Saturday's event was held quite close to Kurri Kurri at Pelaw Main. The area is rather interesting and it has a rich history which explains the railway platform lines and yarding.
Pelaw Main Colliery
About 1900 the coal mining firm of J & A Brown purchased the leasehold of the proposed Stanford Greta No. 2 Colliery from the East Greta Coal Mining Company and soon afterwards changed the name of the property to Pelaw Main. By 1901 they had driven two tunnels into the 17 foot seam of coal there. They then constructed a railway extension westwards from the terminus of the South Maitland Railways branch line at Victoria Street, Stanford Merthyr, to Pelaw Main, a distance of about one mile, which opened for traffic on 17 November 1901.A brick-faced passenger platform was built at Reception Road, Pelaw Main, but passenger traffic ceased in 1932 with the scaling down of the branch from Aberdare Junction on the South Maitland Railways coupled with the fact that from 1918 coal from the Stanford Merthyr Colliery was being transported via the Richmond Vale Railway. In addition, the SMR branch was abandoned altogether by 1940 following major subsidence beneath it, leaving the Richmond Vale Railway to service fully Stanford Merthyr and Pelaw Main.
Pelaw Main Colliery was a major concern and large employer. By 1902 there were four coal loading 'roads' which accommodated sufficient wagons to hold 4000 tons of coal at any one time. Richmond Vale Railway was extended to form a main link, past the South Maitland Cemetery, to the South Maitland Railways at Weston Exchange Sidings near the eastern end of Weston Railway Station, the link being completed in 1936. This meant that in the unlikely event that the Richmond Vale Railway was blocked an alternative route for coal trains was available. The link was occasionally used when flooding blocked one, but not both rail lines-it was rare for both lines to be blocked at the same time.
Pelaw Main Colliery closed in 1962 owing to the major coal industry slump at that time.
The area around the middle of the course brought many undone.
For those who last pulled out there compass in anger in South Australia the concept of having to deal with green was an abrupt reality check.
All courses were a challenge and you really had to stay in very close contact with the map if you wanted a clean run.
Obviously Shane, Sophie, Maggie and Linda had consistent runs to score a "top of the podium" placing.
The weather was rather warm, 27c and very humid.
Results:
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1
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Shane Doyle
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37:20
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1
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Sophie Jones
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35:56
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1
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Maggie Mackay
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20:46
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1
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Linda Sesta
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35:38
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2
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Jim Mackay
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35:30
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2
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Jakob Doyle
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1:19:02
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2
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Gayle Shepherd
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44:04
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3
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Margaret Jones
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47:14
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3
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Maureen Ogilvie
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1:09:47
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4
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Georgia Jones
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40:40
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4
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Lawrence Jones
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38:09
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4
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Finn Mackay
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1:20:37
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4
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Ian Jones
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41:43
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5
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Serena Doyle
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1:25:22
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5
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Dick Ogilvie
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43:20
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6
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Dave Lotty
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49:27
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Ron Pallas
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mispunched
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Sunday dawned damp after some fairly consistent rain overnight but fortunately the rain held off until almost everyone was back from their runs. ( Feel sorry for the organisers as the gear is then wet...
So it was head north to the Seaham area ( Karuah) for State League 4. The area was a little steeper than Saturday and the contour detail provided the challenge for the day. The planner really set the cat among the pigeons with the early controls being more like a mid distance event. It was not until later in the map that the long legs appeared. Having been lulled into a false sense of security by the early controls the long legs bit many an unsuspecting competitor.Naturally being a Newcastle map there were plenty of tracks around the quarry although the presence of a large motor bike complex just down the road has reduced the impact of trail bikes.
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| Trail bike park - note the quarry run by Boral on the left and part of the map area in the top right corner
Once again Uringans performed extremely well with some great results.
A real "star" run was by Georgia. On Saturday Georgia had been caught up in the tracks whereas her Sunday run was fantastic. So much so that Georgia beat home one of Australia's premier W20 Elites who was running in the same class- the margin being 14 seconds...
So all that was left was to beat a hasty retreat down the M3 back to the big smoke. Did not even stop at the Heatherbrae pie shop!
Coming Events.
Metro League 2 -26th April
Western Sydney Regional Park, off Wallgrove Rd, Horsley Park.
State Leagues 4/5- 16/17th May (pre-enter event)
Based around Orange and includes the NSW Long Distance Championships on a great map just west of Molong.
Metro League 3 24th May @ Centennial Park - this is a Uringa event.
ps. mm my mis-punch on day 1 was a tactical withdrawal due to a "Michael Clark" hamstring problem. Live to limp another day
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