ORIENTEERING: Orienteers from seven countries are on the Granite Belt for this weekend's Australian Long and Middle Distance Championships being organised by Orienteering Queensland.

The Southern Downs club, the Bullecourt Boulder Bounders, is heavily involved with the championships which have attracted 750 orienteers.

The weather has fined up for competitors from New Zealand, New Caledonia, Sweden, Finland, The Czech Republic, Great Britain and Australia to enjoy the outdoors on the Granite Belt.

The competition has also attract Australia's top elite orienteers as it is part of the National Orienteering League series of events which is a strongly contested interstate competition.

The Championships are being conducted in the Amiens section of the Passchendaele State Forest, west of Stanthorpe. There will be 25 courses offered to cater for all ages and levels of ability, from the under 10's to the over 90's.

Special orienteering maps have been produced for each event with competitors having to navigate their way through the bush to specified control sites on their course using their map and compass. Course lengths can vary from 13km for the elite men down to 1.6km for those over 90.

The region's detailed granite terrain provides for some of the most challenging navigation in Australia with many orienteers having competed in the area many times before.

Saturday's Long Distance Championships will be held predominantly in the pine plantation area managed by HQ Plantations while Sunday's event will be in a southern, eucalypt section managed by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. Starts will be from 9am on both days.

Local community groups will be benefiting from the championships with the Amiens School P and C providing the catering at the events, the Dalveen CWA will assist with the Saturday night dinner and many orienteers will camp at the Stanthorpe Showgrounds.

Warwick volunteer extraordinaire Graham Buchner has lent his event trailer for an event which is expected to have a major economic spin off for Warwick as well as Stanthorpe.

This event is one of the two biggest in orienteering held on the Southern Downs in the past two decades.

All members of the public are welcome to watch the action, follow the signs to the event site.