The weekly e-newsletter of

Bendigo Orienteers Inc.

Issue 25/14: 9 July, 2014

Contact (for this publication): Peter J. Creely: luddcreely@impulse.net.au (Ph. 5443 1975)

Web site: www.bendigo-orienteers.com.au

If you wish to unsubscribe from this bulletin, please click the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of this email. If you would like this Bulletin to be emailed directly to you, please email bendigo.orienteers@gmail.com

Mosquito Creek. Full details are on the web.

Black Crow. Another nomination – probably just a nomination but they seem scarce lately so we’ll go with it! This one has to do with picking up controls on Mosquito Creek. It seems someone went out to collect four controls and took much longer than seemed necessary. He said that he didn’t get lost but – – – !

Under the same subject matter, whilst not deserving a BC nomination, it must be mentioned: someone else (a very highly ranked orienteer of long experience in the sport) went out to pick up two controls and seemed to take a very long time (for two controls); insisted, on his return that he didn’t have any problems, but he seemed rather sheepish about it!

Preview of forthcoming attractions

Bendigo Rocks 2 – Mt Korong: Saturday 19th July

Come and enjoy the challenge of complex granite terrain with areas of fast open running and courses that will provide maximum value. This event will be a great chance to test your technical navigation skills before the upcoming Victorian Championships.

Please enter via Eventor to guarantee your pre-printed map. Enter on the day also available (pre-printed map not guaranteed).

Courses available:

Hard technical navigation – 1 (9km, 28 controls), 2 (5km 18 controls) and 3 (3km, 15 controls)

Medium and easy navigation – 4 (3km, 15 controls) and 5 (2km, 10 controls)

Pre enter and pay on EVENTOR to be guaranteed a map/course of your choice

Love orienteering – take this challenge! – Bendigo Night Champs 2nd of August.

If you love orienteering then there is no better place to test out your skills than at night. That is why Bendigo is putting on the Bendigo Night Champs this year. This race will be something special and you do not want to miss it!! The terrain will be spectacular at Sedgwick, the course’s will not disappoint and the atmosphere of the event around some camp fires will make you want to stay out all night!

More details and Pre-entry on Eventor.  Also don’t forget to check out the Facebook event.

Coming Events

Saturday 12 July. Bendigo Bush Classic 11. Mandurang

Course setter/Organiser: Heather Jones

Map: Mandurang

Time: 12.30 pm – 2.00 pm

Courses: Five: 3 hard 1 moderate, 1 easy.

Terrain: Rocks and Route choice in traditional spur/gully terrain.

Entry fee: $8 Adult, $4 Junior, enter on day.

Directions: From Bendigo travel toward Mandurang. Turn left into Tannery Lane (O sign) then after about 3km turn right into James Cook Drive.

From Melbourne turn off freeway towards Sutton Grange then thru Sedgwick. Before Bendigo turn Right into Tannery Lane. (O sign). After approx 3km turn right into James Cook Drive (O Sign)

Next Bulletin 16 July

The weekly e-newsletter of

Bendigo Orienteers Inc.

Issue 23/14: 25 June, 2014

Contact (for this publication): Peter J. Creely: luddcreely@impulse.net.au (Ph. 5443 1975)

Web site: www.bendigo-orienteers.com.au

If you wish to unsubscribe from this bulletin, please click the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of this email. If you would like this Bulletin to be emailed directly to you, please email bendigo.orienteers@gmail.com.

Map walks. As I mentioned earlier, I intend to do a series of map walks. These will be marked courses on selected maps and we will see the features on the ground and how they look on the map. I will use dedicated bush areas and we will move right away from housing areas and made roads onto bush tracks to experience some of the beautiful remote bush areas in our National Park. Some of these will be in Castlemaine and some in Bendigo, probably from about mid July – details later. They will be really good for young people who are just beginning to move about the bush. Come and be part of this exercise. More details later.

Black Crow. A belated nomination for the bloke who was heavily involved in the organization of the Bendigo Primary School Champs. Word has it that he disappeared in the middle of the event – missed the presentations!

Thanks to the person/people who returned the magnetic results boards to 51 Lowndes. There was a rumor abroad that I had mislaid them in my shed; I admit that’s a possibility, my shed is messy but I hope, not that bad!

SR meeting. There was a meeting last night to discuss the future of Space Racing — attracted all of eight people! SR is important for attracting kids to our sport, but I believe it’s on the edge and needs help. Anyway, thanks to those who were interested and to Andrew Cameron for chairing it and allowing us the use of his rooms.

