Urban orienteering in Newcastle began as the "Newcastle Park Tour" in 2007 in response to a number of factors. Firstly, with daylight savings having been extended to six months of the year it seemed a pity to waste those extra daylight hours on a Wednesday evening. Secondly, the Summer Street Series had already been extended to seventeen events and it was felt that this was a plenty long enough season. Thirdly, and finally, numbers in the Street Series had grown to around hundred per week but many of these participants did not come along to the traditional bush orienteering events over winter. It was thought that a park series might be a gentle way of transitioning street orienteers to bush orienteers.
The format for the series has remained unchanged since its inception with three "qualifying" events followed by a graded final. The number of events was initially dictated by the number of weeks left of daylight saving after the street series concluded and by the small number of park maps that the club had available at the time. The decision to have only two courses (long and short) per event was made to try to make the demands on the course setter as small as practical (since the course setter has to put the controls out and bring them all in again on the Wednesday afternoon). Lastly, since most competitors were used to running for 45 minutes at the street events it was decided to make the long course in the park series around the 5km mark. For most maps this is as long as is practical, (even with a map change), but hopefully long enough that people felt it worthwhile travelling to the event. The short course, it was decided, should be about half the length of the long course.
The first significant change that occurred in the running of the NPT over the years was the introduction of the SportIdent (SI) timing system. Its first use at a NPT event was at the final of the 2011 tour. Russell and Karen Blatchford used gear borrowed from the NSW Junior Squad at that event at Hunter River High. After much discussion, fact finding and debate the club decided to purchase its own set of SI equipment in 2012. The club’s own SI gear has used for all events in the rurban sereis since during the 2013 NPT.
Another slight change in format occurred in 2015. A new map of the TAFE College at Islington had been produced but access to the grounds could only be obtained for a Sunday. Thus it was decided to use the map for the final of the series. Having the final on a Sunday had the advantage of allowing time after the event for a presentation and complete control collection.
From 2016 a night event was added as an adjunct to the Urban series. (The club had previously held (mostly annual) night championship events on bush maps).
In 2018 the series was re-branded as the UFO Series (Urban Foot Orienteering). When the venue is suitable many events now include a short, non-competitive introductory "mini course" for juniors and newbies to orienteering.
Finally, the biggest logistical hurdle that the Urban series faces has been (and will continue to be) finding suitable areas and mapping them. Of course this problem is common to all forms of orienteering. To this end Newcastle Orienteering Club is grateful for the efforts of long time mappers including Denis Lyons, Russell Rigby and Ian Dempsey who have overseen the production of many of the maps we currently use.
Newcastle Park Tour 2007-2014 "Honour Roll"