The Sunbury Event: Block Party – January Update

Posted on January 17, 2025 by The Sunbury Event

The Sunbury Block Party is just two months away, and excitement is building! Recently, BFMC and leelee (crack’n’leelee) joined PCE on the Geocaching Downunder Podcast to share the latest updates. You can watch the podcast episode below.

Here’s a rundown of the exciting new details:

Event Schedule

Get ready to plan your ultimate Block Party adventure! The newly released schedule is packed with activities, allowing ample time to reconnect with friends and explore the area’s caches and attractions.

Time	Activity	Location
*Friday*	21 March 2025
6:00pm – 7:00pm	GCB1GJA Friday Night Casual Catch Up	Sunbury Park
7:30pm – 9:00pm	Nature at Night (Free shuttle buses from GLC) Registration coming soon.	Emu Bottom Wetlands

*Saturday*	22 March 2025
9:00am – 4:00pm	GCAP417 The Sunbury Event – Block Party 25	Global Learning Centre
9:00am – 9:30am	Opening Ceremony (and photo)	GLC Amphitheatre
9:45am – 4:00pm	– Registration, Merchandise and Stalls Open – Gadget Adventure Labs Open – GCB169V GPS Adventure Maze	Global Learning Centre GLC & Memorial Hall Memorial Hall
11:00am – 12:00pm	Information Session – TBC	Global Learning Centre
12:00pm – 1:00pm	Information Session – TBC	Global Learning Centre
1:00pm – 2:00pm	Pathtag Trading	Global Learning Centre
2:00pm – 3:00pm	Meet the Reviewers	Global Learning Centre
4:00pm	Registration, Merchandise, Maze, Gadgets CLOSE	GLC & Memorial Hall
Evening Activities
5:00pm – 8:00pm	GCATP00* Community Celebration Event (Optional Dinner and Lawn Bowls) (*pending publication)	Sunbury Bowls Club
8:15pm – 9:30pm	Trivia night – booking required (free)	Sunbury Bowls Club


*Sunbury*	23 March 2025
8:30am – 9:00am	GCB1HJ2 Sunday Morning at The Sunbury Event	The Village Green
9:00am – 1:00pm	– Registration, Merchandise and Stalls Open – GCB169V GPS Adventure Maze	Global Learning Centre Memorial Hall
9:00am – 2:30pm	Gadget Adventure Labs Open	GLC & Memorial Hall
9:30am – 10:30am	GCB1GJ9 Holden Flora Reserve – CITO	Holden Flora Reserve
11:00am – 12:00pm	Information Session – TBC	Global Learning Centre
12:00am – 1:00pm	Information Session – TBC	Global Learning Centre
1:00pm	Registration, Merchandise, Stalls, Maze CLOSE	GLC & Memorial Hall
2:30pm	Gadget Caches CLOSE	GLC & Memorial Hall
3:00pm – 3:30pm	GCB1TGM* Farewell Event (*pending publication)	GLC Amphitheatre

Nature at Night (Friday Night Following The Casual Catchup Event)

Thanks to our major sponsor, Hume City Council, and the Entomological Society of Victoria, we’re thrilled to offer a unique nocturnal experience on Friday, March 21st. Learn about moths and other fascinating insects that call Sunbury home while spotting other nocturnal animals and learning about the local biodiversity.

Time: 7:30pm – 9:00pm (following the Friday night event)
Location: Emu Bottom Wetlands Reserve, Sunbury
Cost: Free! (Registration required via Eventbrite – TBA)
Activities: Moth identification, nocturnal animal spotting, expert talks on local biodiversity, and a fun Biodiversity Bingo challenge
Transport: Limited on-site parking; free shuttle buses running between the Sunbury Global Learning Centre and Emu Bottom Wetlands Reserve (departing every 20 mins between 7:00pm and 9:30pm)
What to bring: Comfortable walking shoes, weather-appropriate clothing, flashlight/headlamp, and a smartphone/tablet with the iNaturalist app

Trivia: Did you know that Gil Grissom from CSI is an entomologist, just like our expert guides.