Diamond Hill South. 21st June. Report by John W. Report and results on our webpage

Saturday’s event took place on an updated map of Diamond Hill South. Chris Creely updated the map and it was much improved over the older maps. Conditions started off wet and foggy but as the day went on, conditions improved to just damp under foot.

Organiser John Wilkinson set some challenging courses in the gold mining /spur gully terrain.

Course 1 (7.1 km) was won by Brian Keely in a fast 38.59 min, followed by Richard Goonan 46.09, Simon Rouse 46.52 and Laurina Neumann 54.31.

Course 2 (5.7 km) was won by Louis Cameron 40.04, followed by Jim Russell 40.41 and Andrew Cameron 43.08.

Course 3 (3.5 km) leader was Jimmy Cameron 24.54, followed by Lawrie Edwards 37.37, Solomn Cameron 45.03 then Henry Cameron 50.20. (Lots of Cameron’s running these days).

Fastest on course 4 (2.2 km) was Rick McDonald, while on course 5 (2 km) Isobel Byrne managed 17.49.

Well done to the 51 entrants who took part. Thanks to Terry Davidson and Lawrie Edwards for helping the newcomers. Thanks to those who helped collect controls at the end and to Jim Russell and Michael Brench who did the timing/results on the day.

From the Ed. Some great performances by our Juniors and Sub Juniors. I notice that Louis beat Jim – well done Louis, and the Cameron name features more and more! Maybe this will help us start to appreciate the promise that our kids hold for our club and our sport in the future!

Space Racing, 21 June: Space Racing Series 1/2014 has finished. We stood in the gentle rain at the end of Wattle Drive in Spring Gully and presented the trophy, the medals and certificates to the participants, to the accompaniment of the smell of sizzling sausages (the rain started the moment the sausages hit the hotplate). Everyone seemed to enjoy the bushland – a little bit different to the parks. Maybe we will use a couple of these areas in future series?

The Lightning Bolts were the outright winners and the trophy has gone down to Castlemaine for the first time ever — congratulations to Isobel Bryne, Maybel Krasner and Abi Brockett. We will have a formal presentation at Castlemaine North Primary School soon after the holidays are over.

Thanks to all the parents who brought the kids to the events – I enjoyed our chats; thank you to those who helped, especially Casey who looked after registration and helped out with control placement and collection. Our course setters also did a great job; it’s not always easy to set courses and keep them challenging but not over the top – especially in park areas.

I look forward to the future of Space Racing in Bendigo – whatever it may be!

Coming Events

Saturday 28 June. Bendigo Bush Classic. Kalimna Park, Castlemaine

Course setter: Jacqui and Isobel

Organiser: Nigel McGuckian

Map: Kalimna Park, Castlemaine.

Time: 12.30 pm – 2.00 pm

Courses: Five: 3 hard 1 moderate, 1 easy.

Terrain: Classic gold mining on spur/gully.

Entry fee: $8 enter on day.

Directions  Information on Eventor.

From Bendigo take the Calder and Midland Highways to Castlemaine. Coming into the city you will pass under the railway bridge; a few hundred metres further on turn left into Myring Street and follow signs to start. From Melbourne: Travel towards Castlemaine and continue through the shopping centre; after a few hundred metres turn right into Myring Street (if you come to the railway bridge you have come too far). Then as above for Bendigo

Next Bulletin 2 July

The weekly e-newsletter of

Bendigo Orienteers Inc.

Issue 22/14: 18 June, 2014

Contact (for this publication): Peter J. Creely: luddcreely@impulse.net.au (Ph. 5443 1975)

Web site: www.bendigo-orienteers.com.au

If you wish to unsubscribe from this bulletin, please click the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of this email. If you would like this Bulletin to be emailed directly to you, please email

Map walks. Sometime after the finish of our SR series, probably mid July, I intend to do a series of map walks. These will be marked courses on selected maps and we will see the features on the ground and how they look on the map. I am still finalising the details and working on making the exercises challenging and interesting. I will select different maps for different days: one day rock features and contours, another, old mining and some of the ruins in the bush, another we will explore some of the extreme mining that happened during the gold mining boom in Bendigo in the 1800’s. I intend to make it very interesting for both kids and adults. The walks will be around 1.5 to 2 kms and will not be too challenging physically. More later!

