Orienteers navigate to the Southern Downs for Easter

Local orienteers from the Bullecourt Boulder Bounders Club will be joining more than 650 orienteers from across Australia to compete in the annual Australian Three Day Championships which are being held at various venues across the Southern Downs over the Easter long weekend.
Twenty-three competitors from New Caledonia, plus some from as far as New Zealand, Finland, Hungary, Russia and Great Britain will also be competing at the Championships, making it quite an international event.
Venues for the competition will include private properties at Applethorpe and Dalveen as well as the Talgai State Forest near Pratten. There will be 24 courses offered, to cater for all ages and levels of ability, from the Under 10s to the Over 80s.
Development Officer for Orienteering Queensland, Liz Bourne, said that, as one of the major events on the national orienteering calendar, the competition had attracted Australia’s top elite orienteers as it was also part of the Silva National Orienteering League series of events which was a strongly contested interstate competition.
“The three-day event will also be a trial for those junior orienteers vying for selection in the Australian team for the Junior World Orienteering Championships which are being held in Slovakia in July, so the junior elite classes will be a particularly strong field,” she said.
“Elite junior orienteer, Lilian Burrill from Warwick, will be hoping her knowledge of granite terrain will give her a home town advantage as she once again vies for selection in the junior team,” Ms Bourne said. Lilian had been a part of the team three times before, so is looking forward to again representing Australia before she moves on to the senior ranks.
Ms Bourne said that all of the events would be open to the public and there would be Enter on the Day courses available if local people would like to come along and absorb the atmosphere of a major orienteering carnival.