Wrapping Up Another Great Year of Geocaching in Victoria

Posted on December 30, 2025 by RoamingHowie

As the year draws to a close, it’s a great time to pause, reflect, and celebrate another memorable year for Geocaching Victoria and our community.

It has been a huge social year, marked by the 25th year of geocaching. Across Victoria, there were 625 events, including 65 Community Celebration Events and clost to 9,500 attendances. Cache hiding also surged, with 41% more hides in 2025 compared to the previous year.

Here are just some of the highlights from 2025:

January – We unveiled plans for The Tassie Event, the first-ever Mega to be held in Tasmania in 2026. Working alongside an enthusiastic Tasmanian team, this is shaping up to be a truly huge event.
March – Our first-ever Block Party in Sunbury saw over 500 teams join in the fun.
April – Excitement buzzed at Darebin Parklands as we announced the nominees for the 2024 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards.
July – It was plants aplenty, with geocachers volunteering alongside Manningham Council to plant thousands of trees for National Tree Day.
August – International Geocaching Day was celebrated across the state, including events such as The Great Victorian Cache Crawl.
October – The winners of the 2024 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards were revealed at another gala evening, complete with a special guest appearance by Elvis.
November – Lights, camera, action! The GIFF event at the Clayton Theatre rolled out, followed by a celebration marking the 10th anniversary of Victoria’s first Mega at Casey Fields.
December – Preparations for The Tassie Event have stepped up a gear, with exciting announcements including the GPS Adventures Maze, event merchandise, and more details about the weekend festivities. We’d love your help as a volunteer – Register now to get involved.

Many of these events wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible efforts of volunteers, reviewers, committee members, event subcommittees and the wider community – thank you all. And of course, this is just part of the story, with geocaching information sessions, community event weekends, CITOs, cache releases, BBQs, and countless other activities happening right across Victoria.

2025 By The Numbers

For those that like stats, here is a snapshot of caching in Victoria this year (prior year in brackets):

Total 2025 hides: 2,296 (1,657)
Event type caches (incl above): 625 (490)
Favourites accumulated on new hides: 3,795 (2,939)
Total finds on 2025 caches (non event): 46,915 (24,818)
Event attendances: 9,433 (5,575)
Average new hide D/T: 2.01 / 1.81 (2.05 / 1.86)
Most common/Least common difficulty: 1.5 / 5.0 (1.5 / 5.0)
Most common/Least common terrain: 1.5 / 4.5 (1.5 / 4.0)
No. of D/T combos with nil placements in 2025: 17 (17)
Most common/Least common size: Micro / Large [Small / Large]
Most common/Least common type: Traditional / Wherigo (Traditional / Wherigo)
LGAs with most new hides: Ballarat, Yarra Ranges & Latrobe (Golden Plains, Glenelg & Indigo)
LGAs with no new hides : Gannawarra & Yarriambiack (Ararat, Brimbank, Gannawarra, Greater Dandenong, Horsham, West Wimmera & Yarriambiack)
LGAs with most events: Ballarat, Hepburn, Melbourne (Ballarat, Hepburn, Greater Geelong)
No. of unique cachers with 12 or more finds (average 1 per month): 2,158 (2,386)
No. of unique cachers with 366 or more finds (average 1 per day): 156 (152)
No. of unique hiders (inc events): 350 (347)

*Data as at 27 December 2025

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

Looking Ahead

With a new year just around the corner, there’s plenty to look forward to. More events, more adventures, more creative caches, and more opportunities to connect with fellow geocachers.

Whether your goals for the coming year include hiding your first cache, attending more events, tackling a long-standing D/T challenge, or simply getting outside a bit more, we look forward to playing a part in your journey.

From all of us at Geocaching Victoria, thank you for a fantastic year. We can’t wait to see where geocaching takes us next – happy caching, and we’ll see you in the new year.

Celebrating Victoria’s Best: 2024 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards

Posted on October 25, 2025 by RoamingHowie

On Saturday night, the geocaching community came together at the Hampton RSL to celebrate the Victorian Cache of the Year Awards for 2024. It was standing room only as a packed house gathered to recognise the incredible caches and dedicated cache owners who make geocaching in Victoria so special.

Between dinner and a lively round of trivia, the winners of this year’s awards were revealed. Each category celebrated the creativity, effort and passion that goes into hiding and maintaining some of the best caches across the state. From epic constructions, to stunning locations and challenging adventures, the 2024 nominees showcased the diversity and imagination that makes our community shine.

