Newcastle Orienteering Club

What is Orienteering?

Watch the short introduction to Orienteering videos - "Orienteering in Australia" and "Orienteering - the adventure sport for all ages".

How do I do a course?

The club hold events on mapped areas of bush, parkland and urban areas within the Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Cessnock, Port Stephens and Singleton local government areas.   

When are events held?

You can TRY ORIENTEERING ANYTIME FOR FREE by visiting one of our local Permanent Courses at Blue Gum Hills Regional Park Minmi and at Brickworks Park Wallsend after printing your own map. There is also a permanent course at the Hunter Wetlands Centre (admission fees apply).

What time do events start?

How much does it cost?

Do I need to be a member? How do I enter?

Who orienteers? Can we participate as a group? 

Orienteering attracts a mixture of all age groups and is great family sport as everyone can participate at their own level and at the one venue. Juniors generally need to be about 8-10 years old to undertake a course by themselves and  there is no upper age limit - we have 80+ year olds regularly competing. (Note - for safety at Street Orienteering & BOSS MTBO events children under 15 need to be accompanied by someone older). 

We have many participants that do their course in pairs or as a team or family group. When you gain more experience you will probably prefer the challenge of navigating and completing the course by yourself.

How competitive is it?

How difficult is it?

• Very Easy: Simple navigation for juniors or total beginners. All controls are on tracks or along fences or other easy to follow linear features and are readily visible when nearby.
• Easy: Basic navigation. Controls are placed close to tracks, fences, watercourses or other easily followed linear feature. There may be options to "cut across" through the bush.
• Moderate: Intermediate navigation requiring better map-reading skills. Controls mostly located away from tracks requiring cross-country navigation. Route choice options will require some decision-making.
• Hard: Challenging navigation requiring advanced map reading skills. Controls require cross-country navigation, may be isolated "point features" or in complex areas, and may not be visible from the line of approach. Wider choice of routes means greater decision-making.

Street, Urban and MTBO events are mostly at an easy navigational level and generally suitable for most beginners. MTBO events require riders to be competent in riding bush tracks and trails.

How long are the courses?

• Very Easy             1.5-2.5 km
• Easy                        2.0-3.0 km
• Moderate Short     2.0-3.0 km
• Moderate Long     3.5-4.5 km
• Hard Short            3.0-4.0 km
• Hard Medium        4.0-6.0 km
• Hard Long             6.0-8.0 km

How long will it take me?

Will I get lost? 

" Orienteers never get lost, they just get navigationally embarassed! ". Whilst every orienteer occasionally has trouble locating a control, if you are on a course that suits your navigational ability and level of fitness you will be able to "relocate" and get back on track. At most local events you will generally never be too far from a road, large recognisable feature or "civilisation". The club has strict safety protocols and procedures which aim to ensure competitors can't stray too far off course, and for locating competitors who may be overdue on their course.

What should I wear/bring?

Where do I buy a map?

Orienteering maps are very detailed and specifically made by and owned exclusively by the individual clubs. They are provided at events as part of your entry and cannot be obtained anywhere else (other than the online maps for our free Permanent Courses).

Is coaching available?

At every event there will be experienced club members available and happy to provide help and advice, both before and after you undertake your course. The club holds occasional training events throughout the year to assist people improve their navigation with map and compass and orienteering skills.

What isn't permitted?

Dogs, smoking and fires are prohibited from ALL parking, assembly and competition areas.

Are events cancelled due to bad weather?

Scheduled events would only be only cancelled in the rare event of a bushfire threat or other extreme weather conditions, or access issues.

Is the sport dangerous? Am I insured?

What other orienteering events are there?

There are various events most weeks of the year within NSW and Australia offering courses for all ages and abilities and there are annual national and international events open to all competitors. For more info on other bush events click here. All scheduled orienteering events can be found on Eventor.

What are the Rules for Orienteering? 

Orienteering NSW "Competitors Rules - Foot Orienteering" can be found here. Of particular note for all competitors are: 

• You must report to the finish following completion or abandonment of your course. If you do not report to the finish the organisers will come looking for you!
• Fair play: Except in the case of an accident or being seriously lost, obtaining assistance from other runners or seeking to obtain assistance from other runners, or providing assistance to other competitors during a competition is forbidden (shadowing/coaching of juniors/beginners excepted). Competitors who are seriously lost (ie. they do not know how to find the finish) can ask for assistance from another competitor.
• It is the duty of all competitors to help injured runners. Injured competitors who need assistance should, if possible, blow a whistle (it is recommended all orienteers carry one) or ‘cooee’ three times periodically.
• Restricted area & routes - competitors should be familiar with the map symbols for out of bounds/do not enter and uncrossable features, including those specific to Sprint Orienteering maps.
• Pets must not be taken to events held on private land, in nature reserves/national parks or similar areas where they are prohibited, or as otherwise advised by the organisers. This includes bringing a pet and keeping it secured inside a vehicle or trailer.

Format and Rules

(For a general overview of what orienteering is about click here).