Unobtanium Geocoin

Congratulations to AnyMules for snagging the first rare Sunbury Event Unobtanium geocoin.

Would you like to win the next unobtanium? Anyone who pre-orders Block Party and Maze merchandise will go into the draw to win an unobtanium. Get a bonus entry if you have cumulatively spent $100 or more on eligible merchandise (before discounts). Entries close Sunday 16 March and the winner will be drawn at the closing event.

More opportunities to win these coveted coins will be available at The Sunbury Event.

New Caches

We’re working hard to ensure there are a number of new geocaches in the area. This is a combined effort between the committee and the community. Puzzle caches are our current focus so there is plenty of time to solve, with multiple small batches being published soon. We will announce once all of the planned puzzles have been published. Keep an eye out for more exciting cache types to come, including the new Virtual published on Tuesday night.

Lead Up Events

Our final Victorian lead up event is scheduled on 9 February at Fitzroy Gardens (GCB1TAG). We’d love to connect with you and answer all of your questions to help you plan your weekend adventure.

A big thanks to DavidWazza for spreading the word at the recent event in Brisbane. There are two more interstate opportunities to get more information:

GCB1FKQ – Saturday 18 January (Alberton, SA) – Thanks Locus Cache!
GCB215F – Saturday 1 February (Howrah, TAS) – Thanks stainless-steel-rat!

Accommodation Update

While some options are filling up, there’s still plenty of accommodation available:

Treetops Scout Camp – plenty of unpowered sites available.

Macedon Caravan Park – have multiple spaces available.

For more options, check our Accommodation page – many sites still have availability.

Volunteers

Now is the time to register you interest in helping us deliver The Sunbury Event. Events like these are only possible thanks to the generous team of volunteers who help in the lead up and over the event weekend.

To register your interest and share your volunteering preferences, please complete the Volunteer form HERE.

Don’t miss out on this epic geocaching celebration! Log your “Will Attend” and start planning your Sunbury Block Party adventure today.

Across the Bass Strait

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Neville The Devil

In case you missed the exciting announcement on Saturday, Geocaching Victoria are embarking on an adventure across the Bass Strait, partnering with enthusiastic Tasmanian geocachers to bring you The Tassie Event on 7-8 March 2026. This marks Tasmania’s first major geocaching event and Australia’s southernmost geocaching extravaganza!

You can watch the live announcement here:

The Tassie Event will unfold at the near new South East Stadium in Sorell. The location offers incredible convenience – just over a 10 minute drive from the airport and a mere 25 minutes from Hobart’s vibrant centre. Sorell, with its rich history and charm, welcomes over 370,000 tourists annually, and is a gateway to Tasmania’s stunning east coast and the Port Arthur World Heritage Site.

While the status of our Mega application is in review with HQ (and cannot be published more than 12 months in advance), we are sharing the news early to help you plan your Tasmanian adventure. This is particularly important if you intend to bring your caravan or high/long vehicle across on the Spirit of Tasmania. Spots are limited therefore booking early is essential – bookings usually open 11 months out so you still have plenty of time to plan. There is more information available on our website at Transport & Accommodation.

Tasmania offers breathtaking landscapes and a treasure trove of geocaching opportunities! We encourage you to take the opportunity to explore as much of Tasmania as you can during your visit.

To assist with date planning, there will be a lead up event and cache trail starting close to where the Spirit of Tasmania docks. It will begin on Monday 2 March in Devonport, and work its way south finishing on Thursday 5 March in Ross, just over an hour from Sorell. The trail will provide a good base from which to explore some of the beautiful north and north-west. Initial details are available here.

While we’re buzzing with excitement about The Tassie Event, our immediate focus remains on Victoria’s first ever Block Party – The Sunbury Event, happening on 22-23 March 2025. Stay tuned for more details about our Tasmanian adventure once the Sunbury celebrations conclude! We can’t wait to welcome you to the apple isle.

