CLUB PROFILE
Top End Orienteers – a brief history Susi Bertei
O
RIENTEERING arrived in Darwin on Sunday 19 March 1978, when Ian Roberts set a bush course of some 15 km on the Marrakai Road near Manton Dam, about 75 km from town. It was a score event with a 5-hour time limit. The map was a B&W photocopy of a 1:50,000 topographic map and controls were marked with coloured electrical tape. The weather was hot and humid. Most of the nine teams and individuals concentrated on easily found points near the track, and finished in an hour or two with scores of 5 to 8 total. Not so the fanatical team of Willis and Taylor who pushed on for almost the full 5 hours amassing a sweaty but winning score of 23.5 … and still not finding all the controls! (Russell Willis still competes regularly at events and has been known to repeat this feat – staying out nearly 5 hours and not finding all controls – except that he’s never won again!) Most early enthusiasts were members of the Darwin Bushwalking Club or students at Nightcliff High School where Ian had introduced the sport. They learned from their mistakes and future events were shorter and much closer to town. At Holmes Jungle the next event drew 30 competitors, a high for the year. Competitions continued monthly until November using 1:10,000 photocopied topographic maps of close-by areas (and electrical tape controls) with participants averaging about 20. 1979 was a big year. Over the Christmas holidays, Ian had made a trip to Melbourne and collected loads of information and gear – controls, cards, punches, compasses, t-shirts and bumper stickers – all the essentials. “Outback Orienteers” was born and members put up posters around town, attracting double the attendances of the previous year, including a high of 108 at a Botanic Gardens event in September – a record for Darwin to this day. But as the temperature and humidity rose, numbers fell. As well, several of the original movers and shakers left town, and by mid-1980 Orienteering in the Top End had fizzled out. It re-emerged from hibernation with the arrival of Robin and Adrian Uppill from the Sth Aust Tintookies club. In April 1984 the Uppill’s created a black & white hand-drawn Orienteering map of East Point Reserve and organised three introductory events. There was an encouraging response with 25-30 people attending and subsequently Top End Orienteers came into being, affiliating with the OFA through OASA in 1985. Activities since 1984 have been fairly consistent. Events are held every 2 to 3 weeks from February to November - a mixture of bush and street/parkland events. Starts are early (between 7am and 9am) to beat the heat. Three courses are offered – short, medium and long (up to 6-7 km). A score event has been traditional at the end of the year and recently we added scatter, relay, night and bike events to the program for a bit of variety. Attendances have grown, averaging 40-50 people, but there is still a relatively high turnover of participants due to the itinerant nature of the Darwin population. This has kept the atmosphere at TEO fairly social and recreational, with lots of beginners. One of the “itinerants” was Eric Morris (NSW), who spent 6 months in Darwin in 1999, and kick-started our coaching program. We now have three accredited Level 1 coaches with several others in the process of completing their accreditation, and coaching days are on our calendar. Other “itinerants” who have made significant contributions to the club include Ann Scown (1986-8 from ACT), Norm Eastwood (1990-7 from Tas), the Slade family (1990-still here! from SA) and Tony Galliford (1999-2002 from ACT). Of course there have been many more home-grown contributors as well.
32 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2005
Above: Seeds from rampant spear grass turned Peter Phillpott’s shirt into something else. Above right: “Moderate" grass and prickly pandanus. Right: Spear grass and cypress pine forest at Howard Springs. An ongoing challenge for TEO is mapping, and finding new areas to map. The bulk of our members don’t like to travel too far afield, but much of the country close to Darwin is flat. As well, with the steady growth of Darwin several of the contoured close-by areas have fallen victim to property development. We purchased OCAD in 1998 and, with help from various interstate mappers, have converted our hand-drawn black & white maps to colour. It’s a bit scary to look at those old maps now! We have 6 maps within 20 min of Darwin (4 with hills), and 4 others between 45 min and 2 hrs away, including our latest map at Lok Cabay, site of the inaugural NT Championships to be held in July this year. Local conditions are often a challenge for orienteers – including the weather, vegetation, and wildlife. A very variable climate ranges from warm/hot and dry (dry season - May to August) through hotter and humid (Sept to Dec) to hot/warm humid and rainy (wet season – Jan to April). Running in the wet season is quite pleasant so long as it’s raining or overcast. In one February event the rain was so torrential that maps and control cards were reduced to soggy pulp, but one resourceful competitor punched his controls onto a large leaf! Competing in the dry is more agreeable for most. Humidity is much lower, and early morning temperatures sometimes go down below 20ºC – chilly for us! The seasonal variation creates havoc with the vegetation - open savannah woodland with a grassy understorey. Late in the wet season growth is prolific - grasses grow 2 to 3 metres tall. Visibility and runnability are greatly reduced and tracks are the go. With the onset of the dry season the grasses wither and fall over in the “knock-emdown” storms, collapsing to a more respectable height of around one metre. This helps visibility but still is very difficult to get through. Runnability is greatly improved by another dry season activity – the annual burn-off, both controlled and uncontrolled. This conveniently removes the grass, leaves and trees, and instantly creates a fast run environment. Expect to get blackened legs, and beware the prickly pandanus! Despite what may appear to be adverse conditions for Orienteering in the Top End, course setters have generally been able to create good courses. This year, with the assistance of OASA’s John and Jeffa Lyon as controllers, we are proud to be able to present the inaugural NT Championships, plus associated events. Why don’t you try the Top End in July?
Inaugural NT Championships – 8-10 July ‘05
