2022 AUS CARNIVAL

Planning your week at the Australian Orienteering Carnival 2022

WARWICK WILLIAMS (Carnival Director) and DAVID JAFFE (Carnival Communications)

Introduction

The 2022 Australian Orienteering Carnival is based in the Central Highlands area of Victoria and will bring competitors in range of a series of historic towns. This article will help you work out where you might want to stay, what to visit and what to steer clear of, to make this a great holiday as well as a great Orienteering experience.

Day 1 - Daylesford: Victorian Middle Distance and Australian Grand Prix

The events: The morning event is on the Jubilee Lake map with its intricate Gold mining. This map will offer a great test combining intricate gold mining with some lower visibility just to up the ante. For the first time, the Carnival offers a second event in the afternoon; the Australian Grand Prix which will bring Orienteering and racing to the centre of Daylesford. We want to showcase Orienteering to the town and public and it will be head-to-head racing with all the excitement that offers. Don’t miss it. The town: The twin spa towns of Daylesford and Hepburn Springs are a tourist mecca for Melbourne day trippers, tree changers and those wanting a weekend away. Packed with coffee shops, bakeries, delis, good pubs and restaurants, the town has something for everyone. The botanic gardens offer spectacular views of the area and a great café and the “scenic” lake will feature in the Grand Prix. The local antiques market is the biggest in Victoria and the weekly Sunday market at the old station features bric-a-brac and local produce. The “environs” have become a foodie hub with smokehouses, trout farms, wineries, breweries and cideries all nearby. Consider Daylesford/Hepburn as a base for the week as the other events are a comfortable drive away. This is a good place for that “special dinner” sometime during the week.

Day 2 - Blackwood: Australian Middle Distance

The event: A brand new gold mining map just out from the picture postcard tiny township. The map has some fascinating diggings and will provide some great racing mixing intricate gold mining and fast open forest. This area has never been mapped and will test us all! The town: A pub and general store will welcome our business as will the caravan park but that’s about it for shops. The main draw card of the town is the Garden of St Erth, one of Victoria’s most interesting gardens and part of the Diggers club network of historic gardens. The adjoining café uses produce grown in the garden. Trentham, just up the road, has a bigger choice of shops, bakeries, cafes and pubs. The Cosmopolitan at Trentham and Radio Spring Hotel at Lyonville will feed you well and have great beer gardens.

Day 3 - Kyneton: Australian Schools Sprint & Goldfields Day 1

The event: A complex school map combined with Kyneton’s stunning botanic gardens. The town: Kyneton’s Victorian strip, Piper Street, draws many day trippers to its range of delightful galleries, boutiques,

Blackwood - mining terrain.

Blackwood terrain Cascades and guest pianist. Cascades.

antique shops, and cafes. The town features Victorian and Edwardian architecture and offers great alternatives to supermarket shopping with delis and food stores featuring local produce (try Watts Fresh for “flora” and Hardwick’s for “fauna”). Downtown(!) Kyneton offers a range of pubs, cafes on every corner and a number of great bakeries. Bushwalks nearby include Black Hill, Bald Hill and Hanging Rock and some local wineries have become renowned. Historic Woodend and Lancefield are also a comfortable drive away.

Day 4 - Harcourt, Mount Alexander: Australian Schools Individual & Goldfields Day 2

The event: Mount Alexander is one of Victoria’s best Granite maps with spectacular views of the area. The event will use the more open and rarely used part of the map and offer the best of Victorian granite. The town: Harcourt is at the core of Victoria’s apple country and has cideries, wineries and a great general store/deli café. A ten-minute drive back to Castlemaine or head over the back of the mountain to “the Cascades” (Metcalfe) for a picnic at the picturesque waterfall.

Day 5 - Castlemaine, Wattle Gully: Australian Schools Relay & Goldfields Day 3

The event: The Wattle Gully North map offers a mix of everything: spur gully, subtle rock detail and gold mining. One of Victoria’s best maps with something for everyone. The towns: Castlemaine and Chewton are encrusted with gold rush history and now have the shops, cafes and restaurants to match. Castlemaine has galleries galore and the old Mill next to the Botanic gardens now offers art, an antiques market and some great cafes and local produce. The Austrian coffee house is about as authentic as fake Austrian coffee and cake houses can get. The Castlemaine Art Gallery and Buda historic homestead are well worth a visit.

Day 6 - Rest day:

You are spoilt for choice: climb Mount Macedon, check out the amazing gardens on Mount Macedon, take the rocky drive to Tooborac to try some of the best pies in the State at the pub, visit galleries in Bendigo and Ballarat or ditch the car and catch the train to Melbourne.

Day 7 - Sunbury: Australian Sprint Championships

The event: A brand new map at the school where the Ashes were born. The town: Check out the Rupertswood mansion, there are wineries on the fringes of the town and nearby Bulla has an amazing rose garden dedicated to Alistair Clarke. The highlight of downtown Sunbury may be the station! Enough said. If you’re really desperate you can go and watch those who sit and watch the planes taking off at Melbourne airport. But seriously, for more amazing cafes, pubs or antique shops Gisborne and Woodend are just a short drive away.

Day 8 - Maldon: Australian Long Distance

The event: This brand new map features granite and gold mining on the same map. The area is Mount Tarrengower’s baby brother and was hand-picked for the Australian Championships. The town: Maldon is designated as Australia’s first “notable town” and everyone is still trying to work out what that means. It is probably because it is a delightful gold rush town with cafes and shops to match and with a great tourist steam train (the Victorian Goldfields railway) featuring Harry Potter style carriages. For those not tired after the AUS Championships drive up Mount Tarrengower and climb the poppet head for a great view of everyone else having a coffee or a well earned lunch in the high street down below.

Day 9 - Castlemaine: Australian Relays

The event: Wattle Gully South. The Wattle Gully map is huge so we will turn to the South of the map for these Relays. Gold mining, spur/gully and some subtle rock detail will be fast and furious. The town: see Day 5.

In summary:

These are just a few highlights of the area. We haven’t mentioned the dormant volcano at Mount Franklin, trying the water of the numerous mineral springs in the region, the micro-breweries, two amazing viaducts and the other waterfalls. You had better start planning your week now!

Mt Alexander snip. Castlemaine. Goldfields railway.