Ian’s 91st birthday event

This sprint O event was held in very cold weather conditions at Black Jack Gully near Castlemaine. The courses were set by Ian Johnson, our club’s oldest member, and organised by Colin Walker and John Wilkinson. The area contains old gold mining features with erosion gullies and relatively flat bushland. It is suited to a sprint style event.

Competitors had three courses to choose from: hard (3-4 km), moderate (2.5 km) and easy (1.5-2 km). A small field completed the courses with only one or two showers dampening conditions. Everyone enjoyed the event as well as the variety of cakes to celebrate Ian’s 91st birthday. Ian was on hand to offer advice (thanks to Derek Morris for bringing him from Melton). It was great to see him looking so well. He appreciated the opportunity to visit controls, having a break in between. Thanks to Lorraine, Alison, Sue and Jenny who brought sweet treats. Thanks also to those who helped collect the controls at the end.

A really good social day.

John Wilkinson
Jenny Ball

RESULTS

Bendigo Bush Short 1 – Prince of Wales – 6 April 2019

The club season has begun with the first of 3 bush short events, where we have just 3 courses on offer in smaller sections of Bendigo’s bushland. This series of events started many years ago as an opportunity for people who are new to the sport to have a go. Back then we offered only an easy and moderate course, but over the years, experienced orienteers have wanted a harder course in addition to the others.

It was a warm autumn day, and 36 people participated. This map has many tracks, so most people found themselves navigating the track system in the very dry forest. Some names aren’t listed because they were part of a group. Unfortunately the IT complexities were too hard for the organiser on the day so we the results were not uploaded onto the Eventor website. The results are presented here, in a more manual format:

Julie

C course: 1.9km
1 Tim Turnbull 00:18:03
2 Jack Barianos 00:25:51
3 Sue Davidson 00:34:11
4 Akira Hill 00:50:21

 

B course: 2.4km
1 Tony Bird 00:21:00
2 Nigel McGuckian 00:22:00
3 Peter Searle 00:22:20
4 Peter Hill 00:22:25
5 Alison Radford 00:24:05
6 Paul Elam 00:25:39
7 Sheila Colls 00:26:46
8 Tim Turnbull 00:28:25
9 Louise Hall 00:28:26
10 Jenny Ball 00:29:26
11 Anne Garvie 00:30:29
12 Lorraine Leversha 00:30:36
13 Xavier Ough 00:36:23
14 Charlotte Ough 00:40:26
15 Ross and Leon Slater 00:40:58
16 Dick and Margaret Barker 00:44:02
17 Prue Dobbin dnf

 

A Course: 5.6km
1 Ben Goonan 00:33:18
2 David Brownridge 00:38:08
3 Shayne Hill 00:35:55
4 Jim Russell 00:38:28
5 Ilka Barr 00:45:46
6 Neil Barr 00:46:10
7 Andrew Cameron 00:46:36
8 Andrew Wallace 00:59:17
9 Tony Radford 01:05:48
10 Terry Davidson 01:28:05

Bendigo Orienteers would like to acknowledge and pay respects to the traditional owners, the Dja Dja Wurrung people, whose country we are on and extend our respect to their Elders, both past and present.

Victorian Relay Championships – A fun day out

Each year, the Victorian Club Relay Championships is a chance for club members to run in a relay team with other club members and compete against other clubs.

This year the event is on April 7th, close to Bendigo (Eppalock). Bendigo Orienteers pays the entry fee for Bendigo club teams.

We usually have a lot of teams. If you are new to orienteering, not to worry, we aren’t playing for “sheep stations” and it is a good chance to get to know other orienteers.

Details are on the attached flier (right-click to download).

If you would like to enter, contact Darren Eenjes via email letting him know which course you would like to run by 25th March.

Nigel

2018 President’s Report

The past year has been another good one for local orienteering. This wouldn’t be possible without the dedication of many of our club members. I will now detail some of the achievements for 2018 and acknowledge the people involved:

For many years there has been a push to get the club its own storage space. Club members had always stored the club’s equipment and trailers on their own properties. Most notably, Nigel McGuckian had given his shed space to the club for many years. Getting a shed built on public land proved to be very difficult due to various issues. These included available building sites being unsuitable and council red tape. After a proposal to build a shed at the Quarry Hill Golf Club was abandoned due to many difficulties, Colin Walker very generously offered the club a site at his business the Bendigo Woollen Mills. This site was great in terms of location, vehicle accessibility and security. Peter Creely’s enthusiasm for this project was vital in getting it underway and after a few months of preparation the shed was constructed. The last big task was moving all the club’s gear from Nigel’s shed into the new shed. This was carried out by Peter and Dianne Searle, and Peter Galvin. During their time as presidents, Jim Russell, Richard Goonan and Julie Flynn put a lot of effort into getting a shed for the club. Their work made it very easy for me.

