Author Archives: Debbie Dodd

Two great bush orienteering events on the same weekend, and really close to Melbourne! Come along to both, and enjoy the competition, the outdoor environment and Victoria’s great orienteering terrain. Everyone is welcome. Courses are available to suit all abilities from beginner to experienced. Coaching, assistance and gear is available to newcomers.

• Vic Series (Bush) event 4, Saturday June 10 – Granite Hills, South Morang (starts between 12.30 – 2.00pm; courses close 3pm) – click here for information and online entry
• Vic Series (Bush) event 5, Sunday June 11 – Gellibrand Hill, Greenvale (starts between 10.00am – 12.00 noon; courses close 2pm) – click here for information and online entry

The Granite Hills map is compact but has it all: giant boulders, detailed quarry workings, beautiful open forest and stunning views of the Melbourne CBD.  The Gellibrand Hill map is fast and fun: open forest, grassy slopes, and scattered rocks on flat to undulating terrain.  There will be a mid-course map flip to mix things up, with a change of map scale to keep you on your toes

Please pre-enter online to ensure you get a map on the day.  Entries close for both events at 11.59 pm Wednesday 7th June. There will be entry on the day while (limited) map stocks last.  All pre-entered competitors go into our random prize draw on Sunday!

Catering (toasties, cakes and cans of soft drink) will be provided by the Victorian Junior Squad, as a fundraiser. We’ll have TV screens and Live Results to add to the atmosphere.  Bring your club tents and flags, and add colour and excitement to this great weekend!

Saturday’s event is brought to you by Melbourne Forest Racers, and Sunday’s event is hosted by DANDENONG RANGES ORIENTEERING CLUB.

DROC has made the 2023 Lyrebird Award to the most outstanding Victorian junior girl, Sophie Taverna. Sophie will use the award to assist with her travel to JWOC in Romania in July, where she is first reserve for the Australian team.  Sophie is not only a top junior elite, but she contributes to orienteering on a number of levels, from mapping, to course setting, to organising.  DROC congratulates Sophie and wishes her every success with her orienteering and travelling.

Online entry is now open for the next event in the Vic MTBO Series, which will be at the scenic and historic venue of Kurth Kiln in Gembrook.  The kiln was established in 1941 to mass produce charcoal as an alternative fuel to petrol due to rationing during WW2.  Enjoy the challenge of navigating on two wheels, amongst the tall timbers.

Arena:  Kurth Kiln picnic ground, Beenak Road, Gembrook.  Toilets and picnic facilities available.  Please bring and carry your own water.

Start and finish times:  Registration opens at 9.30am.  Courses 1-4, start any time between 10am and 12 noon. Score course (2 hours), start any time between 10am and 10.30am.  Courses close at 2pm.

Courses:

• 1 – 27 km
• 2 – 21 km
• 3 – 15 km
• 4 – 9 km
• Score – 2 hours

Courses 1-3 will have two controlled road crossings. Please read the Information Flyer for full details. You will also be briefed at the Start.

Online entry:  now open; entries close on Wednesday 17 May.  A small number of maps will be available for on the day entry.

INFORMATION AND ONLINE ENTRY HERE

You will need a SIAC stick. Loan sticks will be available for an additional $3 – please select SIAC HIRE as a Service when entering online.

DROC fielded four teams in the 2023 Victorian Club Relays, held at Woowookarung on open spur gully terrain, on Sunday April 2.  Our Course 1 team of Simon Rouse, Ian Davies and Damian Spencer tackled the complex 6 km course, finishing a very strong 4th out of 9 teams.  On Course 3, the team of Peter Yeates, Ray Scaddan and Carl Stemp were comfortably midfield in 5th place.  The Newburys were unable to defend their 2022 title on Course 4, with an unfortunate mispunch.  But it was our Course 5 (Mixed) tea, of Elijah Spencer, Glenn Meyer and Sally Barlow that had the result of the day, in second place. Well done to all our teams!

Some great performances, and podium finishes, by DROC members at the Oceania Championships in Tasmania!  The week kicked off with a Sprint race at the UTAS campus in Launceston, always a good challenge.  The action then moved on to the St Helens area, for the Long and Middle Distance Champs, and the Relays.  The Long Distance was a gruelling day on a very physical map with lots of bracken and fallen timber.  The Middle Distance was on a new map in tin mining terrain, much less physical but more technical with small and subtle contour features as well as swamps and creeks.

Congratulations to our podium placers:

• Peter Dalwood – second place in the Oceania Sprint, first place in the Oceania Relay
• Simon Rouse – third place in the Oceania Sprint, first place in the Oceania Relay
• Lanita Steer – first place in the Oceania Relay
• Janine Steer – third place in the Oceania Relay

Other strong performances came from Pam King, 4th in the Sprint; Simon Rouse, 4th in the Long Distance; Janine Steer, 5th in the Middle Distance.

