Category Archives: Events

And The Nominees Are…

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Over the past month, geocachers from all over the state have been reliving their favourite caching adventures from 2023. Combing through their geocaching lists in search of the cream of the crop to add to the nominees list for the Victorian Cache of the Year Awards. From mind-bending puzzles, to magnificent views and cunning hides, the floodgates opened as nominations poured in. In fact, this year saw a staggering 800 individual cache, Adventure Lab and log nominations – a new record! Thank you to everyone who added their voice to the list of geocaching greatness.

The nominations covered all corners of the state, with half of this years shortlisted nominees coming from regional Victoria. From night caches in the bush, lake paddles, and urban watering hole walks, there was a wide range of nominations. The list included quests to find white rabbits, bollards or ice cream, and field puzzles and mysteries that left many scratching their heads in search of the elusive log. It could have been a great view, a tricky find, or an amazing story that piqued interest. However, they all have one thing in common – the geocaching community thought they were something truly special.

The nominations were carefully tallied, verified and cross checked, and those pesky O’s converted to 0, I to a 1 and some Z to a 2 so that all the GC codes validated. With the nominations counted and shortlisted, the stage was set to share the amazing news with the community on the banks of Cherry Lake in Altona. (GCAK9V2)

As the autumn sun gently broke through the clouds, and the aroma of the sizzling BBQ wafted through the park (with thanks to the Sausage King, aka JohnnyGoldCoast), over 60 passionate geocachers gathered to celebrate as the shortlisted nominees were unveiled. A shout out to the HoodedHooligans and Bunadoorian also for their support on the day.

For those eager to dive in, the full list is available on our website’s 2023 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards page, complete with links to each cache, Adventure Lab and log. There are an incredible 54 individual caches, 190 caches from the top 10 nominated cache series, 7 Adventure Labs and 6 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 them all.

It was evident that the volume of nominations for categories like “Best First Hide”, benefited from the new 2023 cache lists, which were made available this year via our website and geocaching.com. Kudos to BernieH along with support from our Victorian reviewer Bunjil for their efforts in delivering these invaluable tools. The 2024 lists are already online and are periodically updated throughout the year. The committee has also spent a great deal of time reviewing the program in detail, and updating the guidelines, to improve the awards and incorporate community feedback. Thank you for your tireless efforts.

Hold your breath however, as the journey is far from over! Voting won’t commence until later in the year, with the final winners slated to be revealed at a gala event in October/November (TBA). So grab your GPS device, lace up your caching boots and start the hunt for as many nominated caches as you can.

To all those whose geocache, Adventure Lab or log has earned you a spot on the coveted nominations list for 2023, congratulations on your nomination and thank you for bringing so much enjoyment to the community – Good Luck!

So what hides do you have planned for 2024?

March Spotlight: Award Nominations Begin As the Ballarat GeoTour Wraps Up

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As the curtains close on the film and television awards season, the caching awards season is only just starting. Dive into the details below to discover how you can participate, relish in the highlights of the Ballarat GeoTour, and mark your calendar for our upcoming April fundraising BBQ.

  1. 2023 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards – Nominations Open
  2. Ballarat GeoTour Farewell
  3. Bunnings Fundraising BBQ

2023 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards – Nominations Open

We are excited to launch the Victorian Cache of the Year Awards for 2023. Each year we continue to be amazed by the creative, inspirational and adventurous caches that are created within our community and the awards are a great way to celebrate them.

This year, the committee has invested time to enhance the nomination resources, guidance, and program transparency. This includes incorporating community feedback into the program. For comprehensive details on the program, including eligibility and nomination criteria, please visit our awards webpage: Cache of the Year Awards

The 2023 award categories are:

  • Best Traditional Cache
  • Best Multi Cache
  • Best Mystery Cache
  • Best Other Cache (incl Wherigo, Letterbox, Virtual and Earthcache)
  • Best First Hide
  • Best Cache Series
  • Best Cache Location
  • Best Regional Cache (non metro LGA)
  • Best Adventure Lab
  • Best Cache Log (includes Found It and DNF)
  • Best Overall Cache

Nominations are now open and will remain open for 4 weeks, closing on Wednesday 17 April. If you haven’t already, take the opportunity to reflect on some of the remarkable 2023 caches you have discovered to ensure your favourites are recognised. You might even like to embark on some new adventures to uncover even more 2023 hides. These geocaching lists can help you to pinpoint the caches eligible in this years awards:

The shortlisted candidates will be announced at our awards nomination event at Cherry Lake on Sunday 21 April (GCAK9V2). Everyone is welcome to attend and there will be a free sausage sizzle so be sure to log your will attend for catering purposes.

The awards have a tradition of being generously sponsored by fellow cachers within our community. If you’re interested in learning more about sponsoring one of the 2023 awards, please visit the donations section of our shop or reach out via email at president@geocachingvictoria.com.au. Sponsors have the option to remain anonymous if they wish.

While you are nominating, give some thought to what amazing caches you are planning for 2024.

