ALL ABOARD FOR DUBBO

JWOC 2007

All Aboard… For Dubbo

Ron Pallas

In the lead up to JWOC 2007 and Western Plains Carnival there are many different facets of the event that need to be brought together to ensure the success of the carnival.

ALONG the way there have been some very interesting problems tossed our way, some which we knew would arise and others …. well they came from left field. The secret of handling these is in the flexibility of the organisational structure allowing it to bend to accept change. When permission was given to use the Western Plains Zoo for the JWOC Sprint there was a great deal of celebration amongst the committee. The Zoo will be such a stunning setting for the event. However in gaining access another rather large problem arose – what do you use for a base map? The competition areas had been flown almost 18 months prior to this and alas the Zoo did not feature in any photos. Maybe the Zoo itself has some detailed maps etc – no! Curses foiled again. It was at this stage when fearing the worst that Planning Director Robert Spry quietly suggested that there was another way to “skin the cat”. Robert, through his line of work, has been involved with the use of Aerial Laser Survey and more specifically with Dubbo Council and so knew that a base map could be produced. As promised, courtesy of many hours of computer crunching which Robert carried out in his own time he produced a base map. (see “High Tech Creates a Sprint Map” at end of this article). With a base map prepared it was then up to Alex Tarr to put it to the test and in early November 2006 Alex completed the map within a week with drawing taking a further week. “The photo which I used to create the base map for my field work was good, however the traditional photogrammetry would have provided for faster mapping rates. There is obviously a need to experiment with varying resolutions of the printed base map to find the most advantageous settings. It was an interesting experience,” remarked Alex Tarr. Handling the entries for an Orienteering event is usually a walk in the park. What is there that can make it complicated (beside the inevitable later than late entry!) For JWOC, the entry is quite easy as you are entering up to 12 names per team and they all will run each event, with only the complications of start blocks and heats plus a relay to trap you. However the Western Plains Carnival features a relay, and 5 individual events, of those only two have the same age classes. Toss in Australian Schools Championships and, for a little extra spice, add in family maximums and clothing sales and then earlybird entries and you have a complex beast to deal with. Fortunately Chris and Ashley Crane (Western and Hills Orienteers) have applied the lessons learnt in carrying out this role during the 2004 “Grapes of Rock” Tour to make things a little easier. Chris is responsible for the hack work and son, Ashley, is the operator that can caress the data base into a form that the SportIdent team will enjoy. During the gestation period for this event there was always a desire to have a total electronic entry system. Unfortunately the fully online system did not become available until after the entry forms went out. This late start has led to further changes to the database. For the trivia minded souls within the sport – Kathy Liley was the first entry received followed ever so closely by Blair Trewin. Amongst the many tasks that await the team in the countdown to JWOC is the preparation of maps. With the mapping completed well in advance, Rob Vincent, aided by the course planners and controllers, has carried out extensive field checking. The mapping team of Alex Tarr, Eric Andrews plus Graham Fowler completed almost all mapping by late August 2006. Alex completed the Sprint map in early November. The course setting team: David Meyer – Sprint; Julian Dent – Long; Jim Merchant – Middle Qualifiers; David Shepherd – Middle Finals and Phoebe Dent – Relays, finalised their courses in November 2006. “The assembly areas chosen will all provide fantastic interaction between competitors and spectators. Julian, Phoebe and I have set courses that will not only challenge the orienteer but provide exciting viewing of the runners on their courses,” commented David Shepherd. One of the challenges for this group, David Meyer excepted, was to use tagging at control sites that goats would not find appetising. David however has his own problems in trying to distract the tigers whilst he tags a site in their enclosure! Also out in the field busily tagging sites were the Western Plains Carnival setters of Graham Fowler – NSW Champs; James Lithgow – Dubbo Dash; Allan Wright & Dennis Lyons – mid week events; Alex Davey – Australian Champs and Robert Vincent – Australian Relays. Each setter has a controller who has checked their courses and control sites. Christine Brown (Tas), who represents the International Event Adviser, has also checked all JWOC courses and control sites giving her seal of approval. International Event Adviser, Urs Hofer (Switzerland), gave final approval for the JWOC courses in February. Now it is off to the printer. More decisions! Which maps must be offset printed, which can be digital? What scales for which events? Decisions, decisions! Perhaps the hardest of all is agreeing on a colour theme which all maps will share. Within any group there will always be a great deal of discussion on any issue.

Suppose you gave a party and no one came!

One of the biggest concerns in preparing for JWOC was the unknown support for the event as it is being held outside of Europe for the very first time. As part of the preparation for JWOC, International Teams Liaison Director, Nick Dent, surveyed all the competing teams at JWOC2006 in Lithuania. Nick was very pleased with the results and felt confident that there would be around 250 competitors plus officials at JWOC2007. For some obscure reason Australia was first on board as definite starters, however it was Russia that surprised all with a very early commitment to be in Dubbo with a full team of 6 men, 6 women and 5 officials. The Orienteering powerhouse countries of Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and Finland were also early to indicate their intentions to send full teams. In Lithuania, the Danish team manager summed it up best, “Australia has travelled halfway round the world to every JWOC and now it is our turn to do the travelling!” The Danes indicated that they would have full men’s and women’s teams.