2024 Victorian Cache of the Year Award Winners

Category	GC Code	Winner
Best Traditional Cache	GCAV9WB	Game On: Strong Man by BossConner
Best Multi Cache	GCATPKA	TDOC24 – The Christmas Links by Sol de lune
Best Mystery Cache	GCANE5H	Historic Pubs of South Melbourne A/L Bonus by LetThemEatCache
Best Other Cache	GCARD2X	TDOC24: LITTLE Drummer Boy by surefoot24
Best First Hide	GCAXMDK	Yarraville-Footscray Bowls Club by Nel&Andy
Best Cache Series	Game On	Game On by BossConner
Best Cache Location (joint winners)	GCAKYAR GCAJFKP	Discover The Dome by Donutholes Vaughan Springs Reserve – Virtual Reward 4.0 by micaparamedic
Best Regional Cache	GCAKYAR	Discover The Dome by Donutholes
Best Adventure Lab	Historic Pubs of South Melbourne	Historic Pubs of South Melbourne by LetThemEatCache
Best Cache Log	GL1DBH619	horror.fan.jm on Twinkle, Twinkle (Night Cache)
Best Overall Cache	GCAY06B	Lost in Space Again by Captain Mister Doctor

Congratulations to all of this years winners and to everyone who was nominated by their peers. A special thanks to Elvis (JonnyGoldCoast) our trivia host and to team Worst Cache Scenario who won tonights Trivia!

Profile Badge and Cache Page Banner

If you were a nominee or winner in the 2024 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards, you can proudly share your acheivement with the community!

Add a badge to your personal profile to showcase your nomination or win.
Add a banner to your cache page so finders know your cache was part of the 2024 awards.

Visit this link to download the badge and banner resources.

10th Anniversary Unobtainium Geocoin

We also drew the winner of the 10th Anniversary Unobtanium Geocoin, awarded to one lucky winner who had found 10 or more of this year’s nominated caches.

Congratulations to Omegaman1971 – Well done!

Only 2 10th Anniverary Unobtanium Geocoins remain:

One will go to the lucky attendee of a 2025 Victorian CCE (random), and
The final one will be awarded to a cache owner who has published a particularly rare hide.

Stay tuned to find out who the final two recipients will be!

The Top 10 finders of the 2024 nominated caches (by points) were as follows:

Cacher	Points
RoamingHowie	60
Kristysadventures	56
OzHockeyChick	47
Rebel Acts	45
spiffy-	45
SteMicMitSar	45
n0w0rries	43
Snips and Co	41
Omegaman1971	40
Riddell	40

Looking ahead to the 2025 awards

That’s a wrap on the 2024 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards! A huge thank you to everyone who nominated, found, voted and celebrated the incredible talent within our community. Thanks goes to our dedicated committee including the lead for this event LetThemEatCache for hosting this fantastic event.

Now it’s time to turn our attention to 2025 – continue exploring and start identifying the next round of standout hides that could be among next years’s nominees!

You can keep track of the new caches published in 2025 through the following lists on our webstie:

We can’t wait to see what the community comes up with next.

See you next year when we share the next batch of nominees!

From Seedlings to Celebrations

Posted on August 28, 2025 by RoamingHowie

As the 7,000 seedlings planted in Mullum Mullum Reserve form new roots after a huge planting day, we look ahead to a number of exciting events coming up on the geocaching calendar and more. Keep ahead of the news in our latest blog.

National Tree Day – 27 July 2025

This year, Geocaching Victoria partnered with Manningham Council to celebrate National Tree Day at Mullum Mullum Reserve. A wonderful group of geocachers and local community members came together to plant 7,000 indigenous plants across the reserve. The event was exceptionally well organized by Manningham Council, and we were proud to collaborate with them alongside the many volunteers who lent a helping hand. Special thanks go to Leah (Crack’n’LeeLee) for her efforts in coordinating this meaningful event.

Mark your calendars!

Spring is upon us, and the geocaching calendar is jam packed! We have three major Community Celebration Events coming up on the calendar filled with celebration, fun, and recognition: Be sure to log your will attends!

Victorian Cache of the Year Awards 2024 (GCB0YDT): Come and celebrate from 5:30pm on October 25, as we congratulate all of the nominees and announce the winners of the 2024 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards. Voting will open on 15 September, allowing you your chance to pick your favourite nominated caches, Adventure Labs, and logs.
GIFF – Thanks For The Community (GCATN5R): Mark your calendar for 11am on November 16, 2025. Enjoy geocaching short films from around the globe and other activities in comfortable theatre seating while connecting with fellow caching enthusiasts.
10th Anniversary of The Melbourne Event (GCATKT5): It’s time for a milestone! Join us for a Free BBQ dinner at Casey Fields from 5pm on November 16, 2025. It’s a chance to celebrate 10 years since the first ever Mega event in Victoria, and the many more that have followed in its footsteps.

Don’t forget you can view a list of every geocaching event being hosted in Victoria on our website by visiting our Upcoming Events page.

Don’t Miss Out: Jackets and Zip Hoodies—Limited Release

After all the love for our new jackets and zip hoodies at recent events, we’re doing a LIMITED 2ND RUN. The gear is back online and ready to order… but only until 7 September. Don’t miss your chance to level up your geocaching gear and add these pieces to your collection.

