Club Officials

Ron Frederick

President

Ron first became interested in navigation as a scout in Camberwell and Hawthorn. After joining Melbourne Uni Mountaineering Club (MUMC), he decided to enter the Club’s annual 24 hour walk. MUMC was a foundation member of Orienteering Vic, (then known as VOA). Many of the initial Orienteering events in Vic were organised by MUMC. see history… Ron has been an active Orienteer since the first event was organised in Vic in 1969. He has organised many major events over the last 50 years. He is an experienced course setter. For some years he was an accredited O coach. Ron also is a keen Rogainer.

Email me: President@emuorienteers.com

Laurie Niven

Vice-President and Orienteering Victoria Bush Program Coordinator

Past President and Life-member of Orientering Victoria. Together with husband, Rex, Laurie has been orienteering since 1978 and has orienteered in Europe and New Zealand.

Laurel Johnson

Secretary

I’ve been an orienteer for a relatively short amount of time – I was taken through my initial paces in Park and Street by Lauris Stirling, just before the lockdowns and restrictions of the pandemic hit in 2020. She was a great first teacher, and I also got some excellent intro to bush orienteering from Laurie Niven.

More recently, I participated in a couple of Central Highland’s Learn to Orienteer activities, which I really enjoyed and found useful to improving my ‘technique’ in a number of areas, even though I had been orienteering for some time already. It would be great if more clubs were able to offer the same kind of activities – Central Highlands is accessible from Melbourne, but more local clubs offering the same/similar activities would be great.

I live in Clifton Hill, so I’m spoiled for choice taking my morning walk, but I like the variety of locations/levels of difficulty Park and Street provides – I’ve come to know some beautiful places in and around Melbourne that I never knew were there – sometimes I go back to one of those places on the weekend just because it was such a nice place for a stroll.

I looked into orienteering as a way to get out and about with like-minded people – both for the exercise and the social aspects. I also thought it would be a great activity to have as a hobby going into retirement – I’m only 60 but being at home a lot during COVID made me think about how I would get out of the house regularly when I stop working.

I also had an earlier ‘orienteering-adjacent’ experience with Hash House Harriers during the time I worked in China prior to migrating to Australia. At that time, I was an avid runner so, again, enjoyed it from that standpoint, but also the social connections I made.

I am not competitive, and never have been, so that aspect of orienteering doesn’t figure in why I like it – although the idea of going to Finland one day to witness/be a part of one of those incredible mass starts does appeal! Orienteering is a firm fixture (pun intended) of my lifestyle now, and I hope to get more involved in its organisational aspects as well; in particular, I would love to learn course setting.

Email me: Secretary@emuorienteers.com

Christine Prentice

Treasurer, Facebook Administrator and Website Editor

Christine is mainly active in Park&Street and Melbusho events, and is the statistician for street orienteering. More recently she has been taking her first steps in bush orienteering. This complements one of Christine’s other main interests of genealogy as one branch of her family lived in areas around several bush maps from the 1860s on.

Email me: Treasurer@emuorienteers.com

Robert Edmonds

Membership Officer, Editor Emus Online and Website Administrator

Rob began orienteering in 1974 when he joined the Latrobe University Mountaineering Club when he also competed 24 hour walks now known as Rogaines. Rob has considerable experience in mapping, course setting, and organising bush events. He enjoys Bush, Mountain bike and Park&Street events. He is a retired teacher who now works in customer care at the MCG and a guide at the Old Treasury Building. He also coaches and produces maps for Schools.

Email me: Contact@emuorienteers.com

Ian Parry

Minutes Secretary

Ian, now retired, is a more recent member of the committee and has extensive expertise in administration. He enjoys overseas adventure trips. One highlight was the walk he completed on the Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. Ian looks after club clothing.

Carolyn Layton

Committee Member

Carolyn joined the committee at the end of 2021. Carolyn moived from South Australia with her family a few years ago. Very active in bush orienteering and is very active in coaching juniors. Carolyn is the Junior Development Officer for Orienteering Victoria. Her two sons, Matthew and Josh have been very active competing successfully in Junior ranks. Both boys have also taken up course setting at MelbushO events

Lauris Stirling

Park&StreetO Coordinator

Past winner of the Vin Maloney Trophy. Lauris is very active in the ParkStreet scene and has a scouting background. Lauris has been orgaising the catering for the Maxi for some years. This picture was taken at the 2016 Hepburn Springs Maxi. Lauris also organises the Christmas in Winter social function.

Don Fell

Park&StreetO Western Series Coordinator, Website Editor

Don began orienteering with the Melbourne University Mountaineering Club (MUMC) innthe early days of orienteering in Australia and is very active in bush and park street orienteering. Together with wife, Fiona, they have raised 3 sons who were also competetive orienteers. They have enjoyed overseas trips to Scotland and Scandinavian countries where they have also competed.

Fiona Fell

Committee Member

I have been orienteering since 1972 (trivial pursuit fact: first event was on the Korweinguboora map and control buckets were placed by one Don Fell). Over the years our children became involved and now our grandchildren are running around the string courses! As a family we travelled to events in various parts of Australia, and in later years Don and I have been privileged to be able to participate in events overseas. For me, orienteering is one of the few sporting activities that we can participate in irrespective of age or ability.

Helen Edmonds

Committee Member

Helen has been orienteering and rogaining since 1975. She has competed successfully at major national events. Helen gained a Masters in Environmental Science at Monash University and has recently retired from a long teaching career. She maintains an interest in education, coaching students in the Sporting Schools program. She also enjoys kayaking, swimming, bushwalking and mountain bike riding.

Rex Niven

Committee Member

Rex has recently stepped down a club secretary, a role he served for many years. He loves course setting and checking out new areas for orienteering.