• The courses will be line courses (point to point). Competitors must visit all controls (checkpoints) in the order specified by the course setter (competitors still have choice on how to approach and navigate between controls).  SPORTident electronic timing will be used for all Urban events (SI stick hire will be available at all events).

• There will be two different length courses offered at each event. The Short course will be approximately 2 - 2.5 km in length while the Long course will be approximately 4 - 5 km in length (where possible). A non-competitive introductory Mini course around 1km will also be offerred.

• Start times for the events will be between 4:45pm and 6:15pm. Course closure will be 7pm. Please choose a start time to ensure you will finish by this time. (The organisers need to pick up controls after this).

• The UFO Series will consist of four (4) events. The first three (3) events will be qualifying events. A competitor’s best two (2) completed events (not including a mispunch or DNF) in the same course will be tallied to produce a qualifying score. On the basis of this score competitors will be placed into grades for the final (see Calculating the Grades*).

• Scores for each qualifying event will be calculated as a ranking. 100 points for the first place, 99 for second, 98 for third and so on. The ranking method will apply to both the Long and Short courses. If a competitor mispunches, does not finish (DNF) or is disqualified (DSQ) they will be allocated 1 point. (The mini course is not competitive and will not be ranked).

• In the Final event competitors will run in their allocated grade*. Results from this event will determine the overall placing in each grade. Competitors that do not qualifiy for the Finals will still be able to enter either course but will not be eligible for a prize.

• To encourage event organisers, course setters and vetters will be allocated an average score of their successfully completed events for the event where they were an official. Thus they will not be disadvantaged by the scoring system.

• Disqualification will be recorded in a competitor's result (at the discretion of the series co-ordinator) if they are observed or reported to have crossed an impassable/uncrossable feature  (as  shown  in  the sprint orienteering map symbols) or entered private property or other areas marked on the map as out of bounds. 

 • All competitors must report to the finish (so that search parties are not sent out!)

• Any queries should first go to the organiser for the day and then if necessary to the series organiser.

*Calculating the Grades

The grades for the Urban Foot Orienteering Series Final will be determined as follows:

• The grades for each course (i.e the Long course and the Short course) will be determined separately.

• After the conclusion of the qualifying rounds the competitors will be ranked according to their best two results. From these rankings the competitors will be put into grades.
Note: Competitors must have successfully completed at least two rounds on the same course to qualify.

• For each course the number of grades used will depend on the number of qualifiers as follows: 

 • The numbers within each grade will be as even as possible with the excess going into the lower grades first.

For example if the long course has 43 qualifiers, then there will be 3 grades, A, B and C, with 14 in A grade, 14 in B grade and 15 in C grade. If the long course has 44 qualifiers then the numbers would be 14 in A grade, 15 in B grade and 15 in C grade. And so on.

Click here for a history of the Urban Series.

                          Club Membership 

 Note that non-members still need to register as a "Casual Member" (free) to enter any event on Eventor - click here to see how.

Club membership covers the calendar year with renewal due by 31 December (available in Eventor from 1 December thereby offering new members up to 13 months membership).

For all club membership information go to the Orienteering NSW Membership Benefits and Fees page here and how to join here.

Current members - for info on how to Renew your Membership on Eventor click here.

Casual Members Instructions to sign up in Eventor

To enable you to pre-enter for any Orienteering Events you will need to set up an account in Eventor (the software that controls all Orienteering Events and allows people to pre-pay for the Events).  The information in Eventor is used to register details (e.g. SI stick details) and contact you or, in the case of an emegergency, an Emergency Contact can be contacted. These details allows tracing to be performed if there is a Covid19 issue.

How to Register and Add Yourself as a State Casual in Eventor

Here is the link to access Eventor - https://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events

Below are screenshots showing the steps in how a person can register themselves and then add themselves to their state casuals.

Step 1: Select ‘Create Account’

Step 2: Select ‘social network’ if you want to use it to login, otherwise select ‘Don’t associate…’

 Step 3: Select ‘I want to be a casual or a member of an Australian orienteering club’ then ‘Proceed’

Step 4: Enter all details, tick ‘I understand and accept terms’, press ‘Next’

 Step 5: Check details and press ‘Save’

Step 6: Select ‘Apply for club membership or register as a casual orienteer’

Step 7: Select Year, select State and from Club select ‘Casuals <your state>’.  Press ‘Next’

Step 8: Job done! You are now registered as a casual in your state.

You can now log in and enter the Event using your login. 

To Pay for an Event

Log in to Eventor and select the Event you would like to enter and continue to the Payment page.

Select "Confirm and go to payment".

Click on "Go to payment page at PayPal".  You will be able to pay using a credit or debit card even if you don't have a PayPal account.

Click "Pay with a Card".

Enter a none PayPal email address (e.g. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) so you can use PayPal to pay using a card.

Click "Continue to Payment".

Click "Pay with Card".

Click "Contine to Payment".

Click "Continue as a Guest".

Enter your credit or debit card details.

Click "Continue as a Guest".

Here is the link to access Eventor - https://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events