Latest ONSW News

SHOO's Highlands Forest Series kicks off on Sunday at William Howe Reserve at Mt Annan with a special 1pm start due to Anzac Day. 

These events cater for all comers but are ideal for people wishing to practise or increase their skills in bush navigation. 

The events are held in 'friendly' forest areas in and around the NSW Southern Highlands, within 2 hours of Sydney.

Pre-entry is recommended due to COVID-19 restrictions. One of the events, at Belanglo will be organised by IKO. There will also be a series point score competition based on the best placings in 5 out of the 6 events.

See the series flyer for full details.

MetrO League started for 2020 under a brilliant autumn sun in a totally remapped Yerambah Lagoon near the Georges River.

It was the first time we have been on this map since John Howard was prime minister (it was then an A5 at 1:10,000)! This time we were presented with A4 at 1:7500 for better reading, and found most of the old white areas to be now nearly all green.

The light green was navigable but many of the tracks washed out and a bit overgrown, which made for good route choice - although control 218 featured on many maps and tripped up a few people being off an indistinct track near some dark green.

We noted excellent performances by Uringa junior Kelvin Meng (2nd in Div 2), Julia Barbour (Big Foot, 2nd in Div 3) and SHOO primary schooler Rory Shedden tearing around to "win" the 2km Div 6 course in just 15 minutes.

Big Foot won all four matches, and Bennelong four of their five.

A big thank you to setter Vicki Wilmott, controller Kev Curby, organiser Ian Froude, mapper Arpad Kocsik (Garingal) and the IKO club.

Scores and Winsplits are on the ML web page.

Round 2 is on May 2 at Lansdowne. Please pre-enter.

ONSW life member Dave Lotty has been admitted to the Orienteering Australia Hall of Fame in the General Division.

Dave was the most influential person in the establishment of orienteering in NSW commencing in late 1971. After competing in an event staged in the Blue Mountains for a visiting New Zealand orienteering team, he was involved a few weeks later in restaging that event, followed by the first event in the Sydney area. He helped formed and was Secretary of Sydney’s first orienteering club, Bennelong Occasional Orienteers, and later formed Kareelah Orienteers and Uringa Orienteers as orienteering expanded in Sydney.

He helped to form the Orienteering Association of NSW in March 1972 and was initially a Committee member, then Secretary from 1973, the position that he held for many years before becoming the full time OANSW professional officer. As a professional draftsman, he prepared most of the early NSW orienteering maps, initially in black and white and later in colour, as well as field working many of these maps.

He was responsible for the concept of the Easter Three-days, organising the first of these events with Bjorn Blomstedt and Ian Hassall in 1974, as well as several subsequent Easter Three-days events. He also organised the first QBIII event in NSW.

At the national level, he participated in the OFA Council as a delegate or NSW Councillor from 1973, becoming Secretary in 1981. He remained as Secretary until 2002, when the OFA completed a major review of its governance to become Orienteering Australia. He then held the position of Director (Administration) until 2006, making him the longest serving officer for OFA/Orienteering Australia. In his early years with OFA, he chaired its Mapping Committee and later became Fixture Coordinator. He received the OFA Silva Award for Services to Orienteering in 1991.

Coming from a background in athletics, Dave has always been a successful competitor, being a member of the Australian team to the World Championships in Denmark in 1974 and a team member in several Australia – New Zealand Challenges. He has won several Australian Championships in his age class and numerous State Championships.

Congratulations Dave!

They've been in the news a lot for their outstanding recent performances and now the Shingler siblings (Big Foot) have capped it off by being named in the Australian honour team for the junior world championships.

It is an "honour team" because Australia has understandably decided against sending a team to Turkey in July due to the covid situation in Europe.

Nea Shingler (pictured) only turned 16 last week so this selection is a tremendous achievement competing against girls up to four years older, while Ewan won the junior men's elite class (M20E) at the recent national Easter carnival.

Both are young enough to be eligible next year, should Australia send a team.

We congratulate them on their selection. Your can read the OA announcement here. 

Meanwhile, the latest National Orienteering League standings have been published here.

The NOL will continue as planned for 2021, with Round 3 in Renmark on the Anzac weekend, and the finale on the NSW south coast in mid-May.