The Annual General Meeting of the Nillumbik-Emus Orienteering Club will be held on Sunday 25 November 2007 at Westerfolds Park in the OUTDOOR room, part of the Parks Victoria suite of offices, at 1:30PM. Enter the park via the main entrance in Fitzsimons Lane and bear right.  After 350m or so park at the far end of the public car park (on the left).  The offices are just across the road.  There is an electric BBQ and picnic tables set about amongst the buildings, and inside is a kitchenette.

 Bring a picnic lunch and a serious expression.  Arrive around 11AM for a quick O-game followed by lunch. We anticipate our guest speaker at 1PM.

 As usual there will be reports from the Treasurer and the President, presentations to the VIN MALONEY TROPHY winners, and re-election of officers for 2008.  No current committee members have announced their retirement, although the newsletter editor position may still be on offer to a good home.

Please let us know if you are coming (by return mail) and/or if you want minutes of the last AGM by email.

Recent Events

Organisers & course-setters - Rod Lawlor, Schon Hudson, Ian Stirling and Geoff

1st November - Eltham Park/Street Event. Congratulations to Rod Lawlor who did such an excellent job setting the first Northern Series course this year. Recognising that the terrain was hilly and that we've had a few warm days of late, Rod tempered his A-grade runner enthusiasm and planned a course that would be fair and reasonable for the first event of the year. This was an excellent course for a map that is often very tough to run on. While the cool weather helped a little, the manner in which the course was set made it possible for astute runners in all grades to minimise the climb required - with A-grade being able to climb the Eastern Hills once and then weave through a series of alley-ways and parks to provide excellent route choice along the ridge line.

Wyndham Western Series - congratulations to the Fell and Sunley families for getting their mini-series, the Wyndham Super Six Series up and going. Our experience from starting the training series last year (where only 7 turned up to the first event - but now we average 35-40 per week), suggests that as the word gets out smaller, highly localised series are an attractive means of meeting up with friends and exercising in a friendly and mildly competitive environment.  Latest results (not yet published elsewhere are shown below.

Nillumbik Emus in the Local Press

Congratulations to Club Publicity Officer, Phil Giddings, in getting the following excellent article in the local press. This was a feature article on orienteering, with colour pictures, that occupied two-thirds of a page. Great job Phil!!

"Emus are hopping after navigating a 10th title by Eliza Sewell A Diamond Valley orienteering club has emerged as the best in the state, but it's nothing new for the Nillumbik Emus Orienteering Club. The Emus cololected the Victorian Club Champion's title - the Rockhopper Trophy - for their performances during the winter season. It's the 10th time that the club has collected the trophy in the 12 years that the Emus have been competing in the championships. Emu's Phil Gidding's said they held off teams from Ballarat, Bendigo and the Yarra Valley to take out the overall award. The Emus won on 1262 points, just 52 ahead of Ballarat and 88 ahead of Bendigo. Giddings said it was a tight contest throughout the nine event season. "It's a pretty big deal" Giddings said of the title win "...but it's not as if the club dominated". Up to 80 people take part in events in and around the Diamond Valley, while across Melbourne about 500 participate each week; but Giddings said that there was always room for more competitors. "It's something we're trying to grow" he said. The great thing about it is it's a running and walking sport. We have a walking class as well as a running class, it keeps it (the sport) accessible for everyone. The club's summer season is under way, with events starting at 7pm each Thursday night in the DIamond Valley region. For more information phone Geoff Hudson on 9888 8121.

Club Clothing

        If you see someone in an Emu top that you don't know
        please go over and introduce yourself to them.

We now have boxes and boxes of the new tops - and they're blocking access into my study ;-). In the Eastern and Northern Series, I'll be contacting folks directly to offer them one of these superb (heavily subsidised) running tops. New members that would like to find out about club tops etc should contact Schon Hudson on 9888 8121 or at any event - or Fiona Shaw on 9749 4941 in the Western suburbs.

Emus Course-Setters for the Summer Series

Courses setters are required for the events being hosted by NE over the coming Summer Series. I have a few names against events to start with as a result of the first round of club bidding for events. Please assist if can by placing the numbers 1 and 2 against events to indicate your 1st and 2nd event preferences and then return to Ian Stirling (or call him on 9876 3643) - we need to have course-setters in place for ALL events before the series starts.

