Category Archives: Rutherglen

February Update

Posted on by
2

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.

Thursday’s Thoughts

Posted on by

Before the week comes to a close, we wanted to share a few updates with our amazing community. It was great to see so many of you attend our Award Nomination Event last Sunday, but we are mindful that many were not able to attend and wanted to share the details.

We received over 500 nominations from across the Victoria; from the Murray to the City and from the Little Desert to Gippsland Lakes and with so many worthy entries the shortlisting process took some time. But we were happy to announce that there are 78 caches and 17 logs that have been added to the finalised list.

Sometimes we get asked how we come up with our award categories, particularly as there can be some changes from year to year and the simple answer is that we like to find ways to celebrate all caches as best as we can and we are open to experimenting a little. Sometimes however, there are not the numbers for a standalone cache award category, such as EarthCaches, which only saw 11 published in the year 2022, which is a vast difference to the 737 new traditional caches in the same year and so in some cases it makes more sense to have an ‘other category’ and group a few together.

We do like to try new things too, last year we tried the “best photo” category but we learnt that that can be really hard to capture and nominate. With the explosion of AdLabs in our community in recent years, we decided this year to try a new category in our awards this year and it was great to see so many nominated.

To see a full list of our finalists by award category, please check out our website. Be sure too to save the geocaching.com list to your account so that you can start to go and find them all!

Voting will likely open end of June with a view of announcing winners at a future event later this year. We will share details once they are finalised.

Final Winners from Rutherglen

There were some final annoucements pending on award winners from our Rutherglen Mega and so we wanted to share those. Congratulations to the following winners of the Rutherglen Unobtaniums:

  • CITO attendee – McLookers
  • Maze Attendee – 6Hinemoa2
  • Car Rally – RoamingHowie & OzHockeyChick
  • Volunteer – Byker152

Congratulations to the winners of this limited edition coin – a great one to have in your collection.

Another Legend in our Game – Muzza

Murray aka “Muzza” to us has been part of Geocaching in Victoria for over 21 years and recently celebrated his 20,000 find this month – a massive achievement that many of us only dream of. We thought that we would take the opportunity to send a big congrat’s to Muzza, but also share an interview that day1976 did with Muzza some time ago. We hope you enjoy the recording (subtitles / closed captions are included.)

Cachemas in July

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Cachemas!!!

Cachemas in July is a 2 week caching bonanza in late July culminating in a Cachemas celebration at the Kensington Town Hall.

Over the 12 Days of Cachemas, new caches will be released by CO’s all over the state celebrating a different type or attribute each day in the style of a well known Cachemas carol.

At the end of the 12 days of Cachemas, join us for a Cachemas family celebration. GCA7WT4 (https://coord.info/GCA7WT4), is now published for you to log your will attends. Tickets are available to purchase via the link in the event and include a roast lunch with a variety of meats, salads, vegetables and scrumptious desserts (vegetarian option available). There will be other fun activities on the day as well.

So visit GCA7WT4 to log your will attend and secure your lunch tickets!

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

Posted on by

Now we have come a far cry from the days when we would see newspaper boys standing on the corner, promoting the release of breaking news. But it is timely that we do have some updates to share with you about the up coming Mega. So jump straight in and read all about it!

Firstly did you that we have organised a pre-Mega catch up? This is planned for Saturday 25th March 2023 – GCA5NZT – Pre Rutherglen Catch Up. We hope to see you there!

Information Sessions

We have just finalised the details of the Information Session and are excited to share the topics and schedule of the information sessions planned over the Mega weekend. All Information Sessions will be held at The Old Council Chambers, above the Rutherglen Library – 153 High Street, Rutherglen

  • Cachly Information Session by beckNmonts
  • How to create an Earthcache by GeoAwareANZ2
  • Placing Night Caches by ILookedThere
  • Solving Puzzle Caches by GJMMelb
  • Cachetur.no – more than a road trip app by Kittykatch
  • Pocket Queries and Lists by GeoLibrarian54
  • Adventurous Caching for Beginners by Jamin Appleford
  • Do’s and Don’t s For Placing Geocaches’ by Bunjil
  • NEWBS & scary events! by skuzzybear

Meet the Reviewers Sessions

There will also be an opportunity to meet the reviewers and ask some questions and get ideas for your next hide. This session will be held at Soldiers Hall – 150 High Street Road, Rutherglen

For more information please refer to our webpage.

The GPS Maze is coming to Rutherglen

We are proud to present the 4th version of the maze for all geocachers to enjoy. Be sure to check the schedule for dates and times. (GC9V3RY)

Whether this will be your first Maze visit or you’ve visited  every GPS Maze, you should proudly proclaim your achievement by purchasing an “I survived the GPS Maze T-Shirt”. Worn by the most discerning and fashionable geocachers, make your geo-friends jealous that they too, should attempt to survive the GPS Maze and have not yet done so. Stocks are limited but are available in all sizes from Small to 3XL. Buy one for each member of your team and join an exclusive club. Only $22

We also have a limited edition Rutherglen Maze Geocoin availabe, so be sure to order one of those at the Geocaching Victoria Online Shop.