Order HERE by 7 September to secure yours.

Join the Team

Geocaching Victoria is a volunteer-driven community and welcomes new committee members! Are you keen to help organize events, manage communications, work with the community or share some fresh ideas? Now is the perfect time to get involved. Bring your passion and help shape the future of Victoria’s caching adventures.

If you are interested in joining the team, send an email to president@geocachingvictoria.com.au with your name (real and geocaching!) and a short spiel about why you’d like to join the committee, and what skills you think you can bring.

And The 2024 Nominees Are…

Posted on April 6, 2025 by RoamingHowie

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:

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.

Wrapping Up The Sunbury Event: A Celebration of Geocaching

Posted on March 23, 2025 by RoamingHowie

The Sunbury Event, Victoria’s first-ever Block Party, has come to a close, leaving behind a trail of excitement and memories for geocachers from all over Australia and around the world. Celebrating 25 years of geocaching, the weekend was filled with adventure, camaraderie, and loads of geocaching fun.

Highlights of The Sunbury Event

Nature at Night: What a wonderful experience exploring our nocturnal wildlife and learning about the stars thanks to our partners Hume City Council, not to mention some night caching adventures.
Gadget Caches: 25 gadget caches from some of the greatest cache building minds from all over the state perplexed even the smartest minds.
Special Guests: A fantastic visit from Em_adventuring who overseas the global Mega/Block Party program at Geocaching HQ. This was a unique chance to learn from and exchange ideas that will help us as we develop future events.Congratulations to the winners.
GPS Adventures Maze: This rare icon was on offer with refreshed content and a redesigned night cache room.
Holden Flora Reserve CITO: Another chance to parther with Hume City Council to make a big impact on the local environment including mulching, tree guard removal and rubbish collection.
Loads more with information sessions, stalls, prizes and too much to mention.

Acknowledging the Volunteers and Sponsors

The success of The Sunbury Event would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of all of our volunteers. With more than 100 people contributing to the planning, preparation and execution of the Block Party, we just couldn’t have done it without you. THANK YOU!

We also couldn’t do this without the generous support of our major sponsors Hume City Council and Geocaching.com who have been huge supporters of the event. In addition a big thanks must go to Pathtags, geostuff.com.au, Scurvy Dog Designs, Bunnings Warehouse Mernda, Bridgestone Melton, Canopus Print and Nicole Grau. A heartfelt thank you to all those organizations and individuals for their contributions and support.

Thank You to the Organising Committee

The Sunbury Event Committee deserves special recognition for their dedication and hard work. Their efforts ensured that every aspect of the event, from planning to execution, was expertly managed to provide an unforgettable experience for all attendees. You have earned a well deserved rest. Thank you to Connie and the entire team,

Post Block Party Feedback

Gathering feedback on your Sunbury 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 Sunbury Event.

Provide your feedback by Wednesday 2 April to be in the running to win a Sunbury Event Unobtanium Geocoin.

Complete the survey here

Prizes

Congratulations to the winners of the raffle, Limited Edition Sunbury Unobtanium geocoins and other prizes! A special thank you to maccamob for once again generously donating the hamper for our community raffle which combined with the FTF raffle raised a record $1,839 for Sunbury Neighbourhood House, who were at the closing ceremony for the cheque presentation. Thank you to everyone who bought tickets. There are still a handful of prizes to give away so ensure you have completed the actions below by Wednesday 26 March to be in the running.

Win a Limited Edition Sunbury Unobtanium geocoin (1 each) by:

Logging your attendance at the Block Party (GCAP417)
Submitting your discovered logs on the Block Party trackable that was on display
Posting your Muggle the Puggle and milestone photos in the comments on the Geocaching Victoria Facebook/Instagram post (Enter Here).

Also win the March 10th Anniversary Geocaching Victoria Unobtanium geocoin or 1yr geocaching.com premium memberships by:

Logging your attendance at the Block Party (GCAP417)

Looking Ahead to The Tassie Event

As we wrap up The Sunbury Event, our sights are set on the next exciting adventure: The Tassie Event. Scheduled for March 7-8, 2026, this event promises to be Tasmania’s first major geocaching extravaganza, offering a unique opportunity to explore the island’s stunning landscapes and geocaching treasures. The event has now been published (GCAZTAZ) so you can go ahead and log your will attend. Our Mega application is in the final stages of approval with HQ, and will be completed as part of The Sunbury Event review in the coming weeks – stay tuned!

Farewell For Now

The Sunbury Event Block Party has been a resounding success, celebrating geocaching and the community alike. We have loved hosting you and look forward to seeing you all at The Tassie Event next year where we get to do it all again! But now for some sleep.

Geocaching Victoria

To hide is the beginning, to find is the result, to seek is the adventure

Category Archives: Event2025