Hi Bushie’s
I hope you are all travelling well.
It’s time for another edition of the Buzz to look back over the recent winter season and forward to the summer season of orienteering, and also get excited about what is happening between the two seasons.
Many of us have participated in the very enjoyable Metro, Street, and Sprint Series over the winter months. The Bushflyers members have been busy, organisig four of the twelve Metro events. We’ve also organised two events in the Classic Series, with one further event in the Classic Series to come next weekend at Glendale. Thanks to everyone who has helped out, particularly the course setters who have provided us with some excellent challenges and scenic vistas.
This weekend, some of our members have been up in the Armidale competing in the NSW Middle and Long championships, and a few have been participating in the Mountain bike orienteering series. This upcoming Friday there is an opportunity to do night orienteering at Mt Jerrabomberra. I’ve tried it once and it is a very different experience, well worth a try if you have the chance to go along. And in a few weeks, a bunch of Bushflyers will be making the trip to Queensland for the Australian Orienteering Championships, and the Australian School Orienteering Championships (including a good representation from our juniors). The ACT Mountain Biking Orienteering Championships follow on from that in the middle of October, and I expect that we will have some good representation at that event. So, although we are currently in between the winter and summer seasons, there is plenty going on.
Looking a bit further into the future, the Twilight Series is starting on October 22 and the Bushflyers are organising the first two events of the season at John Knight Park and Oakey Hill. And we are down for four more after those two, so there are plenty of opportunities to help the sport to prosper over the summer, either as an organiser, course setter, set-up helper, or control collector. We are always keen for more recent members to come along and help out. It is a way to get to know more of the members of the club.
Summer is also a great time to do street orienteering with the longer days making the evening run or walk around the suburbs a fun activity. The summer series starts up in October and it is a great way to become more familiar with Canberra. Although there are also still a few weeks of the winter series remaining that you can participate in.
And the summer sprint orienteering series will start up at the end of November. So, hopefully there is something for everyone in the period ahead.
Since June we have had some new members join us, and at least one returning to the fray. We hope you are enjoying the challenges of navigating around the town (street-O), buildings (sprint), and bush (mid, long) in Canberra and beyond. And if you see them out there please make them welcome.
William Cashen, Kate Murphy, Alex O, Chris O, Jenn O, Kathryn Rule, and Shona Prince
I would also like to acknowledge that the photos from local events included below are taken from the ACT Orienteering facebook page, and are the excellent work of John Harding, a Parawanga member and organiser of the Street-O series. If you are on facebook, it is well worth following the ACT Orienteering page for photos and other updates.
ASOC Representatives
The Bushflyers have six representatives in the ACT team competing in the Australian School Orienteering Championships, which is part of the 2025 Australian Orienteering Championships Carnival, being held in Brisbane over nine days in September-October. They are:
| Junior Boys | Junior Girls | Senior Boys | Senior Girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ben Mansell | Naomi Penton | Joshua Mansell | Katherine Maundrell |
| Patrick Maundrell | Matthew Maundrell |
And it is also great to see David Stocks taking on the role of coach for this team, and Peter Miller is one of the team managers.
The ACT team should be very competitive this year, with a good level of experience in the team. Our Bushflyer members are case in point, with all of them having experienced ASOC in the past and often multiple times. And the Bushflyers club is pleased to providing sponsorship to Patrick, Ben, Naomi, Josh, Matty, and Kathryn to support them with their expenses associated with travel to Queensland.
Bushflyer Swarm – Save the date
Please mark Sunday 19th October in your diary for our second local Swarm of 2025. I’m happy to host the event at my place in Weetangera. It will be from 5pm, with everyone bringing a plate to share (salad or dessert). I’ll provide some meat and bread and drinks to keep the group happy.
For those not familiar with the Swarm concept, they are social events for the Bushflyer club. They can either be held locally, at a residence of one of our members or after an event, or at an interstate event that has a few Bushflyers attending, often in a pub. They are another opportunity to get to know a few of your fellow members. We try to have two local events, with this one in October and one at the beginning of the year.
I’ll send out another notice about this event but feel free to RSVP to me (cmj109@gmail.com) if you know you can make it.
Although this Swarm is not our annual awards gathering, I would ask that people keep the awards front of mind at upcoming events for when we ask for nominations at the end of this year. The awards we will need nominations are the Blue Bottle (Services to Bushflyers) Award and the Fly Swat Award (for the silliest mistake, biggest blunder, heroism under fire, most humorous moment etc.).
2025 National Representative Teams
Caitlin Young and Justine Hobson did a great job representing Australia over the Northern Hemisphere summer. They participated in World Cup events in Sweden, the World Orienteering Championship (WOC) in Finland, and Caitlin went to the World Games in China. If you didn’t catch their efforts you at the time, you can check out the Livelox replay for WOC here (woc2025.fi) and the photos below show that they are not in the Australian bush or usual metro environments.
The Bushflyers club was pleased to provide sponsorship to Caitlin and Justine to support them with their significant expenses associated with travel to Europe and China.
Bushflyers Organised Events
Thanks to all the Bushflyers who have been involved in organising and running the events this year. Nothing happens without the effort of our members, be it planning and setting the courses, or helping out with the logistics.
Since the last newsletter we’ve hosted four events. There are some pictures and maps below.
We have a number of events coming up that the Bushflyers are organising and I’m sure that there are opportunities to help out if you have the time. Look out for an email from Jo asking for volunteers to help out, and thanks in advance for your continuing efforts to make this sport work. The first two events of the Twilight series are not too far away, so please start thinking about whether you can help for those events.
| ACT League #10 | Glendale | 21-Sep-25 |
| Twilight Series #1 | John Knight Park | 22-Oct-25 |
| Twilight Series #2 | Oakey Hill | 29-Oct-25 |
| Twilight Series #6 | Campbell Park | 26-Nov-25 |
| Twilight Series #7 | Isaacs Ridge | 3-Dec-25 |
| Twilight Series #13 | Commonwealth Park | 18-Mar-26 |
Bushflyer clothing
I now house the range of Bushflyers’ clothing (O-tops and jackets mostly) for sale. As noted in previous newsletters, the range of sizes is becoming a little limited, but we will still be able to meet the needs of some of our members. Please check with me if you would like wear our Club colours, especially if you are competing in major interstate events.
Keep safe; keep well; and keep moving!
Craig Johnson (Club Convenor)
cmj109@gmail.com
0408 492 808
For Bushflyers Orienteering – where no-one gets left on the bench!