Win an Unobtanium Coin with a Nametag

For those of you attending the Mega weekend, we would love you to wear your nametag! The name tag must be on the most visible layer of clothing (ie an embroidered shirt would count, but not if you have a jumper over the top).

It’s a great way to recognise those caching names you may be familiar with, particularly if you do not recognise faces. It’s also a lovely way to connect and meet other fellow cachers that you may not have met before.

Over the course of the weekend, the MEGA committee will hand out raffle tickets to those of you spotted wearing a name tag. Each recepient will go in the draw to win an Unobtanium coin. The winner will be drawn at the closing ceremony (you must be present)

To participate, you can:

  • Get creative and make a nametag
  • Bring a nametag you already own
  • Purchase a geocaching nametag
  • Pack enough geocaching items with your name embroidered to wear each day

Volunteering at the Rutherglen Event

As you know, our MEGA events are run entirely by volunteers. We need a few more volunteers to fill all roles. Have we mentioned that volunteers do get a small thank you gift for their time?

Some examples of things that we need assistance with is as follows:

  • Work the gate on Thursday afternoon. When else will you get a chance to tell so many people where to go?
  • Have you got pavilion set up experience? We need a few people from 2pm Friday to help the council set up some tables and pavilions for us.
  • Help set up the maze Thursday morning.
  • Work the gate on Friday, another perfect opportunity to tell people where to go.
  • Help on Saturday, both morning and afternoon.

Please complete our volunteer registration form

Subscribe to our Blogs

We aim to share regular stories, event details and updates with our community and have a variety of channels where we share. But to ensure you don’t miss out on our updates, why not subscribe to our regular blog and get it delivered to your inbox. Subscribe now by entering your email address.

Jam Packed Mega Fun

Posted on by

Easter is always a great time for families to come together, enjoy some downtime, camp or of course geocache! This year we are excited to host The Rutherglen Event (GC9MHM) for our community for some Easter fun.

In case you didn’t know, each Mega has a colour theme and we celebrate this in many different ways – through the flags, merchandise and of course car ribbons! For those of you that may not be familiar with these ribbons, we encourage anyone travelling to the Mega to attached the designated colour ribbon to your car, so as you descend upon the town of Rutherglen and travel around the surrounding towns over the weekend, you can spot your fellow geocachers! This year our colour is Maroon. Be sure to attach this ribbon to your car over the weekend of the Mega!

New Merchansise Available

Just in case you haven’t heard, we now have polo t-shirts available in the Geocaching Victoria online shop, in addition to the Rutherglen shirts, jackets, pathtags and geocoins. Be sure to place an order as these are priced to sell fast!

The Mega Easter Egg Hunt

After the big night you will have on Saturday, you will probably feel like sleeping in on the Sunday. After all Sunday is the day of rest. But I would suggest you might not want to sleep too long, otherwise you will miss the Easter Egg Hunt!

Yes, Easter Sunday come one, come all and bring your sleuthing abilities along. There will be many colourful eggs to be found around the showgrounds and camping area. These will be made of coloured paper and ribbon – very fancy.

“Paper & Ribbon!” you say? What kind of Easter Bunny is there for the Mega? An origami one? Fear not, depending on the egg you find, it can be exchanged for something more suitable. More information will be announced closer to the day.

Age is no limit – this is open to all. So keep Sunday morning free, and join in the fun. Any questions please reach out to Elizabeth Baulch (BettyBoo3747)

Make Rutherglen a Milestone

With only 34 days left until the Mega, we are keen to hear how many of you will be celebrating a Geocaching Milestone in November 2022. Please let us know!

The definition of a Milestone is number of finds ending in:

0 for 2 digit numbers – i.e. 10, 20, 30 etc
00 for 3 digit numbers – i.e. 100, 200, 300 etc
000 for 4 digit numbers – i.e. 1000, 2000, 3000 etc
Of course we also have 10,000, 11,000 etc

To register your interest, please completed the below form and let us know if you will celebrate your milestone at the Maze Event or the Mega Event

Registration Form

Cut off will be approximately 8pm on Friday 31st March 2023

Ballarat GeoTour Event

If you have nothing planned this weekend, don’t forget we have our latest Ballarat GeoTour Event (GCA4DRJ) on this Sunday. We hope to see you there!

Be sure to purchase some GeoTour Merchandise whilst stocks last.

Other Important Snippets

  • There are still unpowered campsites available if you are looking for accomadation. Be sure to check our webpage for further details
  • We are aware that Thursday GCA4DQ8 and Monday Dinners GCA4DQK have been sold out at the Mega, however we are looking at extending seating – we will come back to you soon.
  • Plenty of room at Saturday Dinner GCA4DQE  is available, so be sure to register your interest.
  • For complete schedule of events and activities, check out our website
  • Remember if you are bring your geo-dog to the Mega to read our geo-dog etiquette

Subscribe to our Blogs

We aim to share regular stories, event details and updates with our community and have a variety of channels where we share. But to ensure you don’t miss out on our updates, why not subscribe to our regular blog and get it delivered to your inbox. Subscribe now by entering your email address.