Not surprisingly our neighbours from “across the ditch”, New Zealand, are very pleased with the venue and will have full teams at the championships. The Ultimax Stingers 5-Days (3rd-7th January) certainly gave a solid indication of the overseas interest in orienteering in Australia. Overseas entrants counted for almost half of the 134 entrants in Men’s and Women’s A classes. Amongst the overseas competitors were Jan Benes from the Czech Republic, and Saaren Bobach from Denmark, who are the current junior world champions in Middle-Distance. Olav Lundanes from Norway won the Long-Distance at JWOC2005 when he was 17 years old and was 2nd in the Long and 3rd in the MiddleDistance in 2006. Patrik Karlsson from Sweden was 2nd in the Sprint-Distance in 2006. Christian Bobach was 6th in the LongDistance in 2006. New Zealand see JWOC in Australia as being a great chance to do well on what is close enough to “home turf”. A total of 26 Kiwi’s ventured to the Ultimax Stingers 5-Days and continued on to the week-long training camp held in ACT. Overseas competitors will have a further chance to gain exposure to granite terrain during the next training camp which is being held in Orange in the week preceding JWOC.

Interactive Map

All teams have had access to a unique interactive map of “Gumble Creek”. With a click of a mouse on a control point you can view photographs taken from a number of angles of the control site. However, nothing will quite prepare them all for the real thing. Wouldn’t you like to be a fly-on-the-wall at the camp as the majority of competitors get their first taste of Aussie granite!

Australian Schools Championships

Anthony Scott heads the Orienteering ACT team that is organising the Australian Schools Championships to be run in conjunction with the Western Plains Carnival. . Usually the Individual Schools Championship is a stand-alone event. This year it will be run as part of the Western Plains Challenge, Day 1. School competitors will be first out on their courses with public runners on those courses starting a little later in the morning. The Schools Relay Championships will be run shortly after the JWOC Relay Medal Presentation. One of the biggest hurdles that the organising team faces is lack of daylight with the sun setting quite early, around 5pm each day. The competitors will be housed at the Aussie Bush Cabins on the southern outskirts of Dubbo. The name implies the cabins will be surrounded by bush when in fact they are surrounded by two private schools and the Dubbo Sports Centre. One of the most interesting tasks in preparing for JWOC is the design and construction of the results board. With a length a shade under 5metres and height of around 3 metres, with space for 300 names and all perched on a platform about 1.5 metres above the ground - will we need building permission? Fortunately the students of Dubbo TAFE have put up their hands to build the board. One of the most important features of the board is that it must be easy to move as it will be moved four times during the competition period.

The Dubbo Docket

With just under 2000 orienteers and officials in Dubbo for nine days there is no doubting that more than a few dollars will pass through the tills of local businesses. Marketing Director, Paul Prudhoe, is currently finalising details of the “Dubbo Docket”. Each competitor will find a “Dubbo Docket” in their registration bag. It will show a list of all Dubbo businesses that have supported the event. By visiting the businesses (restaurants, tourist attractions, supermarkets and petrol stations) during your stay, and punching your docket with their control punch, you will be in the running for prizes at the end of the Carnival.

Volunteers

Just as the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney relied heavily on the efforts of volunteers, JWOC will also require the services of a vast horde of volunteers. Volunteers are not limited to just those from NSW. Offers of help have begun to trickle in from other States. Ted Mulherin, who is responsible for coordinating each event within the Carnival, is very interested to hear from any orienteer across Australia who is interested in volunteering. Ted can be contacted by email: tedmul@tpgi..com.au

Souvenirs

For the collectors amongst us there will be a variety of memorabilia available at the JWOC & Western Plains Carnival. As well as the very stylish shirts, jerseys and vests which must be preordered, there will also be a limited supply of commemorative water bottles, carry bags and lanyards on sale at the events. With only a few months to go until the Carnival starts it is a very exciting time. JWOC2007 and the western Plains Carnival are certainly going to be the largest events to be held in Australia. See you all in Dubbo!

HIGH-TECH CREATES A SPRINT MAP

Robert Spry

The base map of Western Plains Zoo for the JWOC Sprint uses the latest digital mapping technology. We acknowledge the assistance of Dubbo City Council in making the digital mapping data available. The Council, along with several others in NSW, has detailed Aerial Laser Survey (ALS) coverage for the City area. This technology is a descendant of LIDAR, which was invented by the Royal Australian Navy for surveys of the Great Barrier Reef. The principle is the same as radar, but using light instead of radio beams. ALS data is collected in a survey plane overflying the area. Laser reflections from the ground are detected and stored by computers. Computer processing is used to filter the data to remove spurious echoes, such as from trees, and to compute the position of ground points with coordinate values in three dimensions (latitude, longitude and elevation). The ground points are typically 1 to 2 metres apart and have accuracy in the order of centimetres. An area of one square kilometre can be represented by a million or more data points. The data points were then processed in a Geographic Information System (GIS), courtesy of my employer (but not in working hours!). A process of triangulation is used to generate a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) which, as its name implies, is a three dimensional model of the earth’s surface. This model can be viewed obliquely from any perspective, and it can be shaded to represent relief or even solar shadows. Contours can be generated and digital aerial photography can be “draped” over the representation of the land surface. Using this system a map can be produced in any desired projection, scale, and contour interval, and overlaid on high-resolution digital aerial photographs to produce a detailed base map. Like all maps, it then has to be adjusted to magnetic North. How good is this system for Orienteering? It does require reasonable visibility, so dense vegetation can still prove a problem. Fieldwork is necessary to identify features which may be visible from the air, but difficult to identify. I suppose the real test will come on July 8th. There can be little doubt, though, that it is the way of the future, to the extent that mapping agencies such as Geoscience Australia and LPI (NSW) have withdrawn some of their printed map products and now issue data only in digital form.