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MATCH REPORT - VIC MTBO Series #3, Barkstead & Wombat Station, Sunday, 31st of May.![]()
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T'was the day before Winter, and all through the forest, so few creatures were stirring, except.....![]()
kangaroos 🦘 🦘 and MTBO 🚴🌳🌲🚴🌳🌲🚴🚴🌳 riders!!! 👏😁![]()
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Ok, the temperature had dropped a bit from Saturday and there was a little bit of rain, but nothing like what came the day after on Monday! I suggest the timing was almost perfect! ![]()
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Eureka Orienteers would like to whole 👏 heartedly ❤️ thank each and everyone of you who came out to this beautiful forest. You made the atmosphere just brilliant, you slogged it out, you found the checkpoints, you never gave up. Out of 6 who didn't finish, two had mechanical issues, two others came off their bikes at least once, one other had a wound, whilst for the last, they simply ran out of time. But this meant over 83% of riders did finish!! So, it is clear that MTBO riders don't return easily nor without a fight!!! 💪🌳🚴🌳🌳🌲🦘🌳![]()
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Having said all that, it is acknowledged that the courses were (slightly 🤔!!!) long-ish. Certainly riders got a bit extra for the usual fee, but we hope you enjoyed at least the add-on ride along the rail trail! Possibly being one of the longest finish chutes of all time! Still, I personally can't believe the split times of some in the said finish chute! Incredible speed! 🚴🌳🚴🌳![]()
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As always, it is a bit nerve-wracking waiting for the first finishers at an event. At least we had something to do in getting the fire 🔥 going. How great was the fire 🔥 and it certainly gave an excellent gathering point for finishers. But eventually we saw some movement coming from like a kilometre away, then it got bigger and was faster than a walker or runner! Then.....yes, an MTBO finisher crossed the line!! When it seemed like the riders had been out for hours, in comes Mia in a very good time for Course 4. She also had both a smile on her face along with the mud splatter freckles that so many riders would return with today! 😆😁👏🚴![]()
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Just a couple of minutes later it was ![]()
Dion, then Ed, Peter, Gavin, Anthony. Carolyn, John, Sam, Emma and Heather, Jim and more. All so close in times too!!! All looking so covered in mud and tired! Oh no! Were the courses too long?! Maybe, but they also stated how much fun they had!! Sure, it was a bit muddy, a bit damp, a bit slippery. But the early reports back were of how great it was to be back riding in this forest! Plus it was a real challenge and adventure.![]()
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One rider did not need words. They simply put up their hand. The high-five then completed was all that was needed to confirm the MTBO enjoyment that they had just experienced!! ✋😁![]()
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Sure, riders had riden a bit further than estimated course lengths but many of them also indicated how much fun they had. How there were so many route choice decisions to be made. So many track variations. To be negotiated. There was a bit of mud, but not so much that it couldn't be avoided.![]()
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More riders continued to arrive as the others got changed, got warm and stood around the fire.![]()
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One of the absolute highlights of the day were the very first time riders. They returned so happy and finished some long courses. They never chose the shorter courses. They rode longer courses and prevailed over the conditions and challenges! It was such a pleasure to see and hear how much they enjoyed the ride. They all said they would be back again in the the future.![]()
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Essentially the riding included some good vehicular tracks, some less used tracks covered in twigs and leaves, some softer tracks than were really a lot harder just two days before! Will you believe that??!! 🤔 😲😊 A small section of single track that was ridden by at least one rider. Some awesome long rides downhill and about up to 2kms of rail trail riding. Allmost all of which was in forest, either native or plantation pines. The damp slippery conditions certainly made it necessary to ride slower and more carefully but, it sure was peaceful and relaxing, I reckon! 🌳😁🚴🌳![]()
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MTBO is not always easy. There can be a fair bit of pushing up hills. But if you have hills it means there will be fun downhills too! But what MTBO is, is unique! If you've never tried it, please consider it. Especially with the Australian MTBO Championships coming up in Ballarat and Creswick later this year. ![]()