Lanita Steer was selected to represent Australia in the Australia-New Zealand Challenge team, and her team’s win in the Relay, along with her top 10 placings in the individual events, have helped Australia take a resounding victory.

Congratulations to everyone taking part and toughing it out.  Check out our GALLERY.

DROC members have been out enjoying great weather and great course at Summer Series!  Check out the Gallery for photos.  Find out more about Melbourne’s Summer Series of park street orienteering.

The 2022 Victorian Club Relays were held on a glorious day, on an intricate and interesting map at Argyle, near Heathcote.  Although not particularly hilly, there were plenty of complex erosion features, numerous tracks, and unexpectedly full creeks and ponds.  Victorian forest is usually a dusty grey-brown, but thanks to the rain, this was verdant green.

Although the results were dominated by Melbourne Forest Racers, DROC had some great results and several podium finishes, including a win to the Newbury Navigators.  As a result, we claimed second spot in the Rockhopper club competition.   Check the GALLERY for more great action shots like this one!

SPRINT SHOWDOWN – Sunday 13 November, RMIT Bundoora

Online entry is closed, but you can enter on the day, while maps last.

Info Flyer

Two races in one event! A sensational Sprint Showdown double header at the Sports Centre, RMIT Bundoora West Campus, McKimmies Road.

Two races for one entry fee!! Enter and pay once, and run twice. Adults $15 (total entry fee). Cash or card accepted at Registration.

Kids Run Free!! DROC encourages juniors to compete by offering free entry for anyone under 21.

Toilets, showers, cafe (hot/cold food and drinks) and bag drop at the Sports Centre – your Showdown Hub.

Race 1 – a classic Sprint with 1 min start intervals – choose one of the four courses. Start any time between 10am-11am:

Course 1 – Hard, 3.4 km
Course 2 – Hard, 2.8 km
Course 3 – Short Hard, 2.0 km
Course 4 – Moderate/Easy, 1.6 km

Race 2 – the Sprint Showdown, featuring head to head racing, 30 second start intervals, loops and pivots. Starts between 12.15pm-12.45pm:

Course 1A or 1B – Hard, 2.9km                 View map snippets
Course 2A or 2B – Hard, 2.5 km               View map snippets
Course 3A or 3B – Short Hard, 1.9km     View map snippets
Course 4A – Moderate/Easy, 1.6 km

Things to note:

Maps are NOT on waterproof paper – BYO map bag.  The pre-start is under cover, and registration and download will (probably) be located inside the Sports Centre.

Parking is free on Sundays; park in Car Park 4 and walk south to the Sports Centre.  If CP4 is full, head to CP3 instead.

Everyone needs to check in on arrival, and collect a Start ticket.

Wednesday 20 October will see the first use of the Mitcham map under its new name, Stirling Hill.  The map has been renamed in honour of Ian Stirling; we invite everyone to come along and remember Ian, with a map in your hand and some (long awaited) sun on your face.  The start location is Heatherdale Reserve, Purches Street.  Whilst the start window is 6.30pm-7.00pm, there will be presentations afterward (at approx 8pm), for the Monday, Wednesday and Saturday Winter Series.  We will also mark two milestones, including Pam King becoming a Touring Legend of The Millennium Club with 1500 events.  There will be a portable BBQ brought along for anyone who wants to BYO dinner.  Please stay on after your run or walk, for this special evening.

What a brilliant two days of urban racing! From the complicated geometry of the new map of Waverley Stadium, to the intricacies of the Tatterson woodlands, and finishing with a Grand Tour of Williamstown, the three races were very different but all equally fun.

Maps and Photos

For the opening event, Damian Spencer produced a beautiful map, and set courses which took full advantage of the concentric circle layout, and featured the historic oval and grandstand as the centrepiece. At Tatterson we were confronted with an unexpected family day, fair, footy matches, and full car park; but we managed to get things up and running, and send runners out into the woodland in head to head match races, using butterfly loops on courses planned by Toby Cooper. Some of the wetland areas seem to have expanded recently!

The finale was an epic, with mapper and planner Ricky Thackray setting true urban long distance courses – a mixture of long legs with multiple route choices, and fine navigation in the small but complex pockets of parkland and Botanic Gardens. Everyone had a chance to experience the Williamstown foreshore and the city views from Point Gellibrand. The random prize draw was a highlight of the weekend! Results and splits can be viewed via Eventor. MCRW will be back in 2023, hopefully back on the Docklands map where it all began.