The community has been searching across the state to identify the best geocaches, Adventure Labs, and logs from 2025. The nominations have now been been carefully tallied, double-checked, and shortlisted and we’re excited to officially reveal this year’s outstanding nominees in the 2025 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards!

The list showcases an incredible mix of creativity and passion, including caches requiring a mix of TOTTs, mind bending puzzles, some great first time hides and Shakespearian tales of geocache adventures. A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to nominate, and particularly those who helped grow the game by hiding a cache, Adventure Lab or writing a tale in 2025.

Despite the patchy weather, plenty of geocachers gathered at Jells Park on Saturday for a catch up, sharing stories of recent finds and favourite hides. The BBQ sizzled thanks to ahomburg and JonnyGoldcoast as this years nominees where announced with many of the lucky nominees in the crowd.

For those ready to start planning their next caching adventure, the full list of nominees is now available on the 2025 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards page on our website.

This year’s shortlist includes (click the titles for a full geocache list):

• 45 individual cache nominees (with some featured across multiple categories)
• 88 caches forming the shortlisted series nominees
• 8 Adventure Labs
• 8 entertaining Found It logs

The 2026 eligible hide lists are also live and continue to be updated throughout the year. Keep an eye out for new cache owners, fresh series, and exciting new hides as they’re published. Everything can be found in the Great Geocaching Lists section of our website — and all will be eligible for next year’s awards.

To give everyone plenty of time to explore the nominees, voting will open later in the year, with winners set to be revealed at a special event in October/November (TBA). Stay tuned also for details on how you can win a prize, just for finding the nominated caches!

Don’t leave it until the last minute, grab your GPS, your TOTTs, and start exploring everything this year’s nominees have to offer. And when you find a quiet moment, dive into the nominated logs and enjoy the stories and adventures shared by fellow cachers.

If you are one of the nominees, you can proudly display your achievement using the nominee banner for your cache page, and add a badge to your caching profile using the 2025 COTYA resources here.

If you are interested in being a community sponsor of one of this years awards, reach out to one of the committee or president@geocachingvictoria.com.au for more details.

Special thanks to Kristysadventures for donating the Easter hamper and organising the fundraising raffle. Congratulations to maccamob on their win!

To everyone who has secured a place on the coveted 2025 nominations list, congratulations on this well-deserved recognition. Thank you for the creativity, effort, and enjoyment you brought to the geocaching community.

Nominations have been flowing in recently in the search for the best geocaches, adventure labs and logs from 2024. All of the nominees for the Victorian Cache of the Year Awards have been carefully tallied, cross checked and shortlsted, and are now ready to be revealed. They include creative multis, impressive caches from a great selection of first time hiders, and some tall tales of geocaching adventures past just to name a few. Thank you to everyone who nominated and shared their voice.

With daylight savings affording attendees an extra hours sleep overnight, geocachers gathered, bright eyed at Darebin Parklands, ready to hear word of the amazing caches nominated by the community. The aroma of the sizzling BBQ wafted through the park (with thanks to bunadoorian, posums and ) and helped fuel the strong crowd that had gathered to celebrate.

For those eager to dive in, the full list of nominees is available on the 2024 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards page on our website. It is complete with links to each cache, Adventure Lab and log. There are an incredible 42 individual caches (some nominated in multiple categories), 106 caches that form the shortlisted cache series nominees, 6 Adventure Labs and 8 entertaining Found IT/DNF logs to enjoy. Congratulations to everyone that was shortlisted.

Don’t forget the 2 geocaching.com cache lists to help you find all of the nominees:

• All individual nominated caches
• All nominated cache series

In addition, the 2025 eligible hide lists have already been created and are periodically updated. Keep your eye out for new hiders, new cache series, or any other new caches published this year. All of them are available at the Great Geocaching Lists section of our website and will be eligible for nominating in next years awards.

To give you time to find as many of the nominees as possible, voting won’t commence until later in the year, with the final winners slated to be revealed at an event in October/November (TBA). Don’t leave it until the last minute though, grab your GPS, lace up your caching boots and go out and find as many of these amazing nominated caches and adventure labs as you can. And when you have a quiet moment, read through the great logs also.

If you are one of the worthy nominees, you can also add a nominee banner to your cache page, and add a badge to your profile using the 2024 COTYA resources here.

To everyone who has earned a spot on the coveted nominations list for 2024, congratulations on your nomination and thank you for bringing so much enjoyment to the community – Good Luck and keep up the amazing hides, labs and stories.