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Match Report - VIC Series #2 Mt Tarrengower brought to you by Melbourne Forest Racers ![]()
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The biggest Victorian event of the year went down today around the back of Mt TG! After a taste of a snap winter late last week, well, I couldn't quite believe how hot it got! And sunny! ☀️ Orienteers are so fortunate because we get to learn ALL the bumps, hills and mountain around Victoria, especially if they are covered in rocks!!! More specifically granite rocks! So upon reaching Yandoit, Mt Tarrengower was calling! With the blue backdrop above it was clear this was to be a magnificent day!![]()
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MFR promised that only "flat" parts of the mountain be used. Experienced orienteers know what that means and I think would agree that it was very pleasant out there with no extended soul busting climbs! 🥵 ![]()
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The entry list showed a packed Mens Course 1. This was just so excellent to see. Our champions! Our challengers! Our Legends! It was truly amazing! It was truly inspiring. Our elites often travel and don't always make it to our Premier State Series events. But today there seemed to be hundreds of them!!! Well 25, plus one plodder in C1 Mens! 😆👍😁![]()
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At one point one of them didn't just pass me. They were literally sprinting through the forest. I must remind them that they could hurt themselves!!! 😆🤣😆🤔 As if I would say because it was fantastic to see this quality of athlete. At first I thought it was Eddie, a home grown Victorian, and I said to myself, "Wow, Eddie's still got it!!! 😲". It wasn't Eddie, it was Kylian! But you know what, Eddie still wasn't far behind!!! 👏 🏆 😲 😁 ![]()
We had others internationals from the UK in Tom Bray, who perhaps is related to a one Peter Bray?!? Plus Owen Radejewski came all the way from Canberra, probably because he realised the quality of the event that would be put on! Owen took out the third step of the podium. Sorry Jensen, excellent courses and all but we can't really give you the prize money!!! 😆🤣 There some 13 elites in the first 15 minutes and manykre not far behind that! Even the battle for 25th and 26th was ever so close!![]()
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The elite women also put in a close contest. With all within 10 minutes of each other. Aislinn took ast with Lanita a very close second, followed then by Claire!![]()
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I can't say it enough. It was just fantastic to have and see so many top quality elites and one of the biggest Mens Course 1 fields for some time!![]()
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Results can be seen via this link and along with links to Livelox to see where competitors went!![]()
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eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/ResultList?eventId=23457&groupBy=EventClass![]()
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It seems to me that too much time is spent on telling everyone all about the mistakes that are made in orienteering. That's why a race was won or lost. You know what, on my course I admit I made 2 mistakes, but 22 controls I did not. 22 controls found straight away out of 24. I am going to celebrate that too!!! Live loc is also interesting, it flattens some of their 10 seconds errors people talk about! Isn't that great! 🤔 😂 Pity Winsplits doesn't!! Haha, red box??? What, I neverwde a mistake there. Most likely cause I was walking. I mean why wouldn't you get those views to the North!!! You can never get tired of those views especially on a day like today!![]()
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Jensen set the course and Torren was the event director. I loved how many people helped on the timing and download computer. This was fantastic to see so that we know more people and help and are actually willing to help with this important volunteer role. We had Nicola and Carl seemingly the most conspicuous MFRs, especially with the Hi Vis Carl was wearing! Plus as you approached the Registration desk you had two of the most perfect people welcoming orienteers to the event, in Claire and Andrew! Frederik of course looking official checking every single boulder out there on the course as controller for the event! Well, maybe a few! Top work Melbourne Forest Racers for an excellent day.![]()
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Others spotted helping were Mason, Patrick, Owen, Bruce, Blair, Deon, Ellie, Aston, David, Kylian, and likely heaps more!!! MFR are huge!!! 😲 Apologies if I missed anyone but I just wanted to thank you all so much cause I had spectacular day!![]()
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When it comes to granite mountains and maps, it is clear that not everything can be mapped. It would be too much! Well, it would be for me any way. It's amazing to go for a walk, with a compass and just see if you can interpret what you see with what is on the map! It is such a great learning too as you raise you don't need to match every black dot, line, triangle, all of which can be varying sizes! But you do need to look closely to see if you are running past a dot or a triangle! You think you are looking for two boulders but there is six because one is a boulder and the others are all part of a boulder group. But this is the challenge of orienteering. I even recommend you try to one day to go out and see if can map little part of an area!!! Mapping is a artform. Give it a go! If you don't know where to start just comment below for more information! ![]()
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Oh, am I distracted. No, I don't think so because I'm reckon I'm just summing up what so many of us did today? Which rock is that? Is that a rockface? Oh, forget the black tiff, I'm just going to use the contours! One more tip!!! Use your compass! When you turn in every direction and tricks and trees and clearings look the same, then where you going to go? Orienteers are allowed a compass use! Even on the small legs, where you say, "Such a short leg, I don't need the compass!!!". Maybe when you are an elite. But for now, I'm just trying to help!!! 🤔😂😆👍👏![]()
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Thanks once again for a Tip-Top event MFR. I absolutely loved it!![]()
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Next VIC Series Event is on April, the 26th, in Ballarat! ![]()
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Good luck everyone at Easter! Safe travels and have a great time! Remember, see if you can count how many controls you get perfect, rather than dwelling on the negatives! It is going to be fantastic!
