GIFF, Victorian Cache of the Year Awards and More!

The sun is shining, daylight savings is around the corner and there is a lot of activity happening, so lets dive right in to our latest update!

Lights, Camera, Action, GIFF!

The Geocaching International Film Festival has returned in 2023 after a brief hiatus, and we are very excited to have a finalist from Victoria in this years festival. “Geocare – Home for the Aged Geocacher” by local director chooknchunk is one of 18 international finalists for 2023.

You’ll be able to watch all the of this years GIFF action on the big screen, in cinema style seating at the Knox Community Arts Centre on 11 November 2023. A social gathering will begin at 12pm, with the screening to commence at 1pm. Popcorn, slushies and more will be available to purchase to enhance your viewing experience. Be sure to log your Will Attend (with number of people) on GCAE5EM. More details will be available closer to the event.

That’s not the only GIFF event! If you plan to be in the Ballarat/Creswick area on Thursday 9 November, be sure to log your will attend for GCAD8CY. Dinner at the American Hotel starts at 5:30pm, with the screening starting at 7:00pm.

2022 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards Event – GCAE5F9

A date has been set and all of the amazing winners will be announced on 25 November 2023 (GCAE5F9). Come and join us to celebrate all of the nominated caches and owners, hear the winners announcements, and join in a little trivia along the way.

The event will be held at the Hampton RSL where meals and drinks will be available to purchase. More details will be available closer to the event.

Voting has also been extended and will close on 30 October 2023. There is still plenty of time to find the nominated caches and VOTE for your favourites.

The full list of nominees and a link to the geocaching list is available HERE.

Sponsor a 2022 Victorian Cache of the Year Award Category

Members of the geocaching community often generously sponsor the prizes for Cache of the Year Award categories (even anonymously if prefered).

If you would like to sponsor one of the categories for the 2022 awards you can:

1/ Donate a prize, OR

2/ Donation the value of a gift voucher via our website. Click the “Sponsor an award” option.

If you would like to be an Award sponsor, and nominate the category for your prize (subject to availability), simply drop Andrew an email at roaminghowie@geocachingvictoria.com

Support Future Events

We love to be able to put on free and low cost events to help enable the geocaching community to come together and connect. Whilst many of these events may be free to attend, they are definitely not without cost. Hiring theatres and halls, purchasing equipment, paying for insurances and more, all costs cold hard cash. And that’s all before the generous volunteer time from community members that help us to run these events.

Geocaching Victoria conducts fundraising initiatives to collect funds to help cover some of these costs, however we always need the support of our community to keep delivering.

If you enjoy these events, and you are financially able to, why not make a contribution to support these and future activities. Visit our website to see how you can make a contribution of as little as $5. Your donations help us to continue to host events like Cachemas, Cache of the Year Awards, GIFFs, BBQ’s and more.

Your help will support keeping the fun and community connection thriving.

That’s all for this update. We look forward to seeing you at one of the many upcoming events around the state.

August Events & Committee Updates

Not sure how we got to August already – maybe it was the influx of all the caches and events published in July that has made it wizz passed so fast! But do you think August is really going to slow down for us – with so many great events already published I don’t think it will. Let’s bring on another great month of caching!

Be sure to check out the list of events and see if you can attend a few!

COTY Awards 2022 – Voting is Now Open

It has been great to see the votes starting to come in for the COTY Awards 2022 – If you haven’t already, don’t forget to place your votes. During the voting process, the following criteria applies:

  • Only caches and logs shortlisted will be open for voting
  • For all cache categories, it is recommended that you physically find the cache you are voting for.
  • You can vote for your own cache or log 
  • One vote per category per caching team is allowed. 
  • There will only be one winner per category
  • If in the event a category results in a tie, the Geocaching Victoria committee will cast the final vote

Voting will close 30th September 2023, with a proposed event announcing the awards scheduled for November (details to follow)

Click here to vote NOW! Good luck to all the finalists.

Geocaching Lists

What type of cacher are you? Are you an organised geocacher that likes to keep track of challenges and projects you are working on by creating various lists or are you more a spontaneous cacher and collect as many as you can? Maybe you don’t know how to create a list?

No matter what type of geocacher you are, we thought we would share a few tips and tricks to inspire you.

Supporting Geocaching Victoria

We are often asked “How can we help” and we are blessed to have so many amazing people in our community that volunteer their time either on a committee, a sub-committee or to support a particular initiative or event.

We are excited to share there is another way you can support Geocaching Victoria. As you are aware, we are a not for profit incoporation that exists solely to create amazing experiences for our community, but we have no ability to create income except through the various fundraising activities, council sponsorship or merchandise sales we undertake.

But after much interest from our community, there is now another way you can support. We have set up a “Support us via Donation” option via our shop. Below are some ways that you can contribute:

  • $5 – the cost of a coffee to support with our wepage,
  • $10 – to support a Wiser than Owls cache placement
  • $20 – to assist in the purchasing of sausages for our next planned fundraiser. 
  • $25 – if you would like to sponsor a cache event
  • $47 – to donate to the the value of a premium membership
  • $50 – to sponsor an COTY award / competition

All donations, no matter how small are gratefully received. Thank you.

Farewell Day Gowland

After a jam packed two years of Mega’s our beloved committee member Day Gowland has decided to step down and take a well earned break. We would like to take the opportunity to thank him for all his hard work and creative inspiration he has brought to our community. We wish him well – who knows he might even get some more time to go caching!

With Day’s departure, it does leave a vacancy on our committee.

Committee Vacancy

Are you passionate about geocaching? Do you have a flair for creativity and an eye for detail? Perhaps you have a strength in logistics and organising events or a gift in fundraising? Do you want to become part of the best geocaching team ever to deliver great experiences for our community?

We are looking for someone to join our team and are are willing to jump in and help with the following;

  • GVI Event organising
  • Facilitate fundraising activities
  • Support annual megas and their planning
  • Contribute to stories, website content and online collateral
  • Happy to join our monthly meetings and brainstorm together on creative activities for our community
  • Undertake support admin tasks as needed (we share these)
  • Be a team player and support the objectives of GVI
  • Be a representative of our wider Geocaching Community

If you are interested in applying for a committee role, please email Jo Cox at president@geocachingvictoria.com.au and provide an overview of what strengths you can bring to the team. Please feel free to share any past experiences that may support your application.

Mega Lead Vacancy

We are looking for someone with experience and skills in event organisation (large scale). This doesn’t necessarily have to be geocaching events, it can be in other large corporate, workplace, planning conferences or other volunteer events. Mega’s usually attract in excess of 400 geocachers across the country. Other key skills we are looking for is as follows:

  • Experience in leading a team or committee
  • Event planning, logistics or coordination experience
  • Budget and forecasting experience (not mandatory as support will be given)
  • Great communicator and stakeholder management (Sponsors and Councils play a bit part in Mega Planning)
  • A can do, fun attitude to ensure we create the best Mega ever for our community.
  • Willingness to see the Mega Event through (scheduled Nov 2024)

We certainly don’t want to scare you off, so if you are committed and passionate to giving it a go – please do reach out. It’s okay if you haven’t run a Mega before, you will have a Mega committee to support you but also the Geocaching Victoria Committte to also provide support and advice. We are all one big team.

If you are interested in applying for a Mega Lead role, please email Jo Cox at president@geocachingvictoria.com.au and provide an overview of what strengths you can bring to the team. Please feel free to share any past experiences that may support your application.

21 Years Of Geocaching Events In Victoria!

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?

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.

Whittlesea Event Schedule

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.

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.