Previous news and announcements

A bright sunny autumn morning saw around 80 competitors make their way around some challenging and interesting courses.
The map is a nice mixture of buildings, open paddocks, some more vegetated areas around dry creek beds and some adventure game structures.

Results can be found here.

There were some fast times with Sten Claessens winning the long course in just over 18 minutes, while his son Ruben sprinted round the easy course in just under 17 minutes. The women's long course was quite...

Today's event at the Perth Waldorf School was to be my final at setting in WA and I was ever so pleased that the school allowed us access. I had mapped the school in July last year and it was so very complex that I needed two field trips to get everything right and even then I found errors when out course checking (and sadly more when putting out controls but nothing major so I had hoped no-one would notice). The natural bush setting (and the occasional quenda or rabbit sighting) added to the...

tRicky had been preparing for the Claisebrook event for quite some time, being a new and very complex map (for a Metro event) there were a lot of decisions to make about CP locations, probable pedestrian traffic and a number of busy roads through the map causing OOB headaches.  As it turned out there were more important issues to deal with such as a possible cricket final on the same night (avoided), then the lockdown (ended the day prior) and finally the remnants of a tropical cyclone passing...

A windy but fine morning saw 65 people competing at the first NavDash of the year, starting in the pleasant grounds of the Gosnells Civic Centre and moving out to the riverside bushland of Centennial Pioneer Park and briefly into the Gosnells shopping area.

The nature of the area and the short time-frame available for planning meant there was limited scope for map updates and subtlety in course planning. In any case, the map offers few opportunities for detailed navigation challenges and...

Saturday 23rd January

The MetrO event at Mullaloo was the last of 4 in the Joondalup area.  Weather was certainly different being on the coast in the afternoon - at best described as "a pleasant cool change with a sea breeze" - when sitting/standing around for a while, it was decidedly chilly.  The cricket match that had been set up next to the assembly area caused fewer problems than first anticipated.

Controls had been set out along the beach, and also throughout the parks and housing.  There...

Saturday 30th January

At first sight Bibra Lake is an unlikely prospect for a MetrO event, with the land being strung out around the extensive swampland. However, it provides a variety of terrain and consequently some substantial route choice options. The Short course could be completed entirely in parkland but a well-chosen loop through the bush track network was about 500 m shorter. The shortest option for the Medium course required choosing an efficient route to visit all the controls in the...

Saturday 16th January

A fun but challenging time was had by all in the heat of North Freo on Saturday. The course setter (Noel Schoknecht) sat out this event at home – in isolation, after returning from Christmas and New Year with his Mum in Melbourne, so it was left to Simmo and others to do the hard yards!

Saturday 9th January

After a scorching week the weather cooled down somewhat to allow the Shelley event to go ahead with 72 competitors / groups participating.  The course was set by junior Kate Braid with good feedback from the short course competitors who noted that all first four finishes took different routes for their 7 controls. Duncan Sullivan was first finisher on the short course with Ken Brownlie second who was closely followed by his grandson Archie Brownlie in 3rd. First female...

Saturday 12th December

A fine afternoon with a cooling sea breeze saw 81 starters, including about 15 novices and a pleasing number of recent first-timers, gathered to explore the remnant bush of Shepherds Bush and the surrounding back-streets of Kingsley.

The map is the central east-west portion of the Kingsley map, centred on the major bicycle/pedestrian path known as Cattle Trail. Several roads that run across the map were made out-of-bounds for safety reasons and to constrain route choices for...

Saturday 5th December

Cottesloe proved to be a superb setting for this week’s Metro event with controls within the main suburb and in various nooks and crannies as well as along the beach front. One control on the groyne ended up being wave drenched due to the brisk wind giving runners a complimentary shower to avoid overheating!

The event commenced at the Civic Centre where an additional mini-sprint map added to the complexity of route planning.

The two controls at the end of sand paths onto...

Saturday 28th November

Intrepid orienteers enjoyed a beautiful, if not brisk, day out in the inviting Warwick Bushland last Saturday. Very fast runners managed to win the three courses with less than perfect routes. Isaac Madden took out the Short course by 3 minutes from Ruben Claessens, who is improving every week. Amy Dufty just pipped Jessica Madden by 4 seconds to be the fastest woman.

Liam Dufty had an even bigger margin on the Medium course, leading in Cedric Gros by over 5 minutes....

Saturday 21st November

The third MetrO series event for this season was held in excellent weather conditions in Samson. It was great to see a large number of newcomers trying out orienteering for the first time!

The bush tracks in Sir Frederick Samson Memorial Reserve and the intricate street pattern in the surrounding suburb made for interesting route choice decisions that kept many participants second guessing themselves until the end. On the short course, Duncan Sullivan came through for his...

Saturday 14th November

The unseasonal weather forecast for the second MetrO event didn’t stop 69 people, including about a dozen novices, arriving at Joondalup to take part. There was an ominous, short heavy shower just before the event briefings but then almost no rain until after controls were collected.

Advertising for the event promised something a bit different, and it was. The event was entirely within the strip of Yellagonga Regional Park between suburban Joondalup and Lake Joondalup,...

Saturday 7th November

The first event of the MetrO season in Thornlie provided participants with a good mix of urban and semi-urban areas with the river to cross via one of the two bridges or the log crossing for an adventurous challenge (as far as this setter's aware no-one fell in).  Controls were nicely situated on features to maximise route choice and included a gully, an earth wall and a rocky ford to add a bit of interest!  Sadly the grass seeds I promised wouldn't be there grew in the...

Saturday 22nd August 2020