Category Archives: Statistics

Wrapping Up Another Great Year of Geocaching in Victoria

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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.

Farewell 2024, Welcome 2025!

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As we wrap up 2024, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our incredible community! Your participation, support, and enthusiasm have made this year another one to remember. We’re excited to welcome 2025 with more fun, adventure, and camaraderie planned. What are your geocaching goals for the new year?

Here are just some of the highlights from 2024:

  • February – We kicked off the year with a life-saving first aid information session! The Ballarat GeoTour concluded after three successful years, having welcomed over 1,700 unique geocachers and celebrating 340 completions of all 25 caches.
  • April – Excitement buzzed as we announced the nominees for the 2023 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards at Cherry Lake in Altona.
  • May – We unveiled plans for The Sunbury Event, Victoria’s very first Block Party scheduled for March 2025. Mark your calendars for this groundbreaking celebration!
  • July – Cachemas in July returned to Kensington Town Hall, featuring a special guest appearance by Santa! This was followed by a successful National Tree Day CITO event in Sunbury to help build habitat for Thara, the black shouldered kite – featured on the Sunbury Event Geocoin.
  • August – The community celebrated International Geocaching Day with a full weekend of events across the state, including the Great Victorian Cache Crawl. Additionally, our SideTracked Day at Diamond Valley Miniature Railway became the second-largest event globally in the series’ 17-year history!
  • October – Geocaching Victoria turned 10 years old! This milestone was celebrated with much fanfare.
  • November – The glitz and glamour of our anniversary celebration included awarding the winners of the 2023 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards at a gala in Yarraville.
  • December – Preparations for the Block Party are heating up! Exciting announcements include the appearance of the GPS Adventure Maze, event merchandise launch, and more details about the weekend festivities.

Victoria – 2024 by the numbers

Here is a snapshot of caching in Victoria this year:

  • Total 2024 hides: 1,657 (inc 490 event type caches)
  • Favourites accumulated on 2024 hides: 2,939
  • Total finds on 2024 caches (non event): 24,818
  • Event attendances: 5,475
  • Average D/T: 2.05 / 1.83
  • Most common/Least common difficulty: 1.5 (481) / 5.0 (7)
  • Most common/Least common terrain: 1.5 (663) / 4.0 (4)
  • No. of D/T combos with nil placements in 2024: 18
  • Most common/Least common size: Small (491) / Large (23)
  • Most common/Least common type: Traditional (802) / Wherigo (9)
  • LGAs with most new hides: Golden Plains, Glenelg & Indigo
  • LGAs with no new hides : Ararat, Brimbank, Gannawarra, Greater Dandenong, Horsham, West Wimmera & Yarriambiack
  • LGAs with most events: Ballarat, Hepburn, Greater Geelong
  • No. of unique cachers with 12 or more finds (average 1 per month): 2,386
  • No. of unique cachers with 366 or more finds (average 1 per day): 152
  • No. of unique hiders: 343

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

Looking Ahead: 2025 and Beyond

With lots planned for 2025, we can’t wait to dive into the new year. Let’s continue to grow this amazing community and create new experiences and adventures for us all to share. If you’d like to be first to hear more about what’s in store, or have an idea you’d like to share, why not come and join us at our event GCAVXK6 on Saturday January 11 at Knox Community Gardens.

Here’s to another year filled with exploration, friendship, and endless adventures. Happy New Year from all of us at Geocaching Victoria.

Cachemas In July 2024