Ballarat GeoTour Farewell

After three very successful years, the Ballarat GeoTour officially concluded on Monday, 4 March. The final weeks were bustling with activity as teams from all across Australia (and some international guests), pushed to complete the tour before its closure.

Being the only GeoTour in the country it was no surprise the tour attracted an incredible turnout, drawing over 1,700 unique geocachers to explore Ballarat. The 25 caches and Adventure Lab garnered nearly 13,000 logs and close to 1,600 location completions respectively. Remarkably, 340 geocachers successfully completed the entire tour, earning themselves the coveted GeoTour souvenir. GeoTour participants journeyed from every corner of Australia, along with visitors from 19 other countries. Geocaching teams collectively spent 3,853 days searching for GeoTour caches!

Behind every one of our successful adventures lies the invaluable support of dedicated volunteers, and the Ballarat GeoTour is no exception. GemmaSistema spearheaded this remarkable project with incredible commitment and vision from the beginning. A huge thank you is owed to her for her leadership, drive, and determination. With the support of her Geocaching Victoria committee colleagues, Gemma was able to turn this ambitious idea into a reality. The financial backing provided by Vic Health played a pivotal role in bringing this dream to fruition. However, it was the collective effort of the Ballarat and surrounding caching community that truly brought the GeoTour to life.

We would like to extend our sincere appreciation to everyone who contributed their time and expertise to help design the tour, place and maintain caches, and ensure the seamless operation of the GeoTour over the past three years.

– ChooknChunk
– GemmaSistema
– Feathertop
– Fergzter
– Glanville Girls
– Kenare 		– LouiseAnn
– Mazzy May
– McAdies
– McLookers
– PerpetuallyLost
– Saint Anthony 		– Sally Mally
– Sean.75
– Sunset62
– The_Tritonz
– Wozzle68

In addition a massive thank you to our reviewers Bunjil and GeoAwareANZ2 for their ongoing support throughout. To each and every participant of the tour, as well as those who bought GeoTour coins and those who contributed to the nine GeoTour events, thank you for being a part of it.

The winners of our final 3 GeoTour unobtanium coins have now been drawn and they are:

  • jaamc_3335 (Completed the whole tour)
  • BlackOpal2005 (Completed the whole tour)
  • SciFiRulz (Supporting merchadise purchase)

Congratulations to all of the winners and we will be in contact with you soon to arrange your prize. If you haven’t ordered your GeoTour coins yet to celebrate, there are still a small number of each coin left available on our website.

Bunnings Fundraising BBQ

Join us for our upcoming fundraising event at the infamous Hammerbarn, scheduled for Sunday April 14 at Bunnings Mernda. Led by our fundraising champion, Grub62 (Belinda), our team of volunteers will be cooking up a storm, enticing the public to support us with their generosity.

We’re still in need of a few extra hands on the day, so if you can spare a couple of hours, we’d greatly appreciate your assistance. Feel free to reach out to Belinda at grub62@geocachingvictoria.com.au. Alternatively if you can’t stay for long, why not drop by anytime between 9 am and 4 pm to meet fellow geocachers and enjoy a snag. Don’t forget to log your ‘Will Attend’ at GCAK9VM.

If you can’t make it but would still like to support our fundraising efforts, why not donate the equivalent of a packet of sausages and some loaves of bread towards the day. Simply use the ‘Give ingredients for a fundraising BBQ‘ option on our website or explore one of the other donation alternatives.

We extend our gratitude to Bunnings Mernda for their ongoing support of Geocaching Victoria. Special thanks to the activities team, Michelle, and Chloe, for providing us with this invaluable opportunity.

February Update

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February this year is a whole 24 hours longer than usual and there is no shortage of action occurring on Leap Day to maximise this rare opportunity. Whether you are heading to the Great Leap Forward Mega in South Australia, attending one of the six events being hosted here in Victoria, or heading out to add to your combination of finds for this unusual day, don’t forget to plan ahead so you don’t miss out. It is a long wait for the next one. Here are some other updates while we’ve got your attention.

10 Years of Volunteering

Late last year as the final caches for 2023 were making their way through the review queue, our local reviewers, Bunjil, aka Peter and Helen, reached their 10 year milestone as volunteer reviewers. That’s a mega amount of volunteer time dedicated to this great activity of ours.

Just how many review hours you might wonder? Well enough to have published over 20,000 geocaches, and write over 43,000 reviewer notes – HUGE!

Ten years is an incredible milestone, so on behalf of the community, THANK YOU for all of your hard work and tireless contribution. A lot of your work is often hidden behind the scenes and goes unnoticed, however geocaching is not possible without the incredible support of volunteers like yourselves and we really appreciate it.

Events, Events and more Events!

The event calendar is pretty busy these days with lots of social activities to choose from. Following some great community feedback, we have updated our event page to include the Local Government Area (LGA), which will hopefully make it easier to find what you are looking for. We are also working with some of our interstate colleagues on some future updates to further enhance the page and ensure you can keep up your social fix.