• Wed 28 Nov Bayswater   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Rick Bailes
• Thur 6 Dec Ruffey Creek   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - David Prentice
• Wed 26 Dec Boronia Bay - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Rachel Johnson
• Mon 21 Jan Endeavour Greens - - - - - - - - - - Lauris Stirling
• Wed 23 Jan Burnley Maze - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Bernie Shuttleworth
• Thur 24 Jan Bundoora Park - - - - - - - - - - - - -Alex Shepherd
• Thur 7 Feb Darebin Park - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Geoff Hudson / Jim Taylor
• Mon 11 Feb Kangaroo Flat  - - - - - - - - - - - - - Barry Giles
• Thur 28 Feb Springthorpe   - - - - - - - - - - - - - Jeff Hughes
• Thur 27 Mar Rosanna Parklands - - - - - - - - - Phil Giddings

Nillumbik Emus - a brief history
by Rob Edmonds

The club is in the process of collecting information for a series of Club History pages on the web site. Rob Edmonds has kindly provided the material below as an initial contribution and we invite others that may have information and/or photographs of earlier times to let us use these as part of this project.

The name Nillumbik comes from an Aboriginal word used by the Wurundjeri people, thought to mean ‘shallow or dead earth’. This is reflective of the general soil type and the relatively sparse vegetation of the area. Though lacking in plant foods, the open ground reputedly was good for hunting. The area now comprising the Shire of Nillumbik was roamed for centuries by the Wurundjeri-willam clan of the Woi wurrung speaking people. The Woi wurrung territory encompassed the watersheds of both the Yarra and Maribyrnong Rivers and thus occupied much of present-day Melbourne. A number of archaeological sites remain as evidence of Aboriginal custodianship of much land within the Shire, and the Wurundjeri are recorded as having co-existed with the early white squatters and selectors.

Another more recent interpretation of the word Nillumbik is 'Go and Get Lost'. Nillumbik was adopted as the name of the club when Eltham College wished to broaden their appeal.

There have been many mergers and associations over the years. Latrobe University Mountaineering Club was an original member of the VOA. Latrobe Mountaineering Club ‘Leadbeaters’ was formed from ex-LUMC members and some of its members joined the newly formed Nillumbik OC in 1985 when LMC was no longer able to run orienteering events. The Latrobe University and Greendale/Blackwood maps were made by LMC.

When the Geelong Orienteering Club disbanded, some of its members joined Nillumbik and the You Yangs became one of our maps. This map was used by Nillumbik for the Australian Club Relays in 1985 as part of the World Championships Carnival, an event which attracted over 900 participants.

Emus comes from the name of one of the original clubs in Victoria to join organised orienteering Melbourne University Mountaineering Club (MUMC). When the orienteering group became an entity in itself, it became Ex-MUMC or EMU. The present name resulted from an amalgamation of the two clubs at the end of 1993.

St Leo’s / Navigators, itself an amalgamation had previously joined Emus. One of their orienteering areas, Bungal, is still popular. Vin Maloney ran the O’Shop for many years. His son, Kevin took that over and the club has set the annual Vin Maloney Trophy as its handicap event for best club orienteer each year.

Eltham College ‘St Georges Lake’, MUMC ‘Borhoney Ghurk’ and Latrobe ‘Greendale’ organised events for the 1981 Christmas 6 days Orienteering Carnival which attracted orienteers from right around the world.

The successful Rockhoppers club merged with Nillumbik Emus in 1995 as the demands for organising orienteering events became more time consuming. The Rockhopper Trophy for Champion Victorian Club was created in 1995 and Nillumbik Emus have won 10 of the 12 trophies.

2008 Event Calendar - Nillumbik Emus
by Rob Edmonds (Event Coordinator)

Please let Rob know if you would like to course set, organize or control an event on this fixture. You can also learn the ropes by assisting in these roles. If you have never course set or organized a bush event before and would like to have a go please contact Rob at redm4896@bigpond.net.au  or Ph. 9438 3378.

Wyndham Super Six 2007-2008 - Latest Results