During 2017 and early 2018 Nigel McGuckian worked with the leaders of the Dja Dja Wurrung on a memorandum of understanding. The Dja Dja Wurrung aboriginal people are the original inhabitants of the land in central Victoria. The memorandum allowed orienteering to continue on Dja Dja Wurrung country by ensuring that the participants respected the aboriginal heritage. This MOU is thought to be the first in Australia between a sporting club and an aboriginal tribe and has provided a great example for other sporting and recreational clubs to follow. The memorandum of understanding was signed at the Victorian Orienteering Middle Distance Championships in Spring Gully on the 19th May.

Jim Russell was the course setter for the Middle Champs and Alison Radford was the controller. The club was fortunate to have permission to hold this event inside the fence around the Spring Gully reservoir, a very special area that is normally closed to the public. Many volunteers from the club were required to plan the event and help on the day. I was really pleased with the willingness of club members to help. This event was successful due to the experience and dedication of those members.

On the 29th April the Bendigo Orienteers held its 2nd annual Wheel Cactus Eradication Day at Mt Kooyoora. This is a fantastic area for orienteering so it is important that orienteers take some responsibility to ensure that it is not overrun by noxious weeds. It was great that there were some new volunteers from the club along with some returning for a second go at the cactus. This year the surviving cactus plants had become harder to find so with persistence I’m sure we can keep these weeds at bay. Thanks to club volunteers Julie Flynn, Neil Barr, Peter and Dianne Searle, Lorraine Leversha and Jim Russell.

Andrew Cameron and Darren Eenjes located a new local supplier for our Bendigo Orienteers O-Tops with a much better price than the previous overseas supplier. They also worked with the local supplier on a smart new design, incorporating an orienteering map into the background. Darren and Andrew ran stall at many of our events to sell the new O-Tops to club members and had plenty of happy customers.

Neil Barr pioneered the BendigO-Ringen events weekend last year. This involved events in five small mining areas around Bendigo over one weekend in July. The Sunday event required competitors to combine foot orienteering with (untimed) driving between each mapped area. I really enjoyed Neil’s event concept and was impressed by the attention to detail in his planning. Neil also completed a comprehensive update of the Peter the Great Gully map.

Young orienteer Archie Neylon was a first-time course setter for our local event series in 2018. He was ably assisted by his family and Terry Davidson. Archie’s fun and challenging score event at Ironstone Hill was a fine season finale. It is very pleasing that Archie has volunteered to course set again in 2019.

I was very fortunate to have a supportive committee for the past year. Along with some members continuing from previous years we welcomed new recruits Jenny and Lorraine. Jenny has been a fantastic secretary and diligently prepared very detailed meeting minutes. Lorraine has been a very reliable, responsible and capable treasurer. Both these ladies were valued contributors to the club’s committee, and regularly volunteered for committee and event tasks. Peter Forbes has been obtaining the club’s event permits for the past couple of years. This can be a very frustrating and tedious task but Peter has obtained all the permits without appearing too stressed. We were really amazed that Peter managed to get a planned burn off postponed by a couple of days so we didn’t have to cancel one of our events. Julie Flynn prepared that club’s child safe policy. This involved extensive consultation with our junior members and their parents. This policy is very important for the club and Julie is to be commended on all the effort she put into it. Jacqui Knee has continued the good work of other members by engaging with schools and getting the students involved in orienteering. Jacqui worked with Eppalock primary school. We were really impressed that Jacqui managed to encourage so many of the students and their parents to attend the Lyell Forest event on the 30th June to raise money for their school.

Thank you to all the members who helped with our local events during 2018. I am always amazed that our club can hold so many events week after week. We have a lot of good workers in this club and I hope that they can keep up their efforts whilst encouraging our newer members to increase their involvement.

AGM and Fowl & Fizz

Bendigo Orienteers is holding its first event for 2019 on Saturday 2nd of February. The assembly area is the picnic shelter at the No. 7 reservoir in Kangaroo Flat.

There is a choice of a 45-minute Score-O or 2.3 km novice course starting between 8.15 am and 8.35 am (no mass start). The Score-O has 16 controls placed in the bushland within the Crusoe and No. 7 Park, which includes some challenging gold mining terrain. Bring your SI stick, compass and watch for orienteering. Some equipment will be available to loan.

The orienteering events will be followed by breakfast and the Annual General Meeting (AGM). On the menu for breakfast is chicken, champagne (for the grown-ups), salads, fruit and non-alcoholic beverages all supplied by the club. If you don’t want to participate in the orienteering you may arrive at around 9.15 am for breakfast.

