Category Archives: News

And The Nominees Are…

Posted on by
1

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?

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.

Geocaching and First Aid

Posted on by
Reply

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

Posted on by
Reply

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.

Farewell 2023, Welcome 2024!

Posted on by
2

It’s been a big 2023 and as the year comes to a close, we’d like to give a big shout out to all of the geocachers in our wonderful community. Whether you have published a new cache for others to find, hosted or attended an event, helped someone solve a puzzle or find a tricky hide, or shared a great log for the CO to read, you have all contributed to making 2023 a great caching year.

We’d especially like to thank everyone who has volunteered their time throughout the year or supported us through the purchase of merchandise, donations, or recycling your cans and bottles. Every little bit helps.

Here are just some of the things that happened in 2023:

  • February – The Ballarat GeoTour celebrated its 2nd year (how quickly time flies).
  • April – Our first Easter Mega was held in Rutherglen with a long weekend extravaganza.
  • May – We celebrated all our volunteers and announced the amazing list of nominees for the 2022 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards.
  • June – Makers Magic was happening all over the state including a huge celebration in Mitcham showcasing gadgets, games, presentations and cache painting to name just a few of the activities.
  • June – Victoria celebrated 21 years of geocaching events, returning to the site of the very first event in the Lerderderg State Park to celebrate.
  • July – The Cachemas in July festival took off, bringing together 100 smileys from 75 different CO’s as well as a big family Cachemas lunch at Kensington Town Hall.
  • August – The community celebrated International Geocaching Day with another Great Victorian Cache Crawl starting in Ararat and finishing in Upper Ferntree Gully – 10 stops (including a midnight event).
  • October – Geocaching Victoria turned 9. Double digits next year!
  • November – Popcorn, choc tops, and a huge theatre set the scene for our Geocaching International Film Festival event with special guests, Peoples Choice Award winners, chooknchunk.
  • November – Glitz and Glamour was in order as we crowned the winners of our 2022 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards while enjoying dinner and trivia.

All of that in amongst a number of community “Introduction to geocaching” sessions, hosting some geocaching activities for schools, and working with other community organisations.

There is plenty in the works for 2024. We’ll be starting with a First Aid initiative in February (stay tuned) as well as saying farewell to the Ballarat GeoTour. There is lots more to come.

As we wrap up the year, here are some of our state’s geocaching statistics for you. They may even prompt you to start filling some of the less common gaps:

  • Total 2023 hides: 1,615 (inc 320 event type caches)
  • Favourites accumulated on 2023 hides: 4,451
  • Total finds on 2023 caches (non event): 34,627
  • Event attendances: 6,974
  • Average D/T: 1.98 / 1.89
  • Most common/Least common difficulty: 1.5 (538) / 4.5 (6)
  • Most common/Least common terrain: 1.5 (639) / 4.5 (9)
  • No. of D/T combos with nil placements in 2023: 17
  • Most common/Least common size: Small (586) / Large (32)
  • Most common/Least common type: Traditional (865) / Wherigo (8)
  • LGAs with most new hides: Northern Grampians, Greater Geelong & Wangaratta
  • LGAs with no new hides : Warrnambool, Buloke & Loddon
  • No. of unique cachers with 12 or more finds (average 1 per month): 2,380
  • No. of unique cachers with 365 or more finds (average 1 per day): 166
  • No. of unique hiders: 326

Note: These stats are based on “Placed Date” and were generated on 30/12/2023 therefore will exclude some late logs and event attendances for the final days of 2023. Some statistics are limited due to the availability of data and time constraints.

Will you be the next cacher to hide a large cache? Perhaps you’d like to fill in your D/T grid? Looking to find a few more caches than you did this year? Or maybe you’d like to be the first hider to place a D4.0/T4.5 cache in over 12 months.

Whatever your geocaching goals for 2024, we hope you have a wonderful new year, and get off to a great start this January.

From all the team at Geocaching Victoria, HAPPY NEW YEAR!