Author Archives: RoamingHowie

21 Years Of Geocaching Events In Victoria!

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This weekend we celebrated the 21st Birthday of geocaching events in Victoria.

The first ever Victorian geocaching event, GC5C5D, was held on 23 June 2002 at O’Briens Crossing in the Lerderderg State Park. So what better location to celebrate the 21st birthday than back where it all began. Geocachers came from far and wide to celebrate the day whilst enjoying a bbq, Crack’n’LeeLee’s famous soup, and plenty of party snacks! A huge thank you to Leah and Craig (Crack’n’LeeLee) for initiating the celebrations and for all their hard work hosting.

Geocachers celebrating the 21st birthday of geocaching events in Victoria.

David from team maccamob, who was at the very first event, shared some insights on the inaugural activity. He noted there was a lot less infrastructure at GZ back in 2002, however the weather had not changed with it being just as cold. The difference was, they had a warm fire to cozy up to, something no longer permitted at O’Briens Crossing.

At the time of Victoria’s first event:

  • Maccamob had just reached their 100 cache find milestone (currently 47,000+).
  • Brain and some of our other active cachers hadn’t even been born!
  • The first iphone was still 5 years away from release.
  • We were up to Edition 30 of the Melways, with extra maps newly added for Queenscliff, Mickleham and Wyndham Vale.
  • Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” was the number 1 song for the year, which is exactly what many cachers did (and still do).

Since the first event, there have been almost 1,700 amazing events across the state, with plenty more still to come.

In fact looking ahead in July and August alone, Victoria already has 30 events and CITO’s on the calendar with 21 different CO’s contributing to the fun. Excitingly, four of those CO’s are hosting an event for the very first time. To find an event near you, check out the Upcoming Events page on our website.

Be sure to log your will attend on any of these events to join in the fun. If you’d like some help to host your first geocaching event, feel free to reach out to one of the Geocaching Victoria committee members or one of the existing event COs to help get you on your way.

We look forward to seeing you at the next event!

Geocachers attending the first ever geocaching event in Victoria.

What do weeding, nominations and a sausage sizzle all have in common?

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Answer – They are all part of the Geocaching Victoria events being held on 21 May 2023 at Edwardes Lake Park in Reservoir.

  • GCA69WH – Edwardes Lake Park CITO – 11:30 – 12:30
  • GCA69WK – Cache of the Year Award Nominations & Volunteer Week BBQ – 1:00 – 2:30

Come and join the activities and log your will attend for either or both events. See below for more details:

Edwardes Lake Park – Lakeside weeding – CITO – GCA69WH – 11:30am

Come and help the Friends of Edwardes Lake at this CITO. Working to preserve, restore and care for the ecosystem of Edwardes Lake and surrounds, we will be joining their team to help weed and maintain an area of the park that is being restored. It is also the first CITO in the Darebin LGA for 5 years. You might even get a chance to say hello to Kevin and Mabel, the resident lake swans.

National Volunteer Week Sausage Sizzle – GCA69WK – 1:00pm

National Volunteer Week is a chance to celebrate and recognise the vital work of volunteers. Geocaching Victoria and all of its events and activities are only possible thanks to the many, many volunteers who donate their time and energy in support of the geocaching community.

Whether it be helping to run a Mega, working on the GPS Adventure Maze, contributing to a GeoTour, selling sausages at a Bunnings BBQ or helping out at many other activities, volunteers are the lifeblood of all that we do.

As part of Volunteer Week we will be hosting a free sausage sizzle and get together. Be sure to log your will attend and include the number of people in your team so that we can be sure to cater for you.

2022 Cache of the Year Award Nomination Announcements – GCA69WK – 1:30pm

There is less than a week left to nominate your favourite Victorian cache in the 2022 awards. We are looking forward to tallying the results and announcing all of the amazing nominees at this event.

If you are still yet to nominate, you can submit your favourite 2022 cache nomination HERE.

Finding some of the nominee caches will also help with the May HQ souvenir challenge!

We look forward to seeing you on Sunday 21 May at the CITO and Volunteer/Nomination events.

It’s a wrap!

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What a weekend! Around 500 teams, including close to 70 cachers attending their first ever Mega, descended on Whittlesea for an epic weekend of fun, friendship and caching. Melbourne showed our interstate and overseas visitors why we say we have four seasons in one day, but that didn’t stop us. A puzzle room, petting zoo, fireworks, Signal, gadget alley, lackeys, GPS Adventure Maze, awards, a CITO, caches, and more kept attendees entertained across the whole weekend. Thank you to everyone for making this yet another very memorable Victorian Mega!

Alas, all good things come to an end, and as we look forward to The Rutherglen Event (GC9MH9M) in April 2023, there are a few final things to wrap up.

Post Mega Feedback

Gathering feedback on your Whittlesea experience is very important as it helps us to shape future events. Follow the link below to share your experiences and let us know what you thought of The Whittlesea Event.

Provide your feedback by Wednesday 30 November to be in the running to win a Whittlesea Event Unobtanium coin, or one of five annual Geocaching.com premium memberships.

Click here to complete the survey

Volunteers & Supporters

We couldn’t have delivered The Whittlesea Event without a massive team of volunteers and supporters. You can view the list of the more than 100 people who contributed to make Whittlesea a success HERE. Thank you to each and every one of them.

We are pleased to announce the winners of our random volunteer prize draw who each win a $50 Bunnings voucher and a 3D Event Coin:

  • Pre Mega Volunteers – Cathlud
  • Friday Mega Volunteers – chooknchunk (Glen)
  • Saturday Mega Volunteers – skuzzybear
  • Sunday Mega Volunteers – Spenna1211

We have also randomly awarded a Whittlesea Unobtanium Coin to one lucky volunteer – Congratulations to Harrowang (Sally) on your win!