Geocaching Downunder Podcast

Tune in on Tuesday, 14 January at 7:30pm to hear more about the upcoming Block Party in Sunbury with special guests BFMC and LeeLee from Crack’n’LeeLee.

Watch live here.

Farewell 2024, Welcome 2025!

Posted on December 31, 2024 by RoamingHowie

As we wrap up 2024, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our incredible community! Your participation, support, and enthusiasm have made this year another one to remember. We’re excited to welcome 2025 with more fun, adventure, and camaraderie planned. What are your geocaching goals for the new year?

Here are just some of the highlights from 2024:

February – We kicked off the year with a life-saving first aid information session! The Ballarat GeoTour concluded after three successful years, having welcomed over 1,700 unique geocachers and celebrating 340 completions of all 25 caches.
April – Excitement buzzed as we announced the nominees for the 2023 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards at Cherry Lake in Altona.
May – We unveiled plans for The Sunbury Event, Victoria’s very first Block Party scheduled for March 2025. Mark your calendars for this groundbreaking celebration!
July – Cachemas in July returned to Kensington Town Hall, featuring a special guest appearance by Santa! This was followed by a successful National Tree Day CITO event in Sunbury to help build habitat for Thara, the black shouldered kite – featured on the Sunbury Event Geocoin.
August – The community celebrated International Geocaching Day with a full weekend of events across the state, including the Great Victorian Cache Crawl. Additionally, our SideTracked Day at Diamond Valley Miniature Railway became the second-largest event globally in the series’ 17-year history!
October – Geocaching Victoria turned 10 years old! This milestone was celebrated with much fanfare.
November – The glitz and glamour of our anniversary celebration included awarding the winners of the 2023 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards at a gala in Yarraville.
December – Preparations for the Block Party are heating up! Exciting announcements include the appearance of the GPS Adventure Maze, event merchandise launch, and more details about the weekend festivities.

Victoria – 2024 by the numbers

Here is a snapshot of caching in Victoria this year:

Total 2024 hides: 1,657 (inc 490 event type caches)
Favourites accumulated on 2024 hides: 2,939
Total finds on 2024 caches (non event): 24,818
Event attendances: 5,475
Average D/T: 2.05 / 1.83
Most common/Least common difficulty: 1.5 (481) / 5.0 (7)
Most common/Least common terrain: 1.5 (663) / 4.0 (4)
No. of D/T combos with nil placements in 2024: 18
Most common/Least common size: Small (491) / Large (23)
Most common/Least common type: Traditional (802) / Wherigo (9)
LGAs with most new hides: Golden Plains, Glenelg & Indigo
LGAs with no new hides : Ararat, Brimbank, Gannawarra, Greater Dandenong, Horsham, West Wimmera & Yarriambiack
LGAs with most events: Ballarat, Hepburn, Greater Geelong
No. of unique cachers with 12 or more finds (average 1 per month): 2,386
No. of unique cachers with 366 or more finds (average 1 per day): 152
No. of unique hiders: 343

You can find more statistics on all active caches in Victoria on our website at https://geocachingvictoria.com.au/victorian-geocache-statistics/ with more to be added next year.

Looking Ahead: 2025 and Beyond

With lots planned for 2025, we can’t wait to dive into the new year. Let’s continue to grow this amazing community and create new experiences and adventures for us all to share. If you’d like to be first to hear more about what’s in store, or have an idea you’d like to share, why not come and join us at our event GCAVXK6 on Saturday January 11 at Knox Community Gardens.

Here’s to another year filled with exploration, friendship, and endless adventures. Happy New Year from all of us at Geocaching Victoria.

The Sunbury Event: Block Party – December Update

Posted on December 27, 2024 by The Sunbury Event

The Sunbury Event is just 3 months away and there has been lots of news to share this month. Here is the round up if you missed it.

Merchandise – Pre-Order Now!

The Sunbury Event merchandise is now available for sale. Head on over to shop.geocachingvictoria.com.au to grab all of your official event merchandise and help support the event.

