Bendigo Bush – Mosquito Creek – Saturday 6 July

Neil Barr has recently completed a remap of Mosquito Creek and this event will be its first use.

Neil has commented about the map and his remapping project.
This was quite a challenge. Unlike granite or mining terrain, there are few obvious or striking features available to photograph. Everywhere looks pretty much the same… and that’s the point of orienteering on Mosquito Creek. If it all looks similar, then relocating can be a challenge. Its no accident that the Bendigo Noodle Award was created after a very special noodle performance on this map.

The early history of the map was chequered. The first mapping attempt was by some visiting Scandinavians, and according to oral history, the resulting map wasn’t useable. This terrain bears little resemblance to the feature rich terrain most Scandinavians are accustomed to. John Bloomfield remapped and his resulting output has been used for four decades. One wonders how obscure point features were mapped in the era of compass and pace counting.

For the upcoming event at least one factor is in the orienteer’s favour. Mapping technology has been greatly enhanced. The contours are all new, based upon very recent lidar data.  The new map has some new shallow gullies weren’t on the old map. Likewise, it lacks some shallow gullies that were on the old map, because they aren’t actually there. These changes are subtle so you can expect lots of use of the “shallow” and “broad” symbols on your control descriptions. All relevant point features (and there aren’t many of those) have been remapped using a gps-enabled tablet. But it will still probably look all the same out there.

Come along to the event this Saturday and test your orienteering skills. The day promises to be a sunny one with a max of 16 degrees. Perfect orienteering weather.
There will be the usual 5 courses, from long hard down to beginner courses.
Pre- enter via EVENTOR where you can also find more details about the event.