The Countdown Begins

Posted on by

The excitement is certainly building as we start the count down to the Rutherglen Mega Event – only 40 more days before what will be an incredible weekend, jammed packed, full of lots of exciting geocaching experiences and social opportunities.

We wanted to share some quick udates with you to ensure that you optimise your planning for this Mega Event. But first an awesome new fact – The Indigo Shire (home for the Rutherglen Mega) is the number one LGA in Victoria for cache hides! So make sure you check out all the cache series that have been hidden in the area.

Mega Events

We have just had additional events published, so be sure to log your attendence to assist with our planning.

  • Thursday 6th April 2023 – GCA4ZWX – Thursday Lunch Social Event
  • Thursday 6th April 2023 – GCA4DQ8 – Thursday Night Dinner Event – Italian ‘Mangia’
  • Friday 7th April 2023 – GCA4DQA – Friday Dinner Event – Indian Night Market
  • Friday 7th April 2023 – GCA4ZWY – Friday Lunch Social Event
  • Saturday 8th April 2023 – GC9MH9M – The Rutherglen Event
  • Saturday 8th April 2023 – GCA4DQE – Saturday Night Dinner
  • Monday 10th April 2023 – GCA4ZWK – Monday Lunch Social Event
  • Monday 10th April 2023 – GCA4DQK – Monday Night Dinner Event – Grip It and Rip It

For visibility of the entire weekend schedule, please be sure to check out our webpage.

Brolga Bill’s Puzzles

Brolga Bill decided that, instead of making all the puzzles for the Mega difficult and different, he would construct some that were grouped into similar types, that started easy and worked through to moderately tricky. Each type has five puzzles in its series. (except for the words series, which has more.) By this technique he hopes that some cachers, who normally would not look at puzzles, will have a go at these.

So even if you don’t consider yourself a puzzler, have a go at the first in each series. If you get them, go onto the others in the series. If you get really stuck Bill reckons you can always ask for a hint, either from him (online at Wiser than Owls), or from another cacher at an Event.

Different cachers are usually good at different types of puzzles. Some are good with words, some numbers, some images. That does not mean you should not try the other types, sometimes it is just a matter of getting some techniques down. Even if you can’t successfully add two and two to get four, there are always online resources to help.

Bill reckons you nearly have enough to complete one puzzle a night, and still finish them before the Mega starts. Don’t wait, start now! Good Luck.

Be sure to save the Brolga Bill’s puzzle list to your geocaching profile.

101 Geocaching Class in Rutherglen

In the lead up to the Rutherglen Mega, day1976 and Mister Doctor ran a Geocaching 101 workshop for interested locals to explain our beautiful game to them. They covered app navigation, D/T ratings and cache types, as well as taking them out in the field to make their first finds. The response was overwhelmingly positive, and business owners even commented that they had already noticed increased traffic due to the upcoming Mega.

There was, however, some feedback from local landowners about suspicious characters gathering on back roads near their properties. When asked what they were doing, they wouldn’t say. This is really the wrong way to respond if you’re “caught in the act”.

Honesty is still the best policy Geocachers are a daring breed! We are part secret agents, part explorers, part good old-fashioned adventurers.

These days geocaching has a much higher profile than it did 10 or even 5 years ago. Yes, we try to mask our activities from muggles as part of the thrill of the game, but if we are causing concern and directly confronted it is far better to be open and up-front. Many people will have already heard of geocaching, and if they haven’t it’s an excellent opportunity to educate them.

Try to understand where the locals are coming from. Unexplained and repeated visits to a quiet back road location can look very much like some sort of drug activity. When questioned, simply say “We’re geocaching”. Show them the cache if you’ve already found it, or engage them in the hunt if you are still looking. You might be pleasantly surprised at their response, the next geocachers may even get a friendly helping hand, and you may have introduced a new player to the game. Good luck on your travels fellow adventurers, and remember you can be also educators too. – Mister Doctor

Rutherglen Merchandise

If you have not already – be sure to place your order for the Rutherglen Event Coin and Pathtags are now available for order. In case you missed the teaser blog, check out this small video on our Rutherglen Reflections Facebook page, alternative you will find more details in our shop.

Don’t forget we also have our clothing merchandise available too in the shop.

Shout out for some Rutherglen Volunteers

We are still looking for some volunteers over the Mega weekend – If you can spare a few hours over the weekend, please do let us know and complete the Volunteer Form. We would really appreciate it.

Subscribe to our Blogs

We aim to share regular stories, event details and updates with our community and have a variety of channels where we share. But to ensure you don’t miss out on our updates, why not subscribe to our regular blog and get it delivered to your inbox. Subscribe now by entering your email address.