[2] In 1975 both the entire Newington and the Riverview first VIIIs were selected as New South Wales' #1 and #2 youth eights to contest the Noel Wilkinson Trophy at the Interstate Regatta within the Australian Rowing Championships.
[9][10] Carter made senior state selection for New South Wales in 1976 in the men's eight which contested and won the King's Cup at the Interstate Regatta.
[12][13] Carter was still aged seventeen when in 1976 he won state and national titles in every heavyweight coxed boat class and was the youngest ever coxswain selected to an Australian Olympic eight.
[14] In the heat Shaw suffered a severe back injury (a collapsed vertebra) which saw him out of the eight and replaced by Peter Shakespear, the reserve.
[15][14] Mosman's Terry O'Hanlon coxed the Australian eight at the 1977 World Rowing Championships but for the 1978 World Rowing Championships in Lake Karapiro, the successful New South King's Cup eight was again selected with Carter in the stern and composed of all Sydney men excepting Mosman's Gary Uebergang and Athol MacDonald.