Clothing orders close 2 February 2025 so be sure to get your order in before then. Our promotional offer (Spend $100 or more and save $5) also ends at that time so don’t miss out.

If you’ve noticed a lot of blue so far there is a good reason! The official colour for The Sunbury Event is BLUE. We also plan on that being the colour of the sky on 22nd & 23rd March!

Major Sponsor – Hume City Council

We’re absolutely thrilled to have Hume City Council joining us as a major sponsor of the Sunbury Block Party! This partnership is fantastic recognition of the hard work that is going into this event by our brilliant team of volunteers. It also further cements the amazing support Hume has shown from day one.

Hume City Council, joins Geocaching.com as our two major sponsors for the event.

Additional Sponsors

We would also like to acknowledge the following additional supporters of The Sunbury Event, which include:

Pathtags who have assisted with pathtag production.
Scurvy Dog Designs who designed our wonderful pathtag set and Limited Edition Geocoin.
Bunnings Warehouse Mernda who are ongoing supporters of Geocaching Victoria and are supporting this event through donations and fundraising opportunities.

If you are looking for new pathtags, or in the market for home improvement and lifestyle products, why not consider using one of our event supporters.

GPS Adventure Maze

Australia’s own GPS Adventure Maze will be making an appearance at The Sunbury Event. Grub62 and the team at Geocaching Victoria have been working on a couple of updates and look forward to sharing the opportunity to earn this rare icon with everyone once again in 2025.

Special thanks to Narelle from Nel&Andy for her assistance with the design work on the latest updates and to those who have contributed content including horror.fan.jm, Mister Doctor and ILookedThere.

Lead Up Events

If you get the chance, come and connect with us at one of our leadup events, just like those in Ballarat did on 8 December (GCAYRZZ). Further events include:

GCB0QHD – Sunday 12 January @ 11am (Geelong) – Committee member BFMC will be leading this opportunity to find out all about our block party.
February TBA (Melbourne)

Interstate opportunities

A big thanks to Brain for sharing the word at a recent event in Canberra. There are other interstate events where the hosts are kindly sharing the Sunbury love so check out these opportunities coming up:

GCB166H – Wednesday 15 January @ 6pm (South Brisbane) – Thanks Davidwazza!
More to come.

We are also looking forward to all the fun of the Sydney GeoQuest in late January.

Block Party Event Details

Don’t forget to keep updated on all our Block Party news by engaging in the following channels:

GC Event – Log your will attend at GCAP417 – The Sunbury Event
Facebook – Follow us at The Sunbury Event – 2025 Block Party
Website – Read all about the event at geocachingvictoria.com.au/the-sunbury-event

The Sunbury Event: Block Party – November Update

Posted on November 21, 2024 by The Sunbury Event

Caches, places and famous faces

So, you’re coming to join us in Sunbury, or at least hoping to? That’s Blocktastic! There are plenty of wonderful things you can see, do, and of course find while you are visiting, so we wanted to share a few. Of course if you haven’t done so already, we encourage you to log your will attend to assist us with planning.

Did you know? Rupertswood Mansion is a short stroll from Block Party GZ. The former home of Sir William Clarke is widely considered the birthplace of The Ashes after Sir Williams wife, Lady Janet Clarke, presented a small terracotta urn to England captain Ivo Bligh, believed to contain the ashes of bails from a cricket game played at Rupertswood during England’s 1882-83 tour of Australia.

Caches to visit in Sunbury, the Hume region & surrounds (as at 3/11/2024)

There are plenty of geocaches all over the Hume region, including the famous The Woodlands series containing 100 caches around Woodlands Historic Park, which is immediately opposite Melbourne Airport. Here are some of the others to put on your list.

