Information & Program

Round 2 of the NSW State League is scheduled for Snow Hills on Sunday 18th March. This will also be round 2 of the ACT league.

Round 1 of the NSW State League will be staged by the ACT the previous day (Saturday 17th March) as part of the ACT league round 1.

Hot weather is forecast - whilst there will be some water on the courses, please consider carrying your own. Bring plenty of water to drink before and after the event and on your trip home.

There may be a Total Fire Ban

In the event of a Total Fire Ban on Sunday:

• The event will go ahead unless there is a fire in the vicinity or government authorities or the land-owner ask us to cancel
• All drivers should familiarise themselves with the roads out of the area so that they can safely navigate away from a fire
• If competitors see a fire or smoke indicating a nearby fire they should abandon their course and alert the organisers and other competitors (ONSW foot orienteering rule 4)
• There will be no hot food at the NSW Junior Gourmet Alfresco Eatery
• Campers at Stewarts Crossing should not light a fire
• We may restrict our use of generator equipment once the wind gets up which will mean you may not see results until we get home on Sunday evening

ACT Competitors

ACT league competitors can enter their age class as per ACT championships, or a harder age group.  NSW State Leagues offer a range of courses that don't map directly to the ACT course structure. If you really want to run a course that is different to the courses available by age group (see table below), then enter the corresponding colour course like a normal ACT league event. Note the following NSW classes that correspond to certain ACT courses:

• Blue (ACT) is Very Easy (NSW)
• Green (ACT) is Easy

Orange, Red 1 - Red 8 (ACT) will correspond to NSW course Hard 1 - Hard 8 at the event,  special classes Red 1 - Red 8 have been added.

There is only one orange course.

Entry

There will be a limited number of maps available for entry on day on each course and the price for the hard (red) and moderate (orange) courses will be pegged at the pre-entry rate (ONSW rule).

The number of EOD maps available  for courses Hard 1 - Hard 5 will be limited based on projected starting numbers when we ordered the maps. There are at least a couple of each course. There should be a reasonable supply of maps for the Very Easy, Easy, Moderate and Hard 5 - Hard 8 courses on the day. These will be printed on paper and bagged.

Travel and Parking

The assembly area will be adjacent to Mayfield Cross Road, longtitude 149.79305, latitude -35.21975 if coming by sailing ship (or car). Parking will be along Mayfield Cross Road on the left hand side from a distance of about 100m past the assembly area. Please don't part on the other side ofthe road. Please don't park before the line of parking starts.

You will be travelling on dirt roads, drive carefully and if travelling in the evening slow down and avoid the local fauna, there is a lot of it and we want to keep it that way.

From Sydney travel via Bungonia, Windellama, then take Sandy Point Road off Oallen Ford Road. This merges with Mayfield Road which you follow South before turning left to Mayfield Cross Road at the assembly area. The road can be affected by rain, if it has rained heavily there will be water in the fords. Stick with Mayfield Road at the end even if your GPS suggests taking Stewarts Crossing Road.

From Stewarts Crossing travel along Stewarts Crossing Road back to Mayfield Road, then turn left on that road before turning left to Mayfield Cross Road at the assembly area. There are a few wash outs and some corrugation on this road.

From Canberra travel to Bungendore, then take the Kings Highway until Mayfield Road where you turn left. This turn is about 31 km from Bungendore.

From Goulburn take Braidwood Road to Tarago, then turn left on Lumley Road until you reach Mayfield Road which is about 3.5km from the Loaded Dog (if we had ever been there). Turn right onto Mayfield Road which you stay on until turning left to Mayfield Cross Road at the assembly area.

Mayfield Cross Road is usually fairly quiet but cars may travel legally along it at up to 100km/h and sometimes do. Keep to the edge of the road when walking along it.  At the recent NSW champs, a number of competitors had to be admonished for standing in the middle of the road to discuss their route and events of the day. Let there be no such miscreants this time around.

We ask that you approach Mayfield Cross Road from Mayfield Road, not Stewarts Crossing Road when driving in.

Drivers are welcome to pause and disgorge their passengers and paraphanalia at a temporary stopping area about 50 metres up the road.

 

Camping

Although the campground at Stewarts Crossing has been damaged to some extent by some 4WD vehicles, the Shoalhaven River there is a great swimming spot and the organising team have been camping there. We don't think it will be as busy as it was during the Xmas 5 days.

Phone Coverage

There is no detectable phone coverage at the assembly area. You may get a Telstra signal along Stewarts Crossing Road the road that forms the Northern bounday of the map and also near the junction of Stewart Crossing Road and Mayfield Road. If you are lucky.

Starts

The start is a 900m walk from the assembly area. Control descriptions will be available in the pre-start area (Will Gardner, please note). Competitors will be called up 2 minutes before their start time where they must punch a check SPORTident unit held by the start official. At their actual start time, they must pick up a map and punch the start SPORTident unit. Competitors should punch the start unit before looking at their course on the map.