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The incredible power of a thank you and positive feedback was never more evident than when young Emma came over to say thankyou and advise us that the Score event was the best Score event ever because there were so many controls nearby for them to get to. Your comments were appreciated so much! 👏 One honest and heartfelt thankyou can mean so much to organisers of Orienteering events. Please remember to celebrate all the positives, of which there are so many in orienteering. Why don't more tell organisers how great things are out on the course? Thankyou to those who do! 👏 ![]()
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Thankyou enormously to Dale and Bill who came out just to help their club! Your assistance was amazing and helped make the day. Thank you to Blake also, along with Mark, who was in Sydney attending a Memorial for his brother James. Both played major roles in putting on this event and bringing it to life.![]()
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Thank you hugely to Anthony, Eric and Monica for picking up controls and road signs. Thanks to Carolyn and catering crew for the toasties and sausages!![]()
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But once again thankyou to the MTBO community who expressed their appreciation, enjoyment and thanks for this event. It was an absolute pleasure to hear positive comments returned to the organisers. This positive feedback and the great feeling and atmosphere amongst the MTBO riders was the real highlight of this day. This is what really makes volunteers want to volunteer again, just a simple honest genuine thankyou! It's amazing.![]()
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Thankyou!![]()
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Next Event: 18th & 19th of July, Walmer Forest and Smiths Reef![]()
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More details on Eventor.
Eureka Orienteers Foot-O Training Session, Wombat Station Forest, 30th of May, 2026.![]()
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We had a great session out near Rocklyn today. Although we were setting up a MTBO event, it was extremely interesting and fun to head away from the tracks using a map intended for use with MTBO. Essentially that means when you leave the tracks you are basically on a contours only map with 10m contours! 😲 There were some really interesting discoveries today, including extensive mining detail and some other significant landform areas that the remote elevation data just did not pick up whatsoever, and, as it was mapped for MTBO only, there was never any field work applied to the contours to add extra detail.![]()
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So what does that matter anyway? Well, today we were sharing navigation knowledge. Many people can read maps with roads, tracks, buildings. But everything is built upon the contours. Makes sense, everything we see sits atop the landforms. We discussed how contours help you know if a track will be going up or down. We discussed that ridges are generally faster with less vegetation so if you can read them then that will help speed your route choice. Plus we looked for unusual shapes and features amongst the more regular contours and then went and looked at them on the ground.![]()
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The major lesson of today's training was that contours must become fundamental and used to underpin all other navigation decisions. You can't get by sticking to tracks forever, or just using compass bearings. You have to eventually use all your resources on the map and with the compass, hence contours are the foundation so must be understood as we improve our orienteering knowledge. That is why these forest map walks are so useful and important for newer orienteers especially to help them gain that experience that we all know takes much time! ![]()
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We also enjoyed doing some good old fashioned pace counting to measure distance and confirm the scale of the map. This was also fun to use in finding our chosen navigation targets. In orienteering if is essential to have an ability to estimate distances, both how far to do and how far we have moved. It's amazing how much confidence a pace counting training session can restore our distance perception skills.![]()
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Plus, as a map and compass sport, we practiced using our compass to travel fairly solid distances of up to 400-500m. It's funny how many people come back and say "Oh, there's something wrong with my compass.". Well, how about getting and out practicing to see what is wrong! Another really fun training! For the most part we were not to bad!! Although, once or twice, things seem to go way off. But we are going to put that down to dodgy contours!! 🤣😆🤔![]()
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We kept moving along and covered over 6km and experienced the forest in magnificent sunshine, dark cloud, and some really quite heavy rain! 🌧️ It was just great to be out and about in the rain! How good is orienteering! 🧭 😁 ![]()