Check out the new format and all the events happening around town on our website here.

Rutherglen Cache Series – Retirement

The Rutherglen Mega Committee and their very talented cache crew led by Robmc, have been tirelessly maintaining the 300 Mega related caches in Rutherglen for almost 2 years now (since Easter 2022). This is a commendable effort and takes substantial volunteer time to keep on top of the huge number of caches, which also involves significant travel.

Out of respect to our amazing volunteers, this is advance notice that these caches will soon be retired. They will remain active until after Easter, however they will be archived post 8 April 2024. If you are travelling up to the Canberra Geobash, this could be good opportunity to drop in and claim any hides you have not yet found.

Thank you to Robmc, day1976, BettyBoo3747 and the rest of the team who have worked tirelessly to create and maintain these caches over the last 2 years.

Save The Date / Cache Of The Year Awards – Nominations

Don’t forget to add these upcoming dates to your calendar:

18 February GCAFQ8B – Farewell Ballarat GeoTour (THIS WEEKEND!)
14 April    GCAK9VM – Mernda BBQ
21 April   GCAK9V2 (coming soon) – Victorian COTY Awards – Nominations Announcement

We will have all the news on the awards for the 2023 year and how you can nominate your favourite caches in an upcoming announcement. In the meantime, get out and find as many 2023 caches as you can in preparation. Check out the following lists to help you focus your caching maps:

2023 Traditional Hides – https://coord.info/BMCEG0W
2023 Non Traditional Hides – https://coord.info/BMCEG0V
2023 First Time Hides https://coord.info/BMCEG0Z
2023 Cache Series https://coord.info/BMD15XQ

You can find plenty of other lists on our Great Caching Lists webpage.

Geocaching and First Aid

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We all love to get outdoors and geocache. Whether it’s the thrill of the hunt, the excitement of the find or sometimes the frustration of a DNF on a tricky hide. A DNF however isn’t the worst that can happen on a geocaching adventure.

Have you ever spotted a snake while out exploring? If you or your caching partners were bitten by a snake, would you know what to do? What about if you broke a limb climbing a tree, or your caching buddy suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. How would you react?

On Saturday, Geocaching Victoria was pleased to have Darren Mannix (Omegaman1971) from Healthguard First Aid as a special guest at a geocaching event GCAGHHH: First Aid Knowledge is Invaluable.

Darren was able to share his wealth of experience regarding the importance of First Aid and just how valuable knowledge can be. He also shared some shocking statistics including the fact that currently in Australia, only 1 in 10 people will survive a sudden cardiac arrest.

We can all play a part in improving those statistics as well as being prepared in the event of an emergency while geocaching and beyond. Some of the key takeaways from the introduction were:

  • There are 3 simple steps to potentially help save a life in the case of a sudden Cardiac Arrest: Call, Push, Shock. This is a key part of Heart Safe Australia’s awareness and education campaign.
  • Ensure you and your families emergency information is setup in your mobile phone so that it can be used by first aiders to help you in an emergency. Setup your iphone or android smart device today.
  • First aid TOTTs – We are familiar with carrying numerous TOTTs to retrieve caches – Is a first aid kit one of your TOTTs?

Following the event, 17 lucky geocachers had the opportunity to attend a three hour information session to learn more about First Aid. Darren shared information about emergency response, CPR, wound management, bandaging and much more. That is 17 additional geocachers in the community that are now better equipped to assist in the case of an emergency. Are you lucky enough to cache with one of them?

If you would like to learn more, attend a First Aid course, or purchase First Aid equipment, please reach out to Healthguard First Aid at www.healthguardfirstaid.com.au.

Geocaching Victoria would like to send our sincere gratitude to Darren, and Healthguard First Aid for helping to keep our geocaching community safe.

Mega News

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We promised to provide an update early in the year on the next Victorian Mega, and we know you are all keen to hear more.

We have been working behind the scenes on initial plans for the next Victorian Mega. However, with November 2024 fast approaching, and some important matters still to resolve, the committee has decided that an early 2025 event (March-ish) would be a more practical date. This allows appropriate time for the committee to finalise dates and location, whilst providing attendees with more time to plan. It also gives us the opportunity to potentially turn the event into a Block Party!

We will soon be looking for volunteers to join the Mega Committee, however we are thrilled to welcome Connie from ConnieandRick on board to lead the next Victorian event. Connie has shown a keen interest in giving back to the community and we are excited to have her support on this next adventure. Without the help of people from the community, we would be unable to host the next big event – Thank You Connie!

We look forward to sharing with you more details about the location and specific dates for the 2025 event in coming months.

Rest assured, we still have plenty of other events on the agenda for 2024, including Geocaching Victoria’s 10th Birthday celebrations later in the year. In the meantime we hope you are also taking the opportunity to enjoy some of the many other big interstate events happening this year.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to any of the committee members.

We look forward to seeing you this Saturday at GCAHHHG: First Aid Knowledge is Invaluable.