Start times will be allocated from 9.30am. If you need an early start or a later start, please use the appropriate service in Eventor and send the organiser a note indictaing which person on the entry requires the offset start time. If you miss your start time, you can wait at the start for the next vacancy on that course.

A little water will be avaiulable at the pre-start. Unless the weather is bad, there will be no clothing transfer from the start.

Competitors on the M/W10N course will not be allocated start times. They should come to the start with their shadowing partner (if any) whenever they are ready to start.

Don't panic if you miss your start, we will fit you in when there is a gap.

If you are using a different SPORTident stick to the one that you entered with, please tell the finish team before you go to the start to save some hassle when you are tired at the end of your run.

Hot weather is forecast - we will try to get set up early to allow start from 9am. Bear with us if we can't do that. If you have been allocated a late start and want to start earlier, just rock up to the start and we will start you when there is a gap. Think seriously about taking your own water on the course.

Safety

• All competitors must come to the download tent when they have finished so that we know that you have returned safely.
• The Easy and Very Easy competitors will have to cross Mayfield Cross Road after they finish. If you have children who are competing on one of these courses, please remind them not to get run over. It shouldn't be a big drama, the road is pretty quiet and there will be other orienteers about.
• We strongly advise that all competitors carry a whistle.
• Mayfield Cross Road is usually fairly quiet but cars may travel legally along it at up to 100km/h and sometimes do. Keep to the edge of the road when walking along it. Yes, you read that already.
• All competitors must punch the check unit at the start held by the start official - this will be used to validate exactly who has started.
• There are barbed wire fences to cross in the assembly area and for some courses during the start and at the finish. Please use the crossing points. These will involve threading yourselves between strands of wire, which will have protection around the relevant barbed strands.
• There is some loose fencing wire in the assembly area.

Map & Terrain

Snow Hills is one of the best spur gully areas in Australia. With few tracks and a lot of termite mounds the Hard courses will be challenging. Runnability is often flat out fast, but in some places that are mapped white there are fallen branches that somewhat reduce running speed. There are areas of low visibility she-oak forest and some tea tree regrowth on old farmland, which are mapped various shades of green. There are plenty of hills that all competitors except the E/VE will experience, but climb has been kept to 3.2–4.6% of distance. Special feature: Termite mounds are shown with a brown dot. Sometimes the termite mounds are large and pale coloured so are easily spotted, but others are smaller and darker and will never be found bwahahaha.

1:10000 is the scale for all courses, but as ever, check what the map says.

The competition map does not have a key - if you are not familiar with the symbols for bush orienteering, please collect a sample set from the organisers at the tent in the assembly area.

Based on Chris Wilmott photogrammetry, the Snow Hills area was originally mapped in 2002 by Alex Tarr. Since the area was first mapped, the vegetation, termite mounds and tracks have changed. The area north of the gas pipeline was field checked in Dec 2015 to Mar 2016 by Duncan Currie, Andrew Lumsden and Toby Wilson and the map updated appropriately. The areas around controls has been field checked again in Feb 2018. South of the pipeline, the map has been field checked in the places where this was most necessary. Courses Hard 1-6 go south of the pipeline. The gas pipeline is shown on the map with a long linear clearing with a track along it.

Maps will be printed on waterproof paper (Teslin) in the main. This may vary by course.

There will be no map reclaim - please don't show your course to those who haven't yet gone out.

 

Class/Course Details: lengths and allocations

 

Classes		Distance (km)	Climb (m)	Map Size
M21A, Red 1	Hard 1	12.0	465	Really big
M20A, M35A, M40A, Red 2	Hard 2	9.5	350	A3
M45A, Red 3, W21A	Hard 3	7.7	355	A3
M21AS, M50A, Red 4, W20A, W35A, W40A, W45A	Hard 4	6.2	265	A3
M16A, M35AS, M55A, M60A, M65A, Red 5, W50A	Hard 5	5.5	235	A3
M45AS, M70A, Red 6, W16A, W21AS, W55A, W60A	Hard 6	4.4	190	A4
M55AS, M75A, Red 7, W35AS, W45AS, W55AS, W65A, W70A	Hard 7	3.9	125	A4
M80A, M85A, Red 8, W65AS, W75A, W80A, W85A	Hard 8	2.5	80	A4
EOD Moderate, M Junior B, M Open B, M14A, Orange, W Junior B, W Open B, W14A	Moderate	3.1	130	A4
EOD Easy, Green - Open Easy, M12A, W12A	Easy	2.7	35	A4
Blue - Open Very Easy, EOD Very Easy, M/W10N, M10A, W10A	Very Easy	2.4	25	A4

Food and Water

The NSW Junior squad will be offering a selection of food items for your consumption. Please bring plenty of your own water to drink around the assembly area and before you go out on your course. The location of the event makes transportation of water a little difficult and we would like some to be available for all competitors to drink when they finish.

Toilets

The area is a water catchment, please use the toilet facilities provided. Since there are rather a lot of people starting in a short time frame, there may be long loo queues - consider stopping off en route at one of NSW fantastic public toilet facilities.

Officials

Planner: Simon George, Controller: Cath Chalmers, Organiser: Andy Simpson