The weekly e-newsletter of
Bendigo Orienteers Inc.
Issue 08/14: 5 March, 2014
Contact (for this publication): Peter J. Creely: luddcreely@impulse.net.au (Ph. 5443 1975)
Web site: www.bendigo-orienteers.com.au
Important! If you don’t want to receive the bulletin, or if, at any time, you wish to discontinue receiving it, please advise me by return e-mail and your name will be taken off my list.
Note that there will be no e-Bulletin next week so you will find that details of the Fiddler’s Green event are included.
Bendigo’s event program for 2014 – fridge magnets now available – from Peter Creely at the CATI on 8 March or at Fiddlers Green.
AGM 2014: Office Bearers and other outcomes. The BO AGM was held Tues 4 March – a good roll up of people given the circumstances (would have been good to have more there!). The new Office Bearers are: President: Jim Russell, VP: Julie Flynn, Secretary: John Wilkinson, Treasurer: Andrew Wallace. Committee: Andrew Cameron, Jenny Ball and Peter Creely.
The Black Crow is awarded each year to the club member who is responsible for the most spectacular misadventure of the year. As an example, the BC mentioned below on Fiddlers Green (a long time ago) came about when the course setter forgot the scale of the map was 1:15,000 and estimated course lengths on a 1:10,000 scale, thus causing all courses to be 50% longer; the runners on the long course, believing they were running 6 kms actually completed 9 kms and so on down the chain. This week, the second nomination for the year:
The latest nomination: The chap who was asked to bring a copy of the Mt. Alexander map to an event for someone, and it wasn’t until he handed the map over that he found that he had actually brought along the Mt. Tarrengower map: a mountain, yes, granite, yes, but in a different place! (This year all names will be suppressed until the presentations.)
Come to beautiful Yackandandah – Saturday 22 March Bendigo member and controller for the State Series bush orienteering event coming up on Saturday 22 March, Mark Hennessy, tells us that the Yackandandah map will be the original 1:5000 map made by Leigh Privett, with courses set by Leigh. This is a magnificent, legible gold mining map, and the terrain is as good as the best that even Bendigo has to offer. And the bush is not too thick.
Entries close this Saturday night, so get yours in. Like our Bendigo events, there are now no age classes for State Series events – so people are more free to choose the level at which they participate.
And, if you like music, the Yackandandah folk festival is on from Friday to Sunday, with top acts like Jan Preston (piano) and Kavisha Mazella, plus overseas performers. Even if you don’t buy a ticket, enjoy the ambience and the buskers, and the food tents.
Sunday’s event is on granite terrain, so if you like Kooyoora (who doesn’t?), Mt Korong or Mt Tarrengower, you will love Kangaroo Crossing at Eldorado.
See Eventor for details. Mark Hennessy
But, an event just as important: Fiddler’s Green (and it’s closer!) (15 March) is gently undulating to very flat, with a lot of old mining detail. One of our older maps, it was created in the days when we traced the base map from contour maps obtained from (the then) State Rivers and Water Supply Commission (now Coliban Water). There was very little other detail, mostly only major roads and tracks. The area was subsequently remapped to a high standard by Chris Creely. See event details below.
I originally found the name on a very old mining map of the area. One of the many explanations of FG is that it is a legendary, supposed afterlife where there is perpetual mirth, fiddles that never stop playing and dancers that never tire, thought to be inspired by the mythical Greek Elysian Fields. It is mentioned a lot in nautical terms: nautically it is at the bottom of the ocean and sailors supposedly go there if they die through drowning at sea. Whatever, I find it all very interesting — I’ll leave it to you. It was also the scene of a very high standard Black Crow nomination back in the day!
Come and Try It. Please, don’t forget our CATI’s. It is important that we have enough people in attendance to ensure that any new people are well looked after. A lot of effort has gone into the preparation – course setting, publicity so let’s make an effort (don’t forget your Bendigo tops). I also look forward to our JSquad people helping to look after newcomers out in the forest – as they did last year – good training and a chance for Bendigo to show off our very talented kids (in their JSquad tops, weather permitting of course).
Coming Events. Saturday 8 March.
Come and Try It, Day 2
Map: Guy’s Hill Road (on the eastern side of One Tree Hill)
Organiser: Peter Creely et al Course Setters: Julie Flynn and Terry Davidson
Start: 10.00 am to 12.00 Noon
Courses: Three courses: Cse. 1 Easy; Cse 2 Moderate (both for Newcomers); Cse. 3 Difficult.If Bendigo members come out, it is expected that you give priority to assisting Newcomers before your own run. You are most welcome to have a run (I recommend Course 3) but a lot of work has been put in to allow new people to have an enjoyable experience in orienteering: please remember this and put in a bit of time for your club!
Directions: Travel out Condon Street/Strathfieldsaye Road. Approximately 2 kms past the Reservoir Hotel (Kennington Reservoir) turn right into Guy’s Hill Road (O sign). After 1.8 kms (at the end of the bush/beginning of the housing estate on the left), turn left into Brentwood Drive (O sign) and follow the O signs.
15 March – Bendigo Bush Classic
Bendigo Orienteers’ Bush Classic series gets back underway on Saturday March 15th. Come and see why plenty of orienteers regularly travel from Melbourne and Ballarat to take part in these friendly and high quality bush events. The opening event is on the Fiddlers Green map, a fast open map with subtle contour detail and a scatter of gold mining detail. This is a map where many will run faster than they can navigate. Start times are from 12.30 to 2 pm. Enter on the day.
Course setter Warwick Williams.
Courses: 1 7.1 km hard, 2 5.1 km hard, 3 3.2 km hard, 4 2.9 km moderate, 5 2.3 km easy
Directions:Travel to Bendigo and then out to Eaglehawk. From the traffic lights in the middle of Eaglehawk continue north west and take the second right onto the road towards Mitiamo andPyramid Hill (C336). Follow the C336 for 4.7 kilometres, then turn right into Janaway Road and look for orienteering signs.
NOTE THAT IN THE EVENT OF A DAY OF TOTAL FIRE BAN IN THE NORTHERN COUNTRY REGION ANY EVENT SCHEDULED FOR THAT DAY WILL BE CANCELLED.
Next Bulletin 12 March
