Newcastle Orienteering Club is one of the largest orienteering clubs in NSW. The club was formed in the mid seventies after local bushwalking clubs held “Walk Trials” for their members to become full members of these clubs and to improve navigation skills of all members and not just the leader. These sessions were like orienteering coaching courses.
These orienteering style events, where the next map reference was collected at each control site, continued through the 1960’s and 1970’s. Participants in these events were from two different bushwalking clubs.
The suggestion to form an orienteering club was first made in 1972. The first "Newcastle Orienteering Club" event was held on 11 August 1974. A meeting was held on 11 September 1974 to elect a committee to run the club and prepare a constitution. This was adopted at the first AGM on 12 March 1975. In the early days of the club there were several "sub-clubs" within the overall Newcastle Orienteering Club.
The current club logo is the second one for the club. The original logo was a stylised N pointing to the North of the map. The basis of current logo with "Newcastle Orienteers" on the outside was originally designed 1980 with some later minor changes to the detail and colours.
One of the initial aims of the club was to have one event per month. The club now has a very busy calendar across the year and members regularly compete at local, state and national events. Several members have represented Australia at the World & Junior World Orienteering Championships.