It is with a heavy heart that we share the sad news that Jeff (from hercs&pinky) passed away last week.
Jeff was doing what he loved, out traveling with his brother in South Australia, when he sadly passed away. Jeff was loved by all that knew him and we send our deepest condolences to his wife Sheryl and his children Dwayne, Simone and Travis.
Jeff grew up in the Swan Hill area initially as a dairy farmer. He loved to tinker and build things long before he started geocaching, so when Barry (baby&Mrs gopher) introduced him to caching in 2011, he was naturally drawn to gadget caches, and set about publishing many great hides throughout the area.
Many of you may have met Jeff at Gadget Alley during the Whittlesea Mega, where he spent most of the event proudly helping people with his gadget cache, and the others on display. He was also excited to have placed a new gadget cache for the recent Cachemas series to help encourage more people to visit the Swan Hill area.
There will be a private ceremony for his close family and friends in early October.
It might be middle of winter here in Victoria, but that certainly doesn’t keep geocachers away! July is sizing up to be one very busy month, with a large amount of events being hosted right across the state. Be sure to keep an eye on our web-page to see if there is an event scheduled near you!
COTY Awards 2022 – Voting is Now Open
The voting for the Cache of The Year Awards 2022 is now open. During the voting process, the following criteria applies:
Only caches and logs shortlisted will be open for voting
For all cache categories, it is recommended that you physically find the cache you are voting for.
You can vote for your own cache or log
One vote per category per caching team is allowed.
There will only be one winner per category
If in the event a category results in a tie, the Geocaching Victoria committee will cast the final vote
Voting will close 30th September 2023, with a proposed event announcing the awards scheduled for November (details to follow)
It was great to see so many inspirational Magic Maker Events hosted at various locations across the state. By all accounts the feedback on them all has been exciting – inspiring others to shake off their creativity and try their own hand at the craft of cache making.
One of those events were hosted by tri Mister Doctor, Washawa and iTEEM and as one of our roving reporters attended, some highlights were captured. We thought we would share the magic to those that may not have been able to attend. Thanks to our Magicians for creating such a memorable event. Check out the video here.
Cachemas in July
Of course we also have our Cachemas in July Bonanza, which will also be sure to delight. 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).
This weekend we celebrated the 21st Birthday of geocaching events in Victoria.
The first ever Victorian geocaching event, GC5C5D, was held on 23 June 2002 at O’Briens Crossing in the Lerderderg State Park. So what better location to celebrate the 21st birthday than back where it all began. Geocachers came from far and wide to celebrate the day whilst enjoying a bbq, Crack’n’LeeLee’s famous soup, and plenty of party snacks! A huge thank you to Leah and Craig (Crack’n’LeeLee) for initiating the celebrations and for all their hard work hosting.
Geocachers celebrating the 21st birthday of geocaching events in Victoria.
David from team maccamob, who was at the very first event, shared some insights on the inaugural activity. He noted there was a lot less infrastructure at GZ back in 2002, however the weather had not changed with it being just as cold. The difference was, they had a warm fire to cozy up to, something no longer permitted at O’Briens Crossing.
At the time of Victoria’s first event:
Maccamob had just reached their 100 cache find milestone (currently 47,000+).
Brain and some of our other active cachers hadn’t even been born!
The first iphone was still 5 years away from release.
We were up to Edition 30 of the Melways, with extra maps newly added for Queenscliff, Mickleham and Wyndham Vale.
Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” was the number 1 song for the year, which is exactly what many cachers did (and still do).
Since the first event, there have been almost 1,700 amazing events across the state, with plenty more still to come.
In fact looking ahead in July and August alone, Victoria already has 30 events and CITO’s on the calendar with 21 different CO’s contributing to the fun. Excitingly, four of those CO’s are hosting an event for the very first time. To find an event near you, check out the Upcoming Events page on our website.
Be sure to log your will attend on any of these events to join in the fun. If you’d like some help to host your first geocaching event, feel free to reach out to one of the Geocaching Victoria committee members or one of the existing event COs to help get you on your way.
We look forward to seeing you at the next event!
Geocachers attending the first ever geocaching event in Victoria.
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.
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!
GCA69WK – Cache of the Year Award Nominations & Volunteer Week BBQ – 1:00 – 2:30
Come and join the activities and log your will attend for either or both events. See below for more details:
Edwardes Lake Park – Lakeside weeding – CITO – GCA69WH – 11:30am
Come and help the Friends of Edwardes Lake at this CITO. Working to preserve, restore and care for the ecosystem of Edwardes Lake and surrounds, we will be joining their team to help weed and maintain an area of the park that is being restored. It is also the first CITO in the Darebin LGA for 5 years. You might even get a chance to say hello to Kevin and Mabel, the resident lake swans.
National Volunteer Week Sausage Sizzle – GCA69WK – 1:00pm
National Volunteer Week is a chance to celebrate and recognise the vital work of volunteers. Geocaching Victoria and all of its events and activities are only possible thanks to the many, many volunteers who donate their time and energy in support of the geocaching community.
Whether it be helping to run a Mega, working on the GPS Adventure Maze, contributing to a GeoTour, selling sausages at a Bunnings BBQ or helping out at many other activities, volunteers are the lifeblood of all that we do.
As part of Volunteer Week we will be hosting a free sausage sizzle and get together. Be sure to log your will attend and include the number of people in your team so that we can be sure to cater for you.
2022 Cache of the Year Award Nomination Announcements – GCA69WK – 1:30pm
There is less than a week left to nominate your favourite Victorian cache in the 2022 awards. We are looking forward to tallying the results and announcing all of the amazing nominees at this event.
If you are still yet to nominate, you can submit your favourite 2022 cache nomination HERE.
Finding some of the nominee caches will also help with the May HQ souvenir challenge!
We look forward to seeing you on Sunday 21 May at the CITO and Volunteer/Nomination events.
