Manning Park is situated on Azalia Road, Spearwood. It encompasses Manning Lake, surrounding parkland, and hills to the west and south. These are crisscrossed by tracks, providing a safe and interesting environment for orienteering. Around the flat area surrounding the lake there are picnic facilities, playgrounds, toilets and parking suitable for both cars and buses. The parking area nearest the start of the orienteering courses is located near the SW corner of the open area surrounding the lake.

Map notes
Out-of-Bounds areas: There are several areas clearly shown on the map to be out of bounds, including the lake and surrounding swamp. These must be avoided. When a straight course line crosses a forbidden area just choose a route around it.
Vegetation: Heath and bush vegetation on the hills is mostly very thick. Straight-line navigation is rarely possible.

Courses
There are 4 standard line courses available:
Parkland: Basic navigation, entirely within the main park area (1.5km, 10m climb);
Easy: An extension of the Parkland course, with several easy track legs in bushland (2.0km, 20m climb);
Moderate: Mostly in the hill area. Careful map reading and route (track) choice required. All control sites are beside tracks or in open ground (2.3km, 80m climb);
Hard: Maximum route choice options and some control sites that require detailed map interpretation. Some control sites are a short distance off tracks (3.0km, 110m climb).

There is also a scatter course with all 20 controls.

The start and finish for all these courses is at the south west end of the open area adjacent to the parking lot. Other starts could be used by anyone prepared to design their own course using the existing control sites shown on the ‘all controls’ scatter course map. The safety bearing on all courses is east to a boundary road or track (or the lake).

Information on the types of Control Markers and the Control Letter Codes, to check whether the course was completed correctly, are contained in the Anytime Orienteering Manning Park Guide (PDF)

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