The orienteering clubs of WA

JANET

FLETCHER (VICE-PRESIDENT OWA)

There are six orienteering clubs in WA, four in the greater metropolitan area of Perth, and two in major regional areas. The Perth clubs were established in 1978, four years after the Orienteering Association of WA (OWA) was formed. These clubs started with some wonderful acronyms: KO, WOW, BO and LOST. Three of the clubs had names to justify the acronyms.

Kulgun 225 Orienteers (KO) draws its members primarily from those living in the southern suburbs of Perth. ‘Kulgun’, in Turrbal (a Queensland Aboriginal language) means ‘good path’. The number 225 is the compass bearing for south-west and reflects the club’s geographic base. The compass with bearing is integral to the club’s logo.

The members of Wullundigong Orienteers of the West (WOW) live principally in the northern suburbs of Perth. Wullundigong also has an Indigenous origin and is said to mean ‘little men of the forest’ although members maintain that neither height nor gender should deter people from joining their club. WOW’s logo needs no explanation.

Bibbulmun Orienteers (BO) are based mainly in the eastern hills area of Perth. The club is named after the Bibbulmun language group of the Noongar People whose country extends from what is now Jurien Bay to Esperance. The club’s logo, using boomerangs and spear, represents the Indigenous name.

LOST membership is drawn from suburbs in the centre of Perth to the sea. It is the only metropolitan club that has not found a reason for its wonderful acronym, with members disagreeing about what it should stand for. This situation has extended for so long that members, when asked ‘why LOST?’, now typically reply, ‘if we knew, we wouldn’t be’. Members are proud of their logo, designed by their first club convenor, which so clearly represents their name.

The two regional clubs are SWOT and ADHOC, and both have catchy acronyms. SWOT was formed in 1984. It is based in Bunbury, almost 200 km south of Perth. After considering possible names and discarding BOG (Bunbury Orienteering Group), South West Orienteering Trekkers (SWOT, sounding like swat) was favoured. As crabbing in the Leschenault Estuary is almost synonymous with Bunbury, it is appropriate that the club logo displays a crab with a compass in one claw and a control in the other.

Albany and Denmark Hinterland Orienteering Club (ADHOC), which as the name suggests is centred around Albany, a city at the southern tip of WA, roughly 400 km from Perth, joined the WA orienteering community in 2014 – the latest but, we hope, not the last. The ‘hinterland’ part of the name has been variously interpreted. One orienteer who had moved from Perth to Geraldton (~500 km north of Perth) decided he could be considered part of Albany’s hinterland just as easily as part of Perth, so joined the club to run with a friend and be part of a relay team. The club’s logo depicts physical components of this beautiful part of WA.

The metro clubs exist as separate entities only for logistical and social reasons. While events to be held in and around Perth are distributed to separate clubs to organise, all coaching, mapping, communications, financial matters etc are organised centrally through the relevant person on the OWA Council. Each club organises its own social events. Club convenors attend Council meetings where possible but do not have voting rights.

Due to their distance from Perth, SWOT and ADHOC have their own committees and organise their own events. Once a year they join together to provide a 2-day event in a location south of Perth, which is attended by members of the metro clubs in addition to their own members. They also run events in gaps of the event calendar for the metro clubs, members of which travel south to join with them if possible. SWOT and ADHOC members also travel north, mainly for major events such as the state championships. So, overall, we try to overcome the huge geographical distances among our clubs and as much as possible are simply WA orienteers. This is probably most obvious to eastern state orienteers when they see us grouped together under our state flag at national championships.