The Midweek Orienteers in Queensland
The
Thursday Mob
Jim Bowling (Enoggeroos, Qld) Jim Bowling
The start
T
here is an Orienteering institution in Brisbane, which has been around for over thirty years. It began as an Army sports afternoon event that included some R.A.A.F. runners. The average attendance was 12 to 14. Today that event has coalesced into The Midweek Orienteers, or ‘The Thursday Mob’, with regular attendances of 40 to 50. This event owes its birth to some stalwarts of Orienteering who are still active in our sport. Don Bajenoff, Eric Andrews and Brian Coolahan, to name a few, were all serving army officers in Brisbane. Don Bajenoff was instrumental in getting the Army senior staff to encourage Orienteering. With the help of Eric Andrews and Brian Coolahan they soon had a small corps of runners who used a series of early hand-drawn maps, both colour and black and white. By today’s standards some were extremely crude, but they did the job. Although the numbers were small, it was popular with those members who enjoyed a challenge. With the dedicated coaching of such people as Eric Andrews, the Queensland army team managed to win in successive years the Armed Services Orienteering Championships, originally called Mil-O The organization of events was, and still is, kept to the absolute basics. Perhaps some of the long-time orienteers can relate to this more easily than the newer members. A large plastic tub from a two-dollar shop holds all the equipment. One person usually ‘volunteered’ to set and run the event on their own. Today we still run the events the same way. We now have two plastic tubs that we alternate so the next organizer can set the course at their leisure. Orienteering was growing in popularity and a number of service members joined local clubs. This led to civilian runners such as Clive Pope cutting some of his classes and coming along to the mid-week events. These army events continued through to the 1980’s until the inevitable happened. Members were posted away and others retired. The focus of the armed services shifted away from many 26 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2009
Terry Cavanagh
sports and Orienteering was one of the casualties. By that time there were more civilians attending the midweek event then there were service personnel. Brian Coolahan, who was in charge of the Orienteering at that time, asked Clive Pope if he would care to take over. During Clive’s time at the helm the Thursday events quietly rolled along with a steady attendance of mostly older runners who had the time available to regularly attend mid-week events. As most of the competitors were experienced, the courses were, and still are, set at a high degree of technical difficulty. With his usual enthusiasm and efficiency Clive ensured that the midweek events ran smoothly well past the turn of the
