Tuckonie Orienteering Club Serving Orienteers in Melbourne's Western Suburbs
Greetings from Tuckonie Orienteering Club!
Tuckonie Orienteering Club provides a friendly and supportive environment for newcomers and their families to enjoy orienteering. In addition to providing support for newcomers, the club also organises events for Victorian orienteers, runs regular social activities and training activities and provides a regular newsletter.
While the club encourages people in the Western and North-Western suburbs to join, all are welcome. Please contact us if you need any more information.
Membership EnquiriesTuckonie is the strongest orienteering club in the Western and North-Western suburbs of Melbourne. The club participates in all forms of orienteering run in Victoria - including bush-orienteering, park/street orienteering in the Western suburbs of Melbourne and Mountain Bike Orienteering. Tuckonie takes a leading role in the Park/Street Orienteering Western Series - and is an ideal entry point into orienteering for newcomers to the sport.
For information about membership, contact Lindsay Thomas at thomas@unimelb.ed.au
Tuckonie History
Tuckonie Orienteering Club was born in 1972 immediately following the Victorian Orienteering Association's decision to split into clubs. 'Little Men of the Forest' translated to 'Tuckonie' in Sture Lantz's dictionary, so he, Keith Wade and Peter Rule chose that for the new clubs name.
Tuckonie ran their first event on the area later known as 'Pyrites Creek', using the then-standard black-and-white photocopies of military maps. With hindsight, we could say that 'Pyrites Creek' got harder as the maps got better. Perhaps the hakea grew just as fast!
Early club identities still seen at events include past Club Secretary Peter Beggs and Noel McVey. The club was fairly active then, with four events in the first year, the last being a three-colour map (black, brown and blue) at 'Red Hill' near Mount Macedon. 'Red Hill' was being logged as we mapped it. and was later burned flat in the Ash Wednesday fires. Although it is back to its original condition, we now think it too tough for the modern orienteer. By l974 we had produced a colour map at 'East Cobaw' to (then) Championship standard.
Lindsay Thomas was invited to join the club in the first few weeks upon becoming VOC Assistant Secretary - an ear in high places. Lindsay went on to be Secretary and President, and organised two State Championships and the 1990 Nationals. However, he does not recommend this as a training regimen; he has still to receive a winner's badge.
Barry Giles later continued Tuckonie's impact on the VOA, as Secretary during the testing times around WOCARN. Barry also did an excellent job managing the finish arrangements for the Carnival in 1985.
Top competitors
Early days in the club had a strong competitive impact Keith Wade became National Champion in 1973, and Keith, Peter Rule and John Oliver were Australian representatives, the last on a number of occasions. George Latham, (later a croquet champion) also coached the top orienteers during the seventies. Juniors including Peter Latham and Warwick Davis (cousin of Jock) also kept the club name in the individual record books.
Warwick Davis pioneered the use of computers for major events in the late seventies and his technology was still being used in big fun runs many years later. Warwick's parents, Bill and Win, are regulars at events during the warmer months, and Win is familiar to many from her work in the Registration tent while the rest of us come and go on courses.
Mapping
The club's reputation for challenging (!) map, established right at the outset, grew with the Victorian Championships at 'East Cobaw' in 1974. Relay Championships on the same map in 1976, 'Wombat Wallow' for the Victorian Championships in 1980, and 'Mount Alexander' for the Victorian Championships in 1984. The legendary 'Djerriwarrh Creek' was used for State and Club events during this period. but was unavailable for the 1990 Championships.
John Oliver was very active during this period, mapping a second part of the Cobaw State Forest ('Cobaw Ridge') and the colour version of 'Pyrites Creek', and very importantly designing the Tuckonie 'Running Man' badge, which probably first appeared on the 'Monument Hill' map in about 1977. No-one has ever suggested that the contours in our logo represent anything other than a mountain!
Tuckonie was now starting on what (for us) is a new venture - mapping in the goldmining country. Our next area was near Taradale, starting a new cycle of maps to take us to the end of the century.
