The quartet headed to Berry Park on the Hunter River on February 20 with a simple focus - to see if they had learned anything after they took up the sport a few years ago.

Mr Fraser's father, Gordon, said none of them had rowed before, but they finished a respectable third out of six teams.

"Barney is from Hungary and is a keen rower so he stirred them all up," he said.

"He's been training them every morning from 6am and they've been learning to row for a few years so this was the time to find out if they had learned anything."

Competing in the open division, the Port Macquarie crew had one member who would have been eligible for under-15s, one in under-16s and one in under-17s.

"They were competing against some of these really muscly men," Mr Fraser said.

"None had rowed before so it was a big achievement."

The crew are now focused on returning to Berry Park for a similar event in 10 days' time.

"They were all pleasantly surprised."

Thank you for valuing local journalism. Sign up to our free headline alert emails here. If you would like to support us and subscribe, click here.