The finer details

Far North Orienteering

Orienteering is an adventure-based sport that involves walking, running, skiing, or mountain-biking around a set course, using a map and compass to find your way.  Orienteering is unique in that everyone can participate or compete on exactly the same maps and terrain, from rank beginners, to world-class elite athletes, to family groups and nature-lovers.  Participant ages typically range from under five, through to 95+!  Orienteering also teaches navigation, self-reliance and environmental appreciation, which are all great life skills to develop.

For dedicated orienteers, there is the opportunity to travel interstate and overseas to the major state, national and international competitions. Talented juniors and elite competitors can strive to be selected to represent Australia at World Championships while those over 35 have the opportunity to compete at yearly World Masters Championships

History of Orienteering

Orienteering is an adventure sport that was originally developed in Scandinavia in the late 1800s by a keen military officer, who wanted to combine instructing his soldiers in cross-country navigation and map-reading techniques with the need to keep them fit, and make the combination enjoyable and challenging! Orienteering evolved from that into a competitive sport in the early 1900s, but really took off in the 1960s, as techniques for making and printing detailed colour maps became affordable and commonplace.

Maps

An orienteering map is a specially produced topographic map that shows a lot of detail and allows for precise bush navigation. Such maps depict natural features such as contours, watercourses, rock detail and vegetation as well as constructed features such as roads, building and power lines.

Many orienteering maps are produced at a scale of 1:15 000 (ie. 1cm on the map equals 150 m on the ground) and in detailed areas the scale is often 1:10 000. For park and school maps of smaller areas, the scale may be even larger eg 1:5000 enabling a lot of detail to be shown.

Most of the maps produced for orienteering are printed in colour, allowing a variety of features to be clearly shown.

For vegetation, the colours on the map indicate how “runnable” the terrain is from an orienteering perspective.

• White sections depict generally open bushland
• Green areas show vegetation with the darker shades indicating very thick areas
• Yellow areas indicate more open ground where running is easier
• Black is used for constructed features such as tracks, fences, powerlines and building. It is also used for rock features such as boulders and cliffs
• Grey represents areas of open rock, typically found in granite country
• Blue is for water features such as creeks, dams and marshes (although these may be dry depending on the season)
• Brown is used for contour lines, but is also used to depict earth features such as ditches, earth banks and knolls

Orienteering Courses

A range of courses are provided at most events and these are colour coded to indicate their navigational difficulty. Course lengths vary depending on the nature of the terrain and are aimed at achieving a recommended winning time.

Blue

The easiest course, and usually 1-2 km in length. The course generally follows easily identifiable, linear features (known as handrails) such as tracks, fences and well defined water courses. This is the best course for younger children and beginners not familiar with map reading and navigation. The use of a compass is not required to be able to complete this level of course. Controls are on easy-to-see features and will be placed on the route where a change of direction is required eg. fence corner, track junction.

Green

This course requires slightly harder navigation as it encourages participants to take some simple, off-track route choices to their next control, or to follow a more indirect route using handrails. Major contour features such as gullies and spurs may be used as handrails. Controls are sited on obvious features close to handrails. Limited use of a compass is required. These courses are usually 1.5-2.5km in length.

Orange

These courses have a moderate standard of navigation, requiring cross-country route choices but with good attach points (an obvious feature close to the control) and catching linear features such as fences, tracks and creeks that will “pull you up” if you have gone too far. The use of a compass and the ability to be able to read a map is necessary to be able to successfully complete this course.

Red

Known as the hard courses, they are the most technically difficult and require advanced map reading and navigational skills. Controls are generally sited on smaller features, away from obvious handrails and collecting features, with a variety of route choice options frequently offered. The use of a compass and good map reading skills are essential to be able to complete these courses.

Events

We have 5 park O events planned in August/September tacked on to the Winter Metrogaine Series.

An MTB Orienteering event is planned for June 30  at McKenzie pocket on Black Mountain Rd.

A foot Orienteering event is planned for August 18 on the Tablelands, just 45 minutes from Cairns.

Mark your diaries.

As events are finalised we will open a web page for each event category.

For further information contact Andrew Campbell by email