Bendigo Night Champs. Hi People, As some of you may know I am organising the Bendigo night champs later this year and plan to make it full of a lot of technological stuff. One of these bits of technology is GPS tracking to go along with the video production. The cheapest way to do this if for people to run with smart phones running a web browser that sends the information to the server every 30second. So I am looking to do a test this weekend at Diamond hill. If you are keen to be part of this please let me know so I can set things up. It would require you running with a smart phone in a back pocket/arm sleeve or something, I suggest ziplocking it in a small back (might organise Jimbo to have them at the event). The amount of data it would us would be minimal – at a guess 5-10mb at absolute max I would think.
Anyway please let me know if you are keen ASAP
Thanks
Toph

christopher.naunton@gmail.com

 Juniors? (Repeat) If you know of any kids who enjoy orienteering and would like to be on our mailing list, could you let me know please. I will resume my monthly newsletter shortly and this may be of interest to some of you. As well I will be arranging some map walking sessions for our Space Racers (and any other Juniors who may wish to take part) about mid July, on local maps. These will take place on Saturday mornings (dates yet to be decided) and will last about one and a half hours. We will walk a Novice standard course with about ten controls over approx 2 kms. We will look at orientating the map, knowing where you are on the map at all times, look at various features and how they appear on the map legend – general knowledge stuff, not too heavy, not too physical. They will be open to anyone who wants to take part, including adults. More details later.

Bendigo Skins 14 June. Results

Space Racing, 14 June: Back to Spring Gully for the final competitive run. Obviously the course set by Terry was challenging as no team got all controls.

That is the final run and it leaves the Lightning Bolts as the outright winners. Congratulations to Isobel Bryne, Maybel Krasner and Abi Brockett.

Next Saturday we will have Kids Rule where parents are able to go around the course with the kids. After that we will have a sausage sizzle and the presentations and the first SR series for 2014 will be over.

 Coming Events

Saturday 14 June. Bendigo Bush Classic 8

Course setter: John Wilkinson

Map: Diamond Hill South 1:10,000 updated 2014.

Time: 12.30 pm – 2.00 pm

Courses: Five: 3 hard (7 km, 5 km, 3 km), 1 moderate (2.5 km), 1 easy (2 km).

Terrain: Classic gold mining, spur/gully bush.

Entry fee: $8 enter on day. SI timing

Start: At eastern end of Shelton’s road, Kangaroo Flat, near Diamond Hill road.

Directions; From Kangaroo Flat (Calder H’way) turn left (east) into Taylor St (traffic lights), then left into Railway St, right into Chapel St, under railway line then right into Allingham St, then left into Shelton’s Rd. Start at eastern end of Shelton’s Rd. From Melbourne: Travel towards Bendigo on the Calder. Coming into Kangaroo Flat go through traffic lights at Lansell Plaza and at the next set of lights turn right into Taylor Street, then as for Kangaroo Flat above. From Bendigo, go south along Diamond Hill Road and turn right into Shelton’s Rd.

Map to start on Eventor.

Next Bulletin 25 June

The weekly e-newsletter of
Bendigo Orienteers Inc.
Issue 21/14: 11 June, 2014
Contact (for this publication): Peter J. Creely: luddcreely@impulse.net.au (Ph. 5443 1975)
Web site: www.bendigo-orienteers.com.au

If you wish to unsubscribe from this bulletin, please click the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of this email. If you would like this Bulletin to be emailed directly to you, please email bendigo.orienteers@gmail.com.

Newcomers (repeat). The ‘Newcomers’ Table’ which is set up each week does need orienteers who feel that they would like to give to others some of their excitement in our sport and to pass on some basic introductory messages. So could people please think of this and be available to help if needed. Please consider giving a bit of your time (you can still go on your run – before or after) so that you can spread the load.

Juniors? (Repeat) If you know of any kids who enjoy orienteering and would like to be on our mailing list, could you let me know please. I will resume my monthly newsletter shortly and this may be of interest to some of you. As well I will be arranging some map walking sessions for our Space Racers (and any other Juniors who may wish to take part) about mid July, on local maps. These will take place on Saturday mornings (dates yet to be decided) and will last about one and a half hours. We will walk a Novice standard course with about ten controls over approx 2 kms. We will look at orientating the map, knowing where you are on the map at all times, look at various features and how they appear on the map legend – general knowledge stuff, not too heavy, not too physical. They will be open to anyone who wants to take part, including adults. More details later.

Re an important item from Tuesday’s Meeting, June 3 2014
It is clear that the various activities that have promoted junior orienteering in Bendigo over recent years have been particularly successful and the club is now very well represented in junior competition at the highest level. However, the meeting this week recognized that there is a need to form a clear and definite plan as to how the club can maintain the entry of new juniors into the sport in 2015 and onwards.

