Koomba Kaos certainly lived up to its name! Our first event since mid 2021 kept us busy, and everyone had a great day unscrambling Ian’s courses.
Check out the event wrap, maps and results here.
Head to our GALLERY for more photos from the event.
Come along to Lillydale Lake on Wednesday January 12, and christen our brand new colour map! Choose one of the four scatter courses for runners, or a 65 minute score course for power walkers. Start any time between 6.30pm and 7.00pm; bring your smartphone for checking in and MapRun use. Most of the controls are in parkland, and you can enjoy a lakeside picnic afterwards – a perfect family event.
Start from: Bellbird Park, Akarana Road (off Swansea Road), Lilydale. Register and pay on the day. Enquiries: 0409 135 020 or voa@iinet.net.au
ENTRIES NOW OPEN – PRE-ENTER ONLINE BY THURSDAY JANUARY 13.
Entry fee: $10 adults. Kids Run Free at DROC events! Juniors must pre-enter, but no fee will be charged. ENTER HERE!
This could be the Kraziest event of 2022! With terrain varying from fast open sports fields and parkland, to winding trails, pockets of bush, and rough, vegetated wetland, this map will have you constantly changing direction, pace, and technique. Featuring sprint style course setting by former Aus Sprint Champs and NOL Sprint Relay planner Ian Dodd – but over longer distances – this event will Konfuse and Konfound. There are many controls in full view of the arena, so no pressure …
Start location: Wantirna Reserve, Mountain Highway, Wantirna
Map: Koomba Park, full colour, 1:4000 scale
Sportident timing will be used, in Air mode. Please enter with your SIAC if you have one; non-SIAC SI sticks are also fine, and can be borrowed from Registration if you don’t own one.
Start times: arrive and start any time between 10am and 11.00pm. Courses close at 12.30pm.
Choose any of the four courses:
Covid rules: bring smartphone for QR code checkin at Registration. Follow rules for physical distancing, hygiene, and face coverings. Check the Orienteering Victoria Participant Guidelines at https://www.vicorienteering.asn.au/return-to-orienteering/
The 2021-22 Summer Series features events all over Melbourne (Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays), as well as Geelong (Thursdays), the Surf Coast (Saturdays in January), and the Mornington Peninsula (one Sunday per month), Events start from November 8 for the four Melbourne Series, and the Geelong Series.
HOW TO FIND AN EVENT
The 2021 Summer Series (SAS) commences from Monday October 4, with a 5-week “Anytime” format, using MapRun. Each week, four brand new maps will be published online on Monday mornings. Simply download them, and complete a course any time before the following Sunday at 9pm. You can use as many maps as you can reach under travel limits, and you can compete on the same map multiple times. Your best result for the week will appear in the results.
Taking part is easy – no online signup, nothing to pay. Simply use MapRun to record your result, and you will automatically be part of the Series. Easy as!
Here are the maps:
| Oct 4 – 10 | Academy Hill | Maidstone | Gardiners Bend | BoulderDash |
| Oct 11 – 17 | Koolamara | Travancore | Highbury Hill | Woodridge |
| Oct 18 – 24 | Glen Eira East | Footscray Central | Tunstall Junction | Darebin Parklands |
| Oct 25 – 31 | Bayswater | Ascot Vale | Deepdene | Eltham Parklands |
| Oct 25 – 31 | Knox Fields | Cherry Lake | Blackburn Creeklands | Rosanna Parklands |
In a first in the history of the MEFTY (Most Events for the Year) award, Stuart McWilliam has tied with Bayside’s Steven O’Connell. Both attended 129 events in a truncated season which ran from November 2020 until July 2021. Peter Yeates was third, on 95 events.
Stuart’s name has appeared on the MEFTY trophy three times previously – in 2020, 2018, and 2017. Congratulations once again!
Dandenong Ranges Orienteering Club has signed up to Love The Game.
Our club says no to sports betting sponsorship. We are proud to have joined hundreds of other sporting clubs across Victoria who #LovetheGameNottheOdds @responsiblegambling. Watch the video
We encourage our junior members to take back the game. By understanding the risks of sports gambling, they can enjoy sport for what it really is, and love the game, not the odds.
Why We Care
Young men (18–24 years) bet on sport more than any other age group in Victoria, making up a third of all sports gambling. Currently, one in five adults who experience serious harm from gambling began before they turned 18.
Young people feel enormous pressure to fit in. Like underage drinking and smoking, gambling becomes a real problem when kids see it as normal, because they assume that everyone’s doing it. Gambling ads aim to give betting the same sense of normality.
Gambling is now accessible 24/7 through smartphones and gambling applications. Smartphones put sports gambling at everyone’s fingertips, including kids, making it easier than ever for them to start.
The narratives of sports betting ads make it seem as though there’s no risk. Using ‘cash-back’ and ‘bonus-bet’ offers, getting involved at a lower risk becomes much more appealing for kids. If they’ve got nothing to lose, then why not?
Separate studies have found:
Our Love the Game Charter and Gambling Harm Prevention Policy
We’ve had a number of DROC members achieve Millennium Club milestones recently. The Millennium Club recognises outstanding participation achievements at Park Street orienteering events, since January 1 2000.
Congratulations to:
Find out more about The Millennium Club
What a perfect day for orienteering! Our new start location at Birdsland was a hit. From the start, it was downhill into the wetlands (aptly described) for some fast, flat legs around the lakes, along the boardwalks and bush tracks, and over the bridges. Once the blood was pumping, it was time for an abrupt change of pace, as all but the Easy course took to the steep contours of Lysterfield Park’s northern section. Controls were on granite features, with route choice impacted by climb and vegetation.
Our thanks to Peter Dalwood, assisted by Pam King, for setting the courses; and to the DROC crew for ensuring a smoothly run event.
We’d love to see where you went – share your route via gpx upload to Livelox
On Saturday June 26, we have our first Park Street EndurO for two years, and the first to feature MapRun. Yes, that means double the distance, double the time, double the controls, and double the fun!
Double up at High Hampton, a brand new map in Melbourne’s inner south east that’s begging to be explored. Starting from Peterson Street Reserve in Highett, you’ll receive a map with 40 controls. Choose from a 120 min Run or Walk, or a 90 min Run. This event is part of the regular Saturday Series competition, and payment is via Saturday Pass, MultiPass, or $5 cash. Start any time between 1.30pm and 2.00pm.
Parking: please head to the north east corner of the reserve, and park on Peterson or Telford Streets, or other nearby side streets. There is football being played on the western oval. Toilets are available. A reminder to make sure your phone or watch is fully charged up before you start!
There is no pre-entry required, but on arrival you’ll need to:
