A PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE
The search for the golden boomerang Bob Mouatt
W
hen I was a child (in the 1940s) my favourite radio serial was ‘The Search for the Golden Boomerang’. I had not thought a lot about the program until Orienteering Australia started considering ‘Australian Boomerangs’ as the nickname for the national team. And then last year when I was in Tasmania for the Australian Championships Carnival, when I visited the antiques and memorabilia shop near St Helens, I discovered and bought a copy of the book printed in 1941. Reading the book brought back many pleasant memories. The next episode in this rather long saga occurred on 1st August 2006 at Mindeparken, Aarhus, Denmark. Orienteering Australia had decided to use the opening of the World Orienteering Championships by HRH Crown Prince Frederik to launch the name ‘Australian Boomerangs’ by having the Australian team present Prince Frederik with a boomerang, signed by all team members and coaches, for baby Prince Christian. Two Tasmanian women who were competing in the Sprint Distance event, Hanny Allston and Grace Elson, were selected to make the presentation on behalf of the team. Before the boomerang could be presented to Prince Frederik, Hanny and Grace had to compete in the final and it is now history that Hanny beat the best in the world to win the Gold medal. So the search for our first golden boomerang was over, but we would certainly like more in the future. Since 1999, I have attended a Junior World Championships, a World Mountain Bike Championships, a World Games, two World Masters Championships, and six World Championships. The 2006 World Championships was by far the best, thanks to Hanny Allston’s outstanding run in the Sprint Distance final and Relay, and Jo Allison and Grace Elson who supported Hanny in the Relay. For those who have never been to any of the World Championships it is difficult to comprehend the pressure cooker atmosphere in which they are staged and how difficult it is for athletes to perform at their best. The greatest challenge for Orienteering Australia is how to prepare our athletes to cope with the demands of competing to their potential at World Championships.
think the other two were elected only last year. So with me being new to the job, and a few new or relatively new directors on the Board of Orienteering Australia, we have a lot of new people, presumably with new ideas. The first among a number of strategies being pursued by the directors on the new Board of Orienteering Australia is to make the OA website much more effective, which they have been doing for some time. You might have noticed the improvements that have already been made. The second is to make the various OA committees and working groups more effective through regular communications and the development and consideration of proposals through the use of e-mails. This is going to lead to a number of proposals being floated over the coming months, as proposals are considered and prepared for the 2006 OA Annual Conference in December. Among the proposals likely to be considered are: • How to improve the National Orienteering League. • How to attract a series of international elite races to Australia, in say the next four (2010) to seven (2013) years. • A revised age class structure for Group B events, ie State Championships and Badge events. • A national approach to membership fees, etc. • A national display of the results of all events in Australia on the OA website. • A national participation database, which will provide interesting data for competitors and State associations alike. • A range of other initiatives in respect of promoting and developing Orienteering. Some of these proposals will be put to the various OA committees and working groups over the coming days, weeks, months and even years. In looking at the way Orienteering Australia operates, I would rather it function as a ‘cooperative’, along the lines of community cooperatives that flourished throughout Australia in the 1950s etc, than a federation which sometimes lacks a common perspective. We have to work together for the common good. So when State Associations are considering some of the proposals, especially the more radical ones, I would like them to look at the bigger picture and to consider how obstacles could be overcome rather than to put them up as barriers to progress.
The Importance of a National Approach
A
week or so before the 2006 OA Annual General Meeting Julian Dent said to me, “Bob, what are you going to do when you are president?” My impromptu reply was to say I would continue pursuing the goal I had nearly 10 years ago when I took on dual positions with OA and OACT and that is for Orienteering to be considered a serious sport. A key factor to our sport being taken seriously is to have a national approach in all that we do.
Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority
Orienteering Australia (or correctly the Orienteering Federation of Australia) was formed in the early 1970s and during the following 25 years or so it has gone through a series of evolutions. The biggest change I have noticed during my years of attending OA Council meetings has been the gradual development of a national perspective, which was not so obvious a decade ago.
BOOKS ON ORIENTEERING
As I was compiling a mailing list of State Presidents I noted how many were new in their position. Five were elected this year, and I
44 Alexandra Parade, Clifton‑Hill VIC 3068 Phone (03) 9489 9766 Email info@macson.com.au
46 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER OCTOBER 2006
There are a great number of books on all aspects of orienteering. For a list and prices contact:
Orienteering Services of Australia