We have decided to form a Working Party to examine the many aspects of how this may be achieved, including how the sport of orienteering might be promoted within the school system. The Working Party would be expected to report to the committee so that a way forward will be agreed upon by the club in general.

There is a need therefore for people who feel passionate about the continuation of our sport through the inflow of new (particularly young) blood.

Please get in touch with pro-tem convenor Terry (Davidson) to let him know of your interest and, possibly, your willingness to be involved. [e. tands2@aapt.net.au or 54424905].

While there would be some reliance on sharing material and ideas electronically, there would be some call on a limited number of face-to-face meetings to fine tune and finalize recommendations to the committee.

Tarrengower. Full details can be found on our webpage.

Space Racing, 7 June: We were at Strathfieldsaye Linear Park, again a long out and back based on a winding little creek with football ovals on one end and a sporting complex on the other. We walked a few hundred metres to the start at the football ground on the other side of the road and the plan by all teams was, obviously, to pick up those controls on that side and work their way back to the eastern side and complete the course. Given the scores and the times this worked well.
Thanks to Andrew Wallace for setting the course – it was his first time and he did very well in setting a straight forward but challenging course.
Next week we are at Spring Gully Tennis Club again, assemble at 10.00 am.

Coming Events:
Saturday 14 June. Bendigo Skins
Organiser: Laurina Neumann

Course Setter: Bryan Keely
Event form individual
Event classification Club event
Race distance sprint
Time of event 12.30 to 2.00 pm
Discipline foot orienteering
Punching system Sportident
Class information
Open A 1
Open A short 2
Open B 3, 4
Homepage http://www.bendigo-orienteers.com.au

Directions: From Bendigo travel out Mitchell, Carpenter Streets and swing left into Spring Gully Road at the Cemetery. Continue through Spring Gully, past the One Tree Hill hotel and Koolamurt Scout Camp. Approximately one km past the Scout Camp look for O sign directing you into Connelly’s Road. From Castlemaine travel towards Bendigo on the Calder and exit at North Harcourt and continue towards Bendigo via Sedgwick and Mandurang. After approx. one km past the Mandurang Sports Ground look for O sign and turn left into Connelly’s Road. From Melbourne travel to Bendigo and choose either of the routes.

Next Bulletin 18 June

The weekly e-newsletter of

Bendigo Orienteers Inc.

Issue 20/14: 4 June, 2014

Contact (for this publication): Peter J. Creely: luddcreely@impulse.net.au (Ph. 5443 1975)

Web site: www.bendigo-orienteers.com.au

If you wish to unsubscribe from this bulletin, please click the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of this email. If you would like this Bulletin to be emailed directly to you, please email bendigo.orienteers@gmail.com.

Newcomers. The ‘Newcomers’ Table’ which is set up each week does need orienteers who feel that they would like to give to others some of their excitement in our sport and to pass on some basic introductory messages. This will probably most important next Saturday (7 June) at Maldon. The event has been advertised in the local Maldon newssheet and the Primary School as one that would be good for local people to taste orienteering. So could people please think of this and be available to help if needed. Please consider giving a bit of your time (you can still go on your run – before or after) so that you can spread the load.

Congratulations to those from our JSquad who were chosen to represent Victoria in the Australian Secondary Schools Champs later this year. You are all a credit to our club (of course, all our other JSquad people are too!)

Junior Girls: Caitlyn Steer.

Senior Girls: Leisha Maggs.

Junior Boys: Glenn James, Jimmy Cameron, Michael Loughnan.

Senior Boys: Louis Cameron, Lachlan Cherry.

While we are on the subject, I belatedly noticed that some of our juniors are featured in the Non elite National Rankings;

Class W10: Serryn Eenjes 1st.; W16: Leisah Maggs 7th.; M12: Jack Wigney 9th.; M14: Michael Loughnan 8th. and Jimmy Cameron 9th. Some of our adult people featured too. See page 44 Australian Orienteer, March 2014 if you haven’t already looked!

Juniors? (Repeat) If you know of any kids who enjoy orienteering and would like to be on our mailing list, could you let me know — please. I will resume my monthly newsletter shortly and this may be of interest to some of you.

Sedgwick. Full details can be found on our webpage.

Space Racing, 31 May: This race was at Kennington Reservoir. The kids are starting to look at planning. This time the teams had to take into account the reservoir and not get caught out on the other side and lose time getting back (they weren’t allowed to swim across!). They all seemed to manage this quite well as all were back with no loss of time.

