food and a tough fight to become Australasian Champions for 2007.

Interested? Please see here for details and how you can come along and be a part of Australs 2007.

          Official website »

Melbourne 1 Celebrating after the Grand Final	Duncan with his Speaker Prize	Lucia, Nic and Sarah at Championship Dinner

The 2006 Australasian Debating Championships were hosted by Vic Uni in Wellington in NZ but dominated by Victorians. The Tournament consisted of 7 rounds plus finals and 3 Melbourne teams made it to the elimination stage with Melbourne 1 making it all the way to the Grand Final before they finally fell to Monash 1 in a thrilling debate about whales.

See details of the 2006 contingent here- highlights below!

Melbourne 1,2 and 4 all broke inside the top 16 teams. Melbourne 4 were up against it in the Octo paired against the unbeaten (and eventual champions) Monash 1 but fought bravely.

The heroics continued though with Melbourne 1 and Melbourne 2 both steamrolling their way through to the quarters before being tragically paired against each other! Their seedings were validated though with the Melbourne 1 juggernaut exacting a bittersweet victory against the baby-faced Melbourne 2 boys. They'll be back.

From there it was only a successful semi for Melbourne 1 until the debate the whole tournament had been waiting for- Melbourne 1 v Monash 1. Call it what you like, it was going to be rough. Having already faced the Clayton aggressors in the rounds, in the ADAM final and in the annual Nottingham Hotel Australs send off Melbourne 1 knew their opposition better than they knew themselves but sadly the final victory was not ours. A hearty congratulaions to our girls and all the teams for their valiant efforts.

Special mention too to our individual speakers who with their Monash counterparts dominated the speaker tab, with Liz ranking 1st, and Jess, Duncan and Lucia ranking 3rd, 7th and 10th respectively.

Fun was had by all and Wellington put on a great tournament!

In 2005 the Tournament was hosted by UQ in Brisbane.

Check out the details on their website.

The MUDS contingent for 2005 consisted of the following teams:

Melbourne A: Liz Sheargold, Jess Moir and Duncan Kauffman
Melbourne B: Tamar Heath, Sarah Kemeny and Phil Barker
Melbourne C: Liz Ames, Seamus Coleman and Tim Washington.

We will also sent  four adjudicators:

Maryam Jahanshahi
Anthony Skews
Sheridan Ingram
Lauren Knight

We are very pleased to announce the following results for Australs 2005.

Every team made it into the octo-finals, which consisted of only 16 teams from the tournament out of a total of more than 70 teams. This was a fantastic effort in itself, as it is not often that the entire contingent breaks into the finals.

Furthermore, Melbourne C went through to the Quarter Finals, and Melbourne B were in the sem-finals, when they eventually lost in a  close debate against the winners of the tournament.

On an individual level, there was tremendous success as well. Our former matriarch, Liz Sheargold ranked an amazing 2nd at the tournament. Tim Washington ranked 10th, with Jess Moir and Tamar Heath ranking joint 15th position.

Maryam Jahanshahi adjudicated the Grand Final, and Lauren Knight adjudicated the ESL Grand Final.

It was certainly a fun tournament, with lots of dancing, partying and generally just having a ball. It didn't hurt that this was one of the most successful Australs MUDS has had in a long time.

We have also put up the full speaker rankings, and team rankings for your perusal.

Hope our success will inspire you to come to Wellington, New Zealand next year for the 2006 Australasian Debating Championships.