Neville de Mestre served as President of the Orienteering Federation of Australia (OFA) from 1988 to 1990 and was also a member of the Technical Committee from 1982 to 1988 prior to his election as President. Neville was a person who radiated positive energy, enthusiasm, a can do mindset and possessed a sharp intellect.

Neville began orienteering in the mid 1970’s and quickly became an enthusiastic competitor and developed a strong interest in the technical side of course setting and mapping. He was successful in wining national championships in his age class and represented Australia on numerous occasions in the Australia/New Zealand Challenge team through the 1980s

However, it is the social side of orienteering that Neville left a lasting memory among older orienteers for his role as ‘the Ambassador’ in hosting the ‘Ogies’ presentations at the social event held during the Australian Championships Carnival from 1979 to 1992. Presented in a humorous vein, the Ogies were awarded for ‘memorable incidents in Australian orienteering’ which many of the recipients themselves may prefer to forget. These incidents were described in detail on the night and afterwards reported in the Australian Orienteer.

Outside orienteering, Neville had a successful academic career in mathematics and along with his wife Margaret in founded a new orienteering club on the Gold Coast, Paradise Lost Orienteers, after moving there from Canberra in 1989

Family and friends are warmly invited to Neville’s funeral service at Hillside Chapel at 1:30pm on Wednesday 1 June 2022. For those who wish to live stream the service service please visit palmdalegroup.com.au/scheduled-funerals-palmdale/.

The family request no flowers but Neville would have loved donations to The Smith Family’s learning programs.

If anyone wishes to attend in person, please email (emmi.demestre@gmail.com) and she will pass along the address details.

For those who cannot attend in person, but would like a short tribute read, please send a copy through to Emmi by Tuesday afternoon.
If you would like to send a card to Margaret or the family, please address it to Nicole de Mestre, 9 Rhodin Drive, Long Jetty NSW 2261.