Bush training Some Bush Training opportunities during ‘lockdown’
WORDS R UT H G O D DA RD
PHOTOS LI NCO L N PAT ER SO N
After Easter was cancelled, many bush events in Victoria and interstate were crossed off the calendar. For Melbournites there were plenty of park/street events with courses to be done in your own time using MapRun. How could the bush orienteers be catered for – a question on Debbie Dodd’s mind. She started to promote the idea of ‘training events’ which were permitted under quarantine restrictions. Over the year three events were held in June, and four events in November. Dandenong Ranges Orienteering Club and Yarra Valley Orienteering Club were the chief organisers along with one event by the visiting coach, Frederic Tranchand and MFR’s Patrick Jaffe.
this (piece of bush) was here’ ‘Serious terrain’ ‘You had to be right at the control to see the yellow tape’ ‘I like the lack of competition’. There were some newcomers who had some training and parents helped their children, so the events lived up to their name. Training of new course setters and a mapper also took place. In November there were two events with novice course setters under guidance. Daniel wanted to revisit Panton Hill and start from the opposite end of the map. From his “armchair” on the other side of Melbourne where the lockdown confined him, he learnt about the use of Condes and design of a hard and moderate course. He realised the difficulty of setting a moderate course – ‘Setting the moderate course made me muddled. Anything goes for the hard course, the easy course basically follows the paths, but the moderate course... it needs a fine balance between being challenging and achievable, while still being enjoyable.’ He also set an easy course which suited some of the younger participants. ‘An easy course was on offer for the children to grow their confidence and enjoyment in the bush’. He also gained an appreciation of visiting the map and seeing what ‘white’, and ‘pale green’ looked like in real life. Many areas near Melbourne are far less runnable than they appear on the map. In his words: ‘We all would’ve had a fight against the vegetation if I hadn’t visited the map the week before the training.’ And, speaking on the value of course setting he said, ‘If you want to improve your orienteering skills give course setting a go’.
Four low key COVID safe events were organised by YVOC during 2020. The first event was in June after a month or so of quarantine. The green wedge of four parks in Panton Hill offers real bush near Melbourne and furthermore it has a history of gold mining. Although an orienteering map had been made it had limited use with a small parking area. An event with less than 30 participants does not require a permit so it was possible to organise an event there at short notice. To be sure that numbers were controlled, entry was via Eventor with a morning session of 20 people, and afternoon of 20. During the following months, a new function was programmed into Eventor to limit numbers entering an event. The event was classified as ‘training’; no entry fee was required, and courses were self-timed. Two line courses (5km and 3km) were printed on the map with 20 controls on the map marked by paper tags. The result was a relaxed experience of bush orienteering. Some comments at the finish were: ‘can I still remember what to do?’ ‘I did not know
Lincoln lives near Jumping Creek Park in Warrandyte. He was interested in both mapping the area and setting courses there, and has an Apple Mac computer. He uses the free OpenOrienteering Mapper 0.9.3 software. Fieldwork was done page 12