Top 5 favourited caches in Hume region:

GC35E2X Woodlands 100 – Final (165 FP)
GC35X2N Woodlands 16 – Platypus (126 FP)
GC8D73 Aeroplane Gelli (67 FP)
GC9P5Y2 Melbourne Airport ✈️ Virtual Reward 3.0 (59 FP)
GC1ABT8 Victoria’s Oldest Homestead (57 FP)

GCAT82P SSID? (MkII) Honourable mention (<5 months old and 21 FP’s already) It’s also one of only fourteen active caches Victoria-wide that has the Wireless Beacon attribute.

5 oldest caches in Hume region:

GC8D73 Aeroplane Gelli (Sept 2002)
GCM2VW Not a peaceful resting place (November 2004)
GCKVJ5 Cumberland Walk V.2 (January 2006)
GCWVM4 NO FORDS allowed! (June 2006)
GC1259CAsian Work In Progress (April 2007)

GC7A Victoria’s 1st (Melbourne’s 1st) Honourable mention. Not too far away is the oldest cache in the state of Victoria, placed on 8/10/2000. (1,293 finds and 497 favourites)

Are there new caches coming for the block party?

Rest assured, the Block Party Committee (with the wonderful support of some local CO’s and other volunteers) are working feverishly on adding more caches to the map prior to the big event. Stay tuned for further information.

Places to visit in Sunbury, Hume & surrounds

Below are just some of the things to see & do during your visit. Be sure to check opening hours and admission fees using the links below.

The Gatehouse Cafe is a wonderful bluestone building constructed in the mid 1870’s and is located at the entrance to Rupertswood Mansion. The Gatehouse Cafe is open to the public, however the mansion itself is a private building for Salesian College.

Woodlands Homestead was established in 1843 and is a rare example of a large, pre-constructed timber kit house brought to Australia from England. It is home to an extensive art collection and horse racing memorabilia as part of Living Legends, which provides a life after racing for race horses including including former Melbourne Cup winners Doreimus, Rogan Josh & Saintly, to name a few.

Organ Pipes National Park is situated in the traditional country of the Wurundjeri people and sits on the edge of one of the worlds largest ancient volcanic lava flows. It includes Rosette Rock, the Tessellated Pavement and the basalt columns, formed around 1 million years ago, that the park is now named after. Keep an eye out for echidnas, kangaroos, wallabies and last but not least, you might even spot a platypus! Note: accessing this site includes navigating a short but steep hill.

Animal Land Children’s Farm in Diggers Rest provides the opportunity to take a self guided tour around a working farm. Book in advance for the best prices. A great experience for both the young and the young at heart.

Jacksons Creek Rail Bridge is one of the many significant bridges in the area and is Australia’s oldest girder bridge built in 1861.

Emu Bottom Homestead is a rare example of early Australian Colonial Architecture and is the oldest existing farmhouse constructed by settlers in Victoria.

Faces at lead up events

Our first official lead up event (GCAYT3D) was held in Wangaratta on Saturday 2 November – thanks to those that came along. The next event (GCAYRZZ) is in Ballarat on Sunday 8 December at 10am. Check out the cache page for information on how you can go into the lead up events draw to win a custom pack of event coins from previous Victorian Mega events (prize to be drawn at the Sunbury Event). More lead up events will be coming soon!

Last but not least, GCAWW61 is at Bunnings Mernda on Sunday 1 December from 9am-4pm. Come down to say hi, and if you like, purchase a snag (or two) and a cold drink & help raise funds to support the Block Party.

Block Party Event Details

Don’t forget to keep updated on all our Block Party news by engaging in the following channels:

GC Event – Log your will attend at GCAP417 – The Sunbury Event
Facebook – Follow us at The Sunbury Event – 2025 Block Party
Website – Read all about the event at geocachingvictoria.com.au/the-sunbury-event

Want To Get Involved?

Over the coming months we will be reaching out to the community for volunteers to assist with various support activities in the lead up to, and during the event. Every little bit helps, and you can support the event experience for all involved with as little as a few hours of your time. In the interim, if you would like to get involved in some of the background activities as we build up to the event, you can email sunbury2025@geocachingvictoria.com.au. No experience necessary!