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Ok, things are almost ready for tomorrow's MTBO fun and we can't wait to get out there yet again!![]()
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Thanks for all who came out today and hope you enjoyed practicing navigation skills with Eureka Orienteers. The enthusiasm in the group was fantastic! Stay tuned for more training around Ballarat in the near future! 👍 😊 🌲 🌳🏃🌳🌳🚴🌳
Eureka Orienteers Foot-Orienteering Training,![]()
Saturday, 30th of May, 12:30pm to 3:00pm.![]()
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If you like this small video and think you would enjoy using a map and compass to navigate parts of this beautiful forest then come along to Barkstead this Saturday. Only 30 minutes or so from Ballarat. Even come along if you just want to enjoy the forest atmosphere. I guarantee you will be achieve some level of enhanced peace and quiet whilst you are here! 🌳🌳🌱🍄🌿🪻😊 🍀🌲![]()
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The Eureka Orienteers Team are preparing for a Mountain Bike Orienteering event on Sunday but just thought that anyone and everyone would enjoy being here, especially because it so close to Ballarat. There has been Rogaining here before but no foot orienteering, as far as recent Eureka Orienteers are aware.![]()
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As for the training, we have a number of distance estimation, direction correction, and contour interpretation exercises to enjoy. Plus, you will get some great exercise. Being able to judge distances and constantly ensure you are heading in the right direction is critical for orienteering and indeed any activity using map and compass through unfamiliar territory. This supervised training session will be awesome for newer orienteers, however more experienced orienteers are also most welcome to come along for a walk and run, if so desired. The group will probably cover around 5 or 6km over 2 hours or so. Please get in contact and let us know if you would like to come along. The EU Team will be in the area all day so, if you decide late then get in contact and we will meet you somewhere on the map.![]()
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This is an opportunity for newer orienteers to see how more experienced orienteers face navigation through spur gully terrain whilst using contours to confirm that we are moving in the right direction. It is a skill that takes practice and we can all get better at it. So, we encourage these sessions because so much knowledge can be transferred whilst out in a course in groups.![]()
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Once again, this is a bit of an unusual session but the team organising the MTBO event on Sunday just really thought it would be good to share this area with other orienteers and map and compass navigators. Bring all your navigation questions too!![]()
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See you Saturday, at Wombat Train Station, Rocklyn from 12:30pm.
Wombat Forest Eureka Orienteers Winter Foot Orienteering Training Session #1. Departing from Wombat Station at approximately 12:30pm, tomorrow, Saturday, 23rd of May.![]()
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Enjoy a fantabulous forest with beautiful tracks, trees, kangaroos, and more. Orienteering sure takes you to places you would never otherwise think of going to.![]()
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Tomorrow come along and walk or run some tracks and forest, practice contour reading, take bearings and improve distance estimation and measurement. For beginners and intermediate we will be going as a group to teach and practice orienteering skills. More experienced orienteers can also come along and run a bit further but meet up again before and after.![]()
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These sessions are not a poor substitute for an event and, infact, the more you do training like this, the more you will realise how important it is take your time, read the map and increase your skills and confidence!![]()
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But, to be totally honest, this forest is so magnificent that the team putting together Eureka Orienteers events this year merely wanted to invite everyone out to the forest near Barkstead to enjoy it. Take a look at just some of the picture to see what you may see and more!![]()
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Probably be any where between 2 and 2.5 hours all up! See the link below to view a map and then click the link to take you to a directions link.![]()
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eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/Show/24266![]()
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Send a message to find out more and to express your interest and let us know you would like to attend! I really think that everyone would enjoy this so that is why the invite has been made! 😁
MATCH REPORT Vic Series #4 - Chewton Diggings brought to you by Melbourne Forest Racers.![]()
