Previous news and announcements

Brown Park Recreation & Community Centre, Salisbury Road, Swan View

Seventy-four participants took part in the event at Swan View in rather hot conditions with competitors seeking the shade before the start. Fortunately, there was a cool breeze to welcome them back at the finish.

There were several controls along the Railway Heritage Trail that were included in possible route choices for both medium and long courses. Again, a junior runner was the fastest on the short course with Rohan Braid...

Willetton Playgroup, 6 Kingfisher Loop, Willetton

Eighty nine participants attended the second MetrO event for the season on the Burrendah map. The area provided free flowing route choices around the streets and parklands of Willetton with the winning competitors completing their courses within the expected time frames. The map had not been used for some years so the setters made updates to many of the parks and playgrounds in the area but somehow managed to miss a “new” street in the...

Mt Claremont Primary School

The MetrO season has been ushered in with beautiful weather greeting us at the first event, which was held in Mt Claremont. There was a good turnout of 84 entries, including a few teams to bring the number of people running to ~90. It was pleasing to see quite a few new faces, including a number of kids.

Carine Senior High School, Osmaston Road, Carine

The winter orienteering season concluded with the Sprint Championships at Carine SHS, held over from mid-September due to the late revelation of conflicting bookings. Difficulties were compounded by the early start to building works in the southeast of the map, which meant that the setter, Nick Dale, had to revise parts of all courses three days before the event.

This was the first event at Carine SHS and the tight grouping of buildings combined...

Banyowla Regional Park, Martin

The delayed 2021 MTBO Long Championships were finally completed on the daunting Banyowla scarp in Martin. 

Twenty-three competitors conquered their fears to participate and were rewarded with a profusion of wildflowers, benign weather and four interesting courses - which challenged even the best. There were a few DNF's and MP’s, but the majority of riders completed the arduous test, including a first time orienteer, and one rider who had to stop halfway round to...

Spring sunshine drew regular orienteers and those looking for a family day out to the southern end of Marginata. Several large family groups enjoyed the E level course that took spectacular advantage of water was actually flowing in the main creek. On the harder courses mainly open running combined with pockets of complex rock made for some interesting loop courses.

While event day went smoothly, there were several challenges and false starts during the setting process. The original area was...

It was a Wundaful spring day with even the lakes on the Pony Road access track having shrunk to passable levels.  Fewer full members than expected attended but numbers were made up by more than twenty Casuals, one of whom was lucky enough to have her mobile phone retrieved by Ian Clayton from half way round her course.

There was some confusion when control description slips for a couple of courses did not always match the versions on the maps but courses were well planned to allow use of the...

We were lucky with the weather - it rained heavily on the way to the event and then cleared. The courses, set by Jack and Paul, were complex. Competitors had to take care to tag the correct controls as there were nearly 50 controls in a compact area with many being on rock features. The Paterson's Curse was prolific - this made running harder and also concealed the many small rocks that tripped up a few orienteers. Despite these challenges, almost all competitors completed their courses. BO...

Fred Jacoby Park, Mundaring

Fortunately for all, the rain forecast for Wednesday 18th August had finished by the time the Primary Schools Champs at Fred Jacoby Park were held. Over 350 students participated and judging from comments and written feedback from their teachers they thoroughly enjoyed the day and their courses set by Ian Fletcher. Participants could choose to run as individuals in the boys or girls 10 or 11-12 year old age groups or as pairs in either age group. Competition for the...

ECU provided a great venue for the sixth NavDash in the series. The setters made good use of the multiple buildings, gardens and small alleys to give participants challenging courses. 

Sten Claessens prevailed on the long course, with Hadrien and Craig close behind. On the Short hard course Amy Dufty sprinted well to be first, 2 minutes ahead of senior Ken Brownlie.  Newcomers Marcus and Aria Simpson can be pleased with their win on the Easy course.

At last, a sunny and warm orienteering event! Around 90 people enjoyed the courses set by Sten Claessens and Russell Candy on Saturday afternoon. We were promised intricate pathways and we certainly received them. The map, which encompasses Willetton SHS, Burrendah Primary School and Castlereagh School, was originally produced by Paul Dowling in 2018 but was updated by Sten Claessens this year.

A beautiful warm and sunny day welcomed orienteers to the Middle Distance Championships.

There had been a lot of rain recently and many of the watercourses were flowing. On the Thursday before the event, the southern road was a flowing stream and a dry ditch had become a 3 m wide torrent, so some last minute changes had to be made to the Easy and Very Easy courses. The terrain was varied with some fast open forest, slower patches of mature grass trees and complex rock detail on the steeper...

Apart from a few very short and light showers conditions were ideal, cool with minimal wind, good surfaces with just a few puddles. To prevent Dieback disease spread participants bike wheels were scrubbed and sprayed at the pre-start.

The original 1982 foot orienteering map of Lake Leschenaultia had just been extended and converted for MTBO by Duncan Sullivan to an unusually large scale so as to accommodate the more recent network of dedicated one-way mountain bike trails in the north.
Courses were...

Frazzle was a BO Club event, set by Lois and Rob West, with Helen Bailey as controller. Held on farmland near Brookton, it was the SOL Long event. The area was mostly open farmland, interspersed with complex granite sections. There were plenty of sheep with the lambs just a few months old. The heavy rains produced some very high, wet capeweed in large parts of some paddocks and made running extremely difficult. The creeks and flat areas were waterlogged after the rainfall for the month of...

The mapped area of John Forrest National Park covers a steep and bushy valley. As the park is also close to Perth an event at here is an ideal opportunity to introduce orienteering to newcomers. The Setters aimed to have beginner-friendly courses on the VE, E, M and H4 that avoided as much of the bush and climb as possible. The event was promoted via Facebook and Eventor as a beginner-friendly event and this extra promotion resulted in a big turn out of beginners.

Thirty four people...