Technical Information

COURSE PLANNING | CONTROLLING | ENVIRONMENT | MAPPING

The following documents & links are useful for event organisers, course setters, mappers and controllers.  For other related material refer also to

• Event Management page. 

• The Technical section of the Orienteering Australia's web site

Course planners need to understand map legends and the related control descriptions - download from links below

• forest map legend
• sprint map legend
• control descriptions and the associated map legend symbols
• Control Descriptions - Australian Edition
• sprint and school map legend

Purple Pen Workshop

Youtube from the Purple Pen Workshop run by Ian Jessup from Orienteering NSW

Course Planning

Presentations from 2023 Course Planning Workshop

Session 1 - Essential of Course Planning, Components of the Course, Navigational Standards, Safety
Session 2 - Orienteering Course Formats, Mistakes to avoid in course planning

Introductory video on planning Easy, Moderate and Hard courses. For more details (including planning Very Easy courses), see the Session 1 document above

• Course planning overview by Stefano Raus 2017
• Long Distance Courses by Robin Uppill 2022
• Middle Distance Courses by Robin Uppill 2022
• Sprint Distance Courses by Robin Uppill 2022
• Relay Courses by Robin Uppill March 2023

[ from Course Planning Workshop 2014]

• WorkshopAgenda.pdf
• Course Planning Workshop 2014 No Maps.pdf
• Course_Planning_Workshop_2014_Hard_Courses_No_Maps.pdf
• Course Planning Moderate and Hard Courses.doc
• Very Easy Course Example.pdf
• EasyCourse Example.pdf
• Moderate Course Example.pdf
• Hard Course - Long Distance Example.pdf
• Middle Distance Example.pdf
• Sprint Distance Example.pdf

[Documents from Other Workshops and Articles]

Managing Event Risks - various example documents

• Event Risk Management by Robin Uppill June 2024
• Example Risk and Safety Plan - Aus 3 Days 2015 - by Robin Uppill
• Example Risk Action Plan - Aus 3 Days 2007 - by Robin Uppill
• OA Risk Managment Plan Extract - Event related risks

Various documents reelvant to managing events and courses

• Map and Course Printing - 2020_Course_Planning_-_Course_marking__Printing_UPDATED_20200309.pdf
• Settng Short Hard Courses - Technical_Guidelines_for_Short_Hard_Courses.pdf
• Course Formats Summary - EventFormatsSummary.pdf
• Water on Courses - Water on Courses.pdf
• Restricted Areas and Routes - Restricted Areas and Routes.pdf
• Control Placement - Siting of Control Flags.doc
• Course Setting Moderate and Hard Courses - Course Planning Moderate and Hard Courses.doc
• Course Setting Easy, very Easy and Street Courses - Course Planning Easy, Very Easy and Street-Park Courses.doc
• Run Rates for Maps by Adrian Uppill   RunRatesforMaps.xls
• Course Length Determinator by Adrian Uppill  CourseLengthDeterminator.xls
• MTBO Course Planning - Guidelines from Sweden

Controlling:

[L2 Controllers Workshop 2025]

• 2025_L2_Workshop_Slides_1_Cntrl_Role.pdf
• 2025_L2_Workshop_Slides_2_CP_A.pdf
• 2025_L2_Workshop_Slides_3_CP_B.pdf
• 2025_L2_Workshop_Slides_4a_Event_Org.pdf
• 2025_L2_Workshop_Slides_4b_Event_Org_-_Risk.pdf
• 2025_L2_Workshop_Slides_4c_Event_Org_IT.pdf
• 2025_L2_Workshop_Slides_5_Fairness_Ethics.pdf
• 2025_Controller_Checking_Maps_Course_Markings_and_Printing.pdf
• Controller_Resources.pdf

[L2 Controllers Workshop 2015]

• L2Agenda20151122.doc
• 2015 L2 Workshop Slides.ppt
• Course navigational difficulty.docx
• Event Organisation Activities.docx
• Officials-Code-of-Ethics-Orienteering.doc 
• 2015 Mapping- Notes for Controllers Workshop.pdf
• 2015 Mapping- Notes for Controllers Workshop.pdf 

Environmental Impact of Orienteering:

• Several articles based on an environmental survey associated with a major orienteering event in Namadgi NP, ACT are available here.

Mapping:

• International Orienteering Federation: Mapping Specifications
• Orienteering Australia Mapping Page.

• Oceania Mapping Workshop Presentation 2019. Prepared by Adrian Uppill (former Member of the IOF Map Commission)
• March 2021. The new branding logo (GAME ON) for ORSR should now be incorporated with the ORSR Logo on maps. The two logos should be arranged with the ORSR logo on the left as below. Links are provided below:

ORSR Logo as graphic

ORSR Logo as OCAD 2018 file

Game On as graphic file

Game On as OCAD 2018 file  

School Mapping

• IOF Symbol Set for School Maps applies from Jan 2020
• March 2021 Mapping Requirments for School Maps by Adrian Uppill
• June 2021 All school orienteeriing maps are made with a standard map legend - dowload here by Adrian Uppill