Video Highlights from Control Collection action at Mt Tarrengower today!!! ❤️ Just love how happy Melbourne Forest Racers and Australian Orienteering Superstar Pat is whilst collect controls!!! 😍 The happiness shown resonated as I too was so happy just be out there orienteering at VIC State Series Event #2. Pretty sure Pat slowed down a fair bit so I could keep up!! 🥵😆 Now, the comment on the video suggests he "hasn't won yet.", implying we are yet to reach the finish. However, in the main event, Pat had indeed already won by just a narrow minute! Wow! Exciting racing to just edge out Kylian! They are both so ⚡ lightning fast through the bush! 😲![]()
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A huge number of the MFR team came out today and put on an awesome event under amazingly perfect warm weather, which was a stark contrast from Thursday and Friday! 🥶 Thankyou so much Melbourne Forest Racers, I just loved it so much and will assume everyone else did too!!! How could they not??? 🤔 👏 😁 👍 ![]()
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Stay tuned for more photos and a match report of today's fantastic orienteering event later today.
EVENT REPORT - Black Hill Reserve & Primary School, Eureka Summer P/S Series Event #8![]()
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What a spectacular finale to the Eureka Summer ⛱️🌞 Series and also, it seems to Summer itself!!! 😲😆🤣![]()
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James & Rod Gray, organising their second event in eight days, created a superb bush and sprint double in the heart of Ballarat. Three courses headed out into the challenging Black Hill Reserve before crossing open ground and an oval to then enter the primary school for some furious twists and turns of an excellently intriguing compact school. Rod had previously mad a map of this school on their request and it was especially pleasing to see small permanent controls all over the school in addition to the controls that our competitors were searching for. There were so many covered walkways, doors, hideaways and fencing that this small area was as good as anywhere ever used for sprint events, I reckon. Pretty much everyone confirmed how much they enjoyed that loop after slogging around Black Hill in the now wet and much colder conditions.![]()
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What, I hear you say? Was it not sunny and warm in Ballarat??? ☀️ Well, yes it did reach 26°C at one point along with a couple of heavy showers. But as the event started it was glorious sunshine again. "It won't rain again.", was a reply heard when discussing the idea of taking a shelter tent!!! 🤣 As the early arrivals turned up and the last controls were being put out, all still seemed well and that dark fuzzy gray mass on the horizon looked a million miles away!!! A few competitors headed out with dryish ground and no sign of standing water. A couple even made it through the run through, maybe a bit damp but not drenched! ![]()
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Still the darkest clouds were some distance away, but rain started falling already. Where was it coming from? Just a small shower, perhaps? Well, it kept raining and got more consistent. Now the computer was getting wet and was relocated to a vehicle. The maps were wet. The logbook was wet! We were wet and getting wetter!!! This is no shower!!! 🤔 Some early competitors returned after finishing and some just after passing the run through and deciding, no that will be it for the day. Runners were wet now as they returned! Yet, the best was still to come!!!![]()
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As the early competitors waited for the SI Download computer to be dry enough to use again. One SI stick at a time was relayed to the computer car for a result download. Meanwhile a crowd had gathered at the registration table. But all was good. They had one umbrella and more effectively, one large tarpaulin!!! See pictures! It sure worked and as the smiling finished runners waited, the heavens opened up completely!!!! 😲☔🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️😆 Now, we didn't really capture a before the rain shot but we can assure you that all the standing water was not there on the oval, or anywhere else at 5:30pm!! But the photos now seem to show a fair bit of water had fallen!!!![]()
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But, as was the story for the whole day, it was known for sure that the sun would come out again! Some of the sights of the sun streaming through clouds again or big thunder clouds reflecting the setting sun whilst lightning still lit up the evening sky were spectacular. It was beautiful. It was an evening where I go, "Well, sure we got wet, but I'm so glad we were out orienteering in it and not at home!". After the rain, the Black Hill section with pines and tracks and some decent cliffs was so so slippery but so so exciting too!! 😁 Plus it is always exhilarating when your face gets washed every time you go through the light green vegetation! 🤣 By the time the last starters were running it was getting dim, being so cloudy. The lights would have been on at the MCG, but this is orienteering. Then in the school, some doorways, were so dark, you could barely see the control flags! It was fantastic fun!!! ![]()
