Course Setting Course setting can be an intimidating task. It is time consuming, technically demanding and there is always the possibility of making a very public mistake. Setting Day 1 of the 2009 Australian 3 Days, held last Easter at Diddleum, Tasmania, was the first major event for both course setter and controller. This article has been compiled by Nigel Davies (Esk Valley Orienteering Club, Tasmania).
32 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2009
Ground rules A friend used to design wilderness reserves as a palliative from his day job as a forester. He described the process as being both artistic and creative as he tried to endow each reserve its own qualities and values, supported by appropriate boundaries. Without wishing to be too precious about it, there is a similar element in creating an Orienteering course. The courses that tend to stick in your mind have the feeling of a journey – an ‘expedition’ – with a beginning, a middle and an end, each part with its own individuality and terrain. Two events that exemplified this for the writer were the courses for APOC 2000 at The Cascades, Queensland and for the World Masters 2002 at Kooyoora, Victoria. Although Diddleum lacked the full-on, wild quality of these areas the first goal was to design courses that gave the feeling of a journey. In some respects the availability of SportIdent discourages this process as it is possible to design compact courses with