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Aaahh, MFR, you've done it again!! A magnificent event was put on today by the MFR team, of which there are many. An awesome day to remind us also that it is World Orienteering Week! The rain that appeared overnight, and was much discussed by competitors, didn't really appear for the orienteering and it seemed, well, to me anyway, that I only got soaked when I decided to leave the track and cut through the pine 🌲🌲 tree regrowth near the finish!! 😆🤔![]()
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This area, Chewton Diggings, is a well loved classic. The sheer volume of diggings cutting across rock running in parallel ridges along with notable historical sites such as the Garfield Water Wheel and The Welsh Village make it clear how thousands of people would have been toiling these hills and creeks back in the gold rush days.![]()
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There was also evidence of the modern day gold rush with a gold panning and detecting outing occuring on the map today also. They were seemingly surprised when, an orienteer and their car, drove right past (a couple of metres) their shelter and under the related guy ropes. Well, they had set all the ropes up across a track, with the shelter bit partly covering the chosen car route choice! 🚗😆 Anyway, as Orienteers, it is pretty normal to see surprised people when we suddenly pop up out of the bush, seemingly from nowhere!!! 😆🌲🌳🏃🌳🌳🌲![]()
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The erosion gullies, pits, mine shafts, scars, mullock heaps, parallel spur/gully terrain, broken ground diggings and even the pine forest regrowth areas, all combined to challenge many orienteers with navigation and route choice problems to solve. Compasses were definitely essential and helped line up the features so that direction was correctly chosen. It is so easy to leave controls in ever so slightly the wrong direction. These tiny direction errors will obviously compound across the length of a leg! Use a compass!!! 🧭 All that, plus the significant long courses, which was so great to see, made it a real satisfying day out. Plus it always feels like you've been hard at work when you return covered in mud, and even some black mud, from a recent planned burn and the substantial overnight rain! How many slipped and slided today? I know I went down at least once!! 🤣😆 So much fun getting outside and enjoying the outdoors up close by getting into close contact with the ground!! 🤔🤨😊![]()
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So many of these orienteering areas around Castlemaine were chosen and mapped to showcase the best of the best Orienteering in Victoria and Australia in the lead up to the 1985 World Championships hosted in Bendigo and Castlemaine. They knew how good it was back and it is still outstanding and fantastic fun! ❤️ This area is still an absolute joy and privilege to orienteer there to this very day, today!! Even that Legends' Legend of an orienteer and mapper, Alex Tarr, who made the first map of Chewton Diggings, was there again today. Actually, even Alex admitted he made some mistakes!!! 😲 Can you believe it!! 🤔 But guess what, he still won his course, even with mistakes!! 😆😉👏 Champions just know how to win right!!!![]()
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Eight Eureka Orienteers in Judy, Roch, Dale, Blake, Warwick, Margaret, Chris and Gary, attended and represented EU in every single course! Judy once again won a block of chocolate 🍫 for her win! 🏆 👏 👏 Seems to me Judy has won a lot of chocolate over the last year!! Well done Judy!!! 🏅 ![]()
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There was a great atmosphere and location at the Chewton Gun Club facilities for which we are very grateful. There was a big event feel with the facilities and food provided by the Vic Juniors and their amazing parents. The choc chip cookies were amazing the moment I saw them. I put one in my pocket and said I would probably forget about it. Well, guess what! I did forget for a while but remembered a couple of hours later whilst driving home!!! Soooo good!! Thankyou Vic Juniors and their supporting biscuit and slice chefs! All this adds up to make a great day even better! Thankyou! 👏 👏 👏 ![]()
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Eureka Orienteers thanks the entire MFR team event lead by Carl! There is always an army of of MFR orienteers running your events with such a great depth of Orienteering knowledge and skills! It was a fantastic day and it was really enjoyed so much by many. After two VIC Series events in a short period of time, maybe you can take a short rest!! Thank you so much! ❤️ 😊 👏
Orienteering Victoria
Eureka Orienteers is proudly affiliated with Orienteering Victoria.
Eastwood Leisure Complex
Eureka Orienteers thanks the Eastwood Leisure Complex for their support with the club's equipment store, and the use of their facilities for meetings and social events.
Goodsports
Eureka Orienteers has reached Level 3 accreditation as part of the Good Sports program. Good Sports works with clubs to help them provide safe and healthy environments for families to play sport.