If anybody actually wants to supply any factual history of the ultimate or flying disc activity in Tasmania, please feel free to submit something. In the absence of any submissions, the following fictitious stories are provided.
As far as can be determined, Leigh Bird founded the Tasmanian Flying Disc Association since sometime back in the 1980's or possibly earlier and he has officially presided over this Association ever since. According to the AFDA website The Australian Flying Disc National Championships have been held twice in Northern Tasmania in 1986 and 1989. Leigh's first love currently seems to be disc golf. Contact Leigh directly if you want to know more or are interested in playing one of his golf tournaments. The TasFDA name was used by Hobart Ultimate players prior to the formation of the Tasmanian Ultimate Association in 2003.
Little is known about the 1986 Nationals Championships, but recently considerable material has emerged about the Tasmanian Ultimate team at pre-1990 Nationals, via one of the players on the 1989 Tasmanian team, Peter Cinquini, and Dieter Jones who also played at Nationals in 1987 and 1988 (and possibly 1986??).
Garry Davidson and a group of geologists have been successfully running the University of Tasmania Ultimate Frisbee Club for ever, or so it seems - but I guess everybody knows what time means to a geologist, so it is probably safe to say that it has been around 10 000 years, plus or minus a couple. Contact Garry directly if you want to know more.
Actually, according to Garry, "the club was started back in the early 90's [was this 1890's or 1990's?] by the legendary Malcolm...and I can't recall his last name, but no one (NO one) has bettered his overhead shots that I have seen to date in Tas. If we hunt around we should be able to find his name, but his motto was always clear - "Go long!")".
Recent archeological activity (February 2006) has uncovered a copy of the Tasmanian University Ultimate Club: First Year Report for 1992 which reveals much more information. Malcolm's last name was McFarlane and he played the 3rd Melbourne Hat tournament in 1992. Malcolm and Peter Cinquini also went to Nationals in Melbourne in 1993, playing ultimate for the Barely Reefers, a Queensland based team which came 7th out of 9 teams. This document also suggests that the Uni club officially formed in 1992 and it reveals that Dave Cooke and Mike Roach were both paid up members of the club in 1992! Mike is still seen occasionally at pickup games, and Dave is a stalwart of the Tasmanian ultimate community!
Since sometime in 1999, the local ultimate scene has been shaken up by the influx of a few players from other lands. Since then, there have been a few changes in the style of local play: bounce passes seems to have gone out of fashion; the pull can no longer be dropped; endzones have grown to be longer than 5 m; teams wait for the pull in their own end zone; ultimate tournaments have started to be held. I guess time will tell whether this is actually progress...
The University of Tasmania Ultimate Frisbee Club is still involved with a lot of ultimate in Tasmania either directly or in association with the Tasmanian Ultimate Association, jointly organising the odd ultimate tournament or two. Disc Golf continues to be organised by the Tasmanian Flying Disc Association.
Late in 2001, the Tasmanian Ultimate Association began operation by running evening ultimate leagues in Hobart. Since March 2003, the Tasmanian Ultimate Association has been officially incorporated.