The most important part of the AGM will be the election for the following positions in the 2019 committee:

  1. President
  2. Vice-President
  3. Treasurer
  4. Secretary
  5. Ordinary committee members

All positions will be declared vacant prior to the election. If you wish to nominate someone for a committee position and they have consented, please email your nomination to Jenny Ball. This will help the current committee to coordinate its efforts in finding at least one candidate for each position. The roles of the committee members are critical to ensure that the club functions correctly and remains strong.

The AGM and Fowl & Fizz is a free event for all members of Bendigo Orienteers, their families and guardians. For catering purposes, please email Jenny Ball by Wednesday 30th January if you want to attend.

Directions: Southbound on the Calder Hwy in Kangaroo Flat, turn right at Harvey Norman onto Furness St. Almost immediately turn left onto Granter St. Continue for 1.1 km, then proceed through entrance signposted Crusoe and No. 7 Park. Follow driveway to parking area.

For a map of the assembly area and further details, follow this link to the Eventor page:  https://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/Show/7587

Congratulations to our award winners!

The club’s end of year presentations took place on the 11th November at the Mandurang South Pony Club. Many club members and their families came together to enjoy socialising, a delicious lunch and a fun score-O. Together we congratulated the winners of this year’s awards:

Open Mens
1st: Ben Goonan
2nd: Richard Goonan
3rd: Andrew Wallace

Open Womens
1st: Clare Brownridge
2nd: Julie Flynn
3rd: Ilka Barr

Mens B
1st: Andrew Cameron
2nd: Charles Brownridge
3rd: Michael Loughnan

Womens B
1st: Leisha Maggs
2nd: Jenny Ball
3rd: Caitlyn Steer

Junior Men
1st: Amos Walz
2nd: Archie Neylon
3rd: John Steer

Junior Women
1st: Serryn Eenjes
2nd: Isobel Byrne
3rd: Ebony Naunton

Sub-Junior Boys
1st: Xavier Ough
2nd: Jack Barianos
3rd: Hugo Byrne

Sub-Junior Girls
1st: Charlotte Ough
2nd: Clementine Neylon

Vera Shelton Award
Lorraine Leversha

Golden Leg
Peter Searle

Ping-Pong Lotto Score-O
Clementine Neylon

Submit your nominations for these special awards

If you weren’t quite fast enough to be in contention for a series championship trophy this year don’t worry as there are a few other awards up for grabs. These will be awarded to their worthy recipients at our presentations in November. Please submit your nominations to Andrew Wallace if you consider yourself or another member to be a candidate for one of these awards. The winners will be decided by a vote at the presentations.

Black Crow

The Black Crow award is a tribute to lack of thought. Its winner is guilty of the most hilarious/embarrassing/dumbfounding act of orienteering related silliness for the year.

Golden Leg

This is awarded to a course setter who provides a finely balanced combination of difficulty, enjoyment and route choices in the best course leg for the year.

Noodle Award

Have you ever spent ages searching for a control? If you were wearing a GPS at the time your trace might look a bit like a bowl of noodles. This award is for the unfortunate orienteer with the most noodle-like GPS trace.

 

Vote for Park & Street Challenge!

The Victorian Government is running a community grants initiative called Pick My Project with the aim of funding projects that benefit local communities. The public get to vote on which projects they like and the most popular ones receive the funding.

The Park & Street Challenge events have been held very successfully in Bendigo for the last few years. They are organised by two members of Bendigo Orienteers, Craig Feurherdt and Andrew Cameron. The Park & Street Challenge has been entered in Pick My Project because funds are needed to allow more events to be held.

The Park & Street challenge involves orienteering style events in the beautiful, family friendly parks and gardens of Bendigo. Participants are provided with a paper map and have up to 1 hour to locate as many of the marked locations as possible. Results are recorded using the free MapRun app that is installed on the smartphones carried by the participants.

Fun, fitness and fresh air for all ages is the goal of the Park & Street Challenge. It also a very safe way for the participants to gain their confidence in orienteering. And this makes the big step into bush orienteering easy and enjoyable. Bendigo Orienteers hopes to gain many new members who were introduced to orienteering through the Park & Street Challenge.

Bendigo Orienteers strongly encourages all of its members, aged 16 and over and living in the Bendigo area to vote for Park & Street Challenge in Pick My Project. Please ask your friends, family and others to do the same.

Voting is quick and simple, and open until 5pm, Monday 17 September:

  1. Go to (follow linkhttps://pickmyproject.vic.gov.au/
  2. Register for a Pick My Project account. If you already have an account, simply sign in.
  3. Select your local community by entering your suburb or address. You can then browse the project ideas in your local community and create a shortlist of your favourites including the Park & Street Challenge.
  4. Pick your three favourite project ideas from your shortlist and verify your mobile number. You’ll then be able to submit your votes. Make sure you vote for Park & Street Challenge.

Please view this short video (follow linkhttps://vimeo.com/286990377 from Craig and Andrew.