I note also that Isobel Byrne was placed fourth out of about seven or eight competitors on Course 5 in the Bush Classic at Sedgwick (this was actually second as the first two placings were taken up by two Bendigo Junior Elites who were warming down from their State team selection race), after the Saturday morning Space Race. This is her second year in Space Racing and has now tasted Bush Orienteering – really well done Isobel!

By the way, I would like to compliment Jack Wigney for his offer to shadow Isobel around her course on Saturday to give her and her parents some reassurance as to her well being. Jack’s no stranger to making offers to assist other kids when needed – thank’s Jack.

Bendigo Primary Schools Champs. Friday 6th June at 10am. We are looking for more people to help in this important event. We have a few but are after as many as we can get to make it a bit easier all round. If you have a few hours to spare on that day (or can alter your schedule to suit) could you please advise David Jones on jones.d@impulse.net.au It would be great if you could help – it is an important event and it is a fun day.

RouteGadget Orienteering Australia has installed the latest version of RouteGadget on its website which is a utility for drawing and comparing orienteering routes on a map. It can be accessed at http://rg.orienteering.asn.au/. Some background information on RouteGadget can be found at http://support.orienteering.asn.au/. The number of articles on it will expand as required.

The site is ready to use now for events going forwards, and has one of the latest non-Java versions of RouteGadget installed. Ian Chennell (Victoria) has kindly offered to administer and maintain the RG installation. This support is greatly appreciated!

As part of this role Ian has kindly offered to update the server as new versions are released. He has also offered his time to migrate existing RG repositories to the new installation. If you are interested in doing this please send an email to rg@orienteering.asn.au.

Coming Events:

Saturday 7 June – King and Queen of the Mountain (Tarrengower) – Bendigo Rocks Series 1

· Courses 1, 2 and 3 will find their way into the granite before returning to the town.

· An excellent intro for newcomers to bush orienteering.

· Enter on day for all courses.

· Start any time between 12.30 pm and 2.00 pm.

· Courses by Mark Hennessy.

Comment: Tarrengower isn’t the flattest area in the world, so expect some hills. It is however very interesting with some very old gold mining. Courses 1, 2 and 3 will find their way into the granite before returning to the town.

To get there: From Bendigo. The start is at the Council Reserve in Fountain Street, next to the football ground. Travel to Maldon via Castlemaine. On the way into the town centre look for the fire station on the left and turn left into Fountain Street just past it.

Sunday 8 June – State Series Event #7 – South German, Maldon State Forest, near Newstead – Nillumbik Emus Orienteers

· The terrain is mostly spur-gully; some strongly expressed, some subtle, mixed with rock features and gold mining.

· Pre-entry is recommended, on-line via Eventor, late on-line entry until Thursday 5 June.

· Enter-on-day available, while map stocks last.

· Start times from 10.00 am to 1.00 pm. Registration closes 12.30 pm. Courses close from 2.30 pm.

The Saturday event is a good opportunity for Maldon families to see and experience the sport of orienteering at close hand. Bendigo Orienteering Club is running an event which starts from the Council Reserve in Fountain Street, next to the football ground. Newcomers are welcome and free instruction is available. You can start on a course any time from 12.30 to 2 pm, and courses close at 3 pm. Participants will be given a map with checkpoints marked, and the aim is to find all the checkpoints in order, then return to the finish.

For beginners, there will be two short courses (2-3 km) with easy to moderate navigation on the lower slopes of the mountain just above the town. Many locals will already be familiar with the bush tracks that the shorter courses will follow. The longer courses will venture off the tracks into the rocky areas above Butts Reserve, where the navigation will be quite tricky due to the detailed rock features on the map and the absence of tracks to follow.

You can walk or run, solo or as a group. Wear clothes suited to the weather. Maldon has been the home of high quality orienteering events since Easter 1998, but this is the first time since then that the courses have started and finished right in the town.

Further information: Bendigo Orienteers website; Orienteering Victoria website. Enquiries: Mark Hennessy, organiser, 0419 559 129, markhennessy@bigpond.com.

Melways 621 C11; VicRoads 59 C3

Travel Directions: From Castlemaine take B180 towards Maryborough and Newstead. 2km after passing through Green Gully and approx 1km before Newstead turn right (north) onto Mia Mia Rd and follow O-signs north for 3 km to assembly area.

Bendigo people might use Welshmans Reef Tip Rd from east of Welshman’s Reef hamlet.

Next Bulletin 11 June