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Being a little bit more complicated than a regular Eureka Summer ⛱️🌞 Series events, James and Rod should be congratulated and encouraged even more. They really put on something special and it was really a great way to finish the Summer ⛱️ 🌞 series. From what I heard, everyone had a great time. The stacked depth of competitors in the Long Course also gets greater every week and many of them recorded very close times. Very exciting racing. Strangely, or otherwise, it is regular fastest dude David who may be the slimmest yet always comes back the absolute most drenched looking!!! Probably got something to do with him going fast and straight through every bush and not giving the water any time to drain off!! 🤔🤔![]()
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The times on Winsplits are interesting too so check them out. Mammoth thanks to Luke and Alyssa also, who are always so happy to help and do so with smiles! They cleaned up the school yard 💯 well after dark!![]()
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A few controls had to retrieved in the morning and there was quite a number of skids seen near controls and down the banks near the oval!! Hoho! My shorts were covered in mud where I chose to slide down one particular bank leading into the big mine section on Black Hill, after figuring that would be smarter!! 🤣😆![]()
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So, we come to the end of the Eureka Summer ⛱️🌞 Park & Street Series for 2025/2026. There are so many to thank, but to be honest, sure thank the organisers, the helpers, the administrators, but they have been thanked already and regularly. It is you who turn up to come on an orienteering adventure who need to be thanked the most!! 👏 You are the ones that make this series so much fun. You are the ones that lift the club spirit so much as week after week we have more Eureka Orienteers turning up than at almost any other time of the year! Again we had more brand new orienteers, and we had regulars back again for another year. We had clear improvers who are being seen running more and more as they learn more about this quite complex sport. When you keep turning up you are then ones encouraging us all to keep putting on these events. Because we know they a building our Eureka Orienteers club up and building orienteering in the Ballarat region!!![]()
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Thankyou so much everybody!!! 👏 ![]()
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See you in the forest again soon!![]()
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Eureka Orienteers warmly (well, it is still quite warm lately!!! ⛱️ 🌞😆) invite you to their Black Hill Summer Orienteering Event #8. ![]()
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This one is extra special with a True Sprint location to be used along with the always spectacular, invigorating and fairly tricky Black Hill!![]()
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NEWS FLASH!!!!! Ok, it is understood there will be 3 distinct courses as always. A Long, Medium and Short.![]()
Each course will start with the bush/forest leg on one side of your map. Then when that is completed, you will turn over your map to then see a map of the school in a Sprint style scale, within the school. After that, then you will finish back where you started near the Black Hill Pool! Sorry, no swimming this time! But there will be fun, fun, fun! 🌳🌳🏃🧭🌲![]()
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Orienteering comes in a number of variations and Sprint orienteering appears fast and furious, whilst forest orienteering seems more peaceful. The reality is that in both you are striving to save seconds, every step of the way! So exciting! 🌲🌳🏃🌳🌲🌳🌲![]()
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Check out Eventor for a link to a map where the event will meet. Somewhere near the Black Hill pool, it is understood, at this stage.![]()
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eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/Show/23960![]()
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Last daylight savings evening event until next Spring! Come and enjoy all that is Eureka Orienteers.![]()
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Like the look of this event?!?! Please ask more questions if you would like to try orienteering. Already an orienteer?? Why not forward this to someone you know, or even just click like. It is actually a big help and is something so simple to do! Thank for that! 👏 😁 👍
EVENT REPORT Nillumbik Emus' MAXI, Hepburn Springs, 22nd of March, 2026![]()
Getting up before dawn and heading out to an event is a special part of Orienteering. But today I didn't need to get up quite so early, seeing as Hepburn is not far from Ballarat. But I couldn't help it and still left home before sunrise because I was so excited to get up and get out orienteering to a place I have driven past possibly hundreds of times, yet never actually orienteered there! A true classic! Steep hills, deep gullies, inky black mine shafts, horizontal tunnels, slippery leaf and bark covered slopes, erosion gullies that are tough to cross, even if they are devoid of blackberries! Yet, with all the hardship comes stunning eucalypt forest, clear ridges for free running, gullies and spurs and light bracken highlighting the sunlight that lit up the whole forest. It was a delight. Warm yes, but not too hot. It was simply perfect.![]()
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The initial route planning goes quick. But it's time to go. Within minutes all have dispersed, certain their way is best. Soon enough, it's just you, a map, a compass and your brain. Ok, let's try for 5km, or whatever you run, per hour!! After one hour, not even close!!! 😆🤔🤣 Anyway, so much to see. Mines going into the hillside, shafts going down vertical. Deep erosion gullies to avoid. Maybe, the best strategy it to stick to tracks and paths, especially in the steeper sections. 🤔 But of course, the shortcuts are always calling to draw the Orienteers back away from the tracks!!! A mental battle at every second and every step!!! ![]()
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It's amazing how one hour turns to two and then approaches 3 hours. That's what orienteering does. You don't even realise how hard you are working. Just one more checkpoint! Ok, now just another!! Will I make it back it time? Your brain is too busy to even realise how far you have covered! Incredible, you feel amazing! Until you stop!! I ran how far!!!??? ![]()
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But, it could be argued, that's where this particular event actually begins. When you finish and then enjoy the amazing food that Nillumbik put on. There is hundreds of sandwiches. Minestrone soup, cakes of all varieties, cool drinks, hot drinks! All brought to you by so many Emus and Maitre d'eed by Lauris! Such a brilliant spread to enjoy after a huge time exercising and then sitting in a most beautiful and historic part of Australia. What a wonderful afternoon! ![]()
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The photos show a number of Eureka Orienteers who scored prizes in their categories. Well done Rod and Roch. James also features in the photos. Plus Richard too, did well in the Open Category. Special mention and Congratulations go to Nillumbik Junior Matthew, who scored more points than everyone, and also explained just how much he ate the previous evening! Well, that food sure worked. Well done everybody!!! 🏆 ![]()
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Humungous thankyou to Nillumbik Emus for putting on this event. It is a large undertaking just in regards to the courses and then they put on the food and really go out of their way to make this a true sporting event that people enjoy, appreciate and remember because they know they have participated in something that has had a lot of effort put into it. Thankyou so much to Rob, Ron, Derek, Christine, Helen, Caroline, Matthew, Joshua, Lauris and all those who helped with this much favoured annual event on the calendar. I for one think it is fantastic and love how much you give of your time and energy to make this a success for all orienteers, rogainers and bush navigators!![]()
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A smattering of photos can't ever show the true complete nature of orienteering because so many people choose so many different paths. But maybe you will see and think, "Oh, yeah, I went there." or, "Yes, those shots of the trees make me feel like I'm back out there." or, even if you have never been orienteering, you might think it looks so good and makes you want to try one day! For me, I just enjoy being out there in Victoria's forests. I never want to go home because they are so beautiful, peaceful, renewing and rejuvenating! I was still at the lookout until around 5:40pm! Collecting controls was tough with a long steep walk. Always discovering something new with orienteering! 😊 👏 ![]()
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What a wonderful day I had orienteering in Hepburn Springs! I declare it was absolutely perfect. How could anyone not?! Hope to see you all orienteering out in the forests again soon. What an amazing sport. It gives so much and creates such special memories. Hope you enjoy a tiny snapshot of todays event! Bye for now! 👋 😁 🌳🏃🌳
Orienteering Victoria
Eureka Orienteers is proudly affiliated with Orienteering Victoria.
Eastwood Leisure Complex
Eureka Orienteers thanks the Eastwood Leisure Complex for their support with the club's equipment store, and the use of their facilities for meetings and social events.
Goodsports
Eureka Orienteers has reached Level 3 accreditation as part of the Good Sports program. Good Sports works with clubs to help them provide safe and healthy environments for families to play sport.