Complete your logs and post your photos to win a Whittlesea Unobtanium Coin

There are still a handful of Whittlesea Unobtanium Coins up for grabs. A Whittlesea Unobtanium Coin is available for one lucky attendee at each event across the weekend. All you need to do, is ensure your Found It log is posted by Wednesday 30 November and that you signed the event log book.

If you haven’t already done so – post your photos in the Whittlesea Whispers Facebook group to go into the draw to also win a Whittlesea Unobtanium Coin.

All winners will be announced in the following week close of entries.

Additional Prize Winners & Whittlesea Unobtanium Coins

A full list of all of our Whittlesea Event prize winners can be found HERE. We are pleased to announce the following additional competition winners:

  • Whittlesea Unobtanium for one lucky camper – Lorigus74
  • Whittlesea Unobtanium for one lucky merchandise buyer (preorder) – Smrff78
  • Whittlesea Unobtanium for nominating/voting in the Annual Cache Awards – LetThemEatCache
  • First Time Mega Attendees – 5 x Annual Premium Memberships –
    1. icybeetas
    2. Lani-B
    3. chapples284
    4. BrandenAdams
    5. TomAndSnail

We will be in contact with you in the next 2 weeks to arrange to get your prizes to you.

Final Date to Order Whittlesea Event Clothing

Final orders for The Whittlesea Event clothing range (Polos, Hoodies, Beanies & Caps) end this Sunday 27 November. If you missed out, CLICK HERE to place your order now.

Limited stocks of the pathtag set and event coins from The Whittlesea Event are available to purchase from the Geocaching Victoria shop.

Thank You

On behalf of the Whittlesea Mega Organising Committee, thank you to everyone who supported and participated in The Whittlesea Event 2022. It has been our pleasure to bring this event to you all. Bring on Rutherglen!

– RoamingHowie

Whittlesea Mega – less than 2 weeks!

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We wanted to give you an update on some of the preparations and contingencies we have in place for the upcoming Mega. The weather in the last month or two has been challenging for all of us, however we are not letting it dampen our spirits… Instead we are riding the waves (fortunately not literally!).

Campgrounds

You may have seen Day’s ‘marvellous’ pitch report earlier today regarding the campgrounds at the Mega. Most are in good shape with a few more warm weather days ahead. Here are some of the insights from our visit today:

  • Sheep Pasture – Campsite is high and dry – sites have a good solid base
  • Pig Pen – Freshly mowed and reasonably dry in the camping area. No mud or slosh visible.
  • Chicken Run – Solid base with gravel roads on all sides of the campsites
  • Cow Paddock – As expected this campground (football oval) has some muddy areas, mainly towards the middle. We removed these sites from sale a few weeks ago, and currently there is little impact to the existing bookings. We are holding a number of sites in reserve as a contingency should any of the allocated spaces become unsuitable. For the most part, the area around the outer of the grounds is quite solid.
Sheep Pasture
Chicken Run
Cow Paddock
Pig Pen

Parking

Some of our overflow car parking plans have had to change, however we have identified other areas with solid ground (mainly gravel) that we will utilise. Obviously it does help where teams are car pooling. Also, if you are camping, we ask that you leave your vehicle at your campsite whilst at the showgrounds so that spaces are available for day visitors.

Other Contingencies

We have moved some of our activities indoors as a precaution, and have contingencies in place for events should we have unfavourable weather on the day. We can’t control the forecast, but we’ll do our best to deal with it as things come up.

Other questions – Was The Whittlesea Show postponed?

Indeed it was. As an agricultural show, it has significant animals moving around the grounds (in low lying areas we are not utilising), has amusements and other structures all over the grounds, and has 1000’s of attendees who require parking. Many of the photos of flooding that were seen came from the carparks on the opposite side of the road to the showgrounds – an area we were never using. So whilst we sympathise with their difficult decision, our considerations are different.

Volunteers – a few spots to fill

We have a few last volunteer spots to fill. If you think you can help, especially with any of the spots below, please complete the form here. Don’t forget volunteers go into the daily prize draw (gift vouchers and other prizes), as well as exclusive pre-access to the puzzle room (and Maze) on Friday night.

  • Friday AM – Maze setup
  • Friday PM – Puzzle room/Camping Check in
  • Saturday AM – Registration/Camping Check in/Parking
  • Saturday PM – Registration/Maze/Gadget Alley
  • Sunday AM – First Aid
  • Sunday PM – Maze packup/Registration/Puzzle Room/Gadgets

Thank you to those that have already volunteered. We will start sending emails on Monday with further details.

There is no doubt the recent rains have been an unwelcome thorn in our side, however rest assured we are evolving our plans daily to ensure that we still deliver a great event. We look forward to seeing you all in Whittlesea in just a couple of short weeks.

Whittlesea Event Schedule

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With just over 4 weeks to go until the Mega, I’m sure you are starting to plan your weekend. The event schedule has now been released to help you build your adventure and is available by following the link below.

Mega Event Schedule

It is filled with lots of awesome activities and events, whilst also allowing plenty of time for caching! The schedule will be updated with any further information as we get closer to the event. Be sure to also follow our facebook page Whittlesea Whispers for further updates.

Volunteers

If you have not already done so, it is not too late to register your interest to volunteer at the Mega. It takes a lot of people to make the event a success and we would love your help.

Simply click this link to register your details – Whittlesea Volunteer Registration.

Thank you to those of you who have already registered. We will be in contact with you in the coming weeks to confirm your volunteer role.