Schools promotion
Tuckonie established another reputation in the early eighties by embracing the concept of urban-park mapping wholeheartedly. Within a few years we developed 'Brimbank', 'Coburg Lake', 'Aberfeldie'. 'Gladstone Park' and 'Sunbury' maps, at a time when growing interest from schools led to heavy use of these maps, providing a continuing source of income to finance other mapping. Ken Moore kept the club on track during those years, while Graeme Harrison energetically pursued school orienteering opportunities at both club and VOA level. The largest event held in Victoria before WOCARN was a schools event for 990 children run by Tuckonie on the 'Coburg Lake' map.
Paul Elam later took over the position of Schools Officer for the VOA. Paul contributed many thoughtful ideas about the development of orienteering, and has influenced Tuckonie to remain positively interested in the 'ordinary' orienteers. Perhaps from the experience of organising Paul and their three children, Anne Garvey joined into the club's ranks of good event organisers.
Relay successes
Tuckonie has also had a series of good club relay teams in various classes. Women's teams, selected from such steady performers as Jan Thomas, Marion Latham, Sue Harrison, Kath Oliver and Pun Prime. were effective through the middle parts of the club's history. Jan is thought to have competed in more events than anyone else in the club.
Pam's husband Peter (who joined to learn navigation for aircraft piloting) has been another stiff competitor in interstate competition. Peter, with George Latham and Keith Wade, mode up a formidable relay team which went undefeated for eight interstate events. Members of the Prime family had a monopoly on the Club Championship for some years, improving continuously year by year.
After leading Tuckonie into the new-granite-map era with 'Mount Alexander', Dick Barker moved over to lead the VOA, the second President from Tuckonie. He is was looking towards 1994 as organiser for Australia's World Cup carnival in that year.
Tuckonie embraced the new idea of summer evening events during 1986, but typically Ken Moore led us to put our own mark on the Summer Series West. Unlike the original street series in the eastern part of Melbourne, we run our events on 'real' orienteering maps. Ken has subsequently interested other clubs in this approach, so that we now have a strong summer calendar.
Exports and Imports
Quite a few Australian clubs have benefited from Tuckonie's early training. Our most distinguished export, John Oliver, went to Wagga Wagga some years ago. Andrew and Pru Crouch returned to South Australia's Tintookies after making many friends in our club. There's a rumour that we exiled Bob Daley to Warby after an infamous event on regrowing Wombat Wallow in 1986, but he really did leave of his own volition. The North-east also gained Peter and Anne Woods, who went to Albury but still come down to renew friendships when their business permits it. Barry Parsons and his family went to Maryborough. but haven't been training on Kooyoora-perhaps it's too easy after Djerriwarrh Creek.
Beside exporting our good orienteers. we also export competition. After noticing that Toohey Forest Orienteers wore closely similar uniforms at WOCARN. we established a friendly rivalry with the Queenslanders. We now have an unofficial competition for the 'Big Badja Boulder', the only rock which was unmapped on the 'Big Badja' map at Cooma. This trophy is now keenly fought over at the Easter Three-Days each year. Our closest neighbours, Central Highlands Orienteers, also battle with us for the 'Chuckonie Chunk', one of several million unmapped boulders from the 'Mineral Springs' map. We've also entered in the fashion stakes, with new track suits for the 1992 spring to compete with the Yarra Valley and Eureka clothes horses.
We've benefited from imports, too. Among arrivals to the club were Bob and Katy (and Catherine) Parker. Arriving in Victoria from the UK via Saudi Arabia and Perth, Bob and Katy saw their first Victorian event in the Dandenongs, then settled in Tuckonie country (the north and west of Melbourne). Rob Allen came to us from Tasmania in time to assist with computing at the Nationals in 1990, and his son Graeme was a very promising junior. The Dixons moved from Central Highlands and Lorraine became our Treasurer, and Frank was our course-setter on the great 'Mount Alexarder' map.
The newer members will, we hope, inherit the strong sense of continuity which Tuckonie has seemed to generate. A notable feature of one major event (the 1990 National Championships at 'Dunga Mount') was that the mapping, course setting, and organising were done by Peter Rule, Keith Wade and Lindsay Thomas. With Noel McVey, they were the team who led Tuckonie in presenting the 19174 Victorian Championships at 'East Cobaw' (the other side of the same hill). We're proud of this tradition, and look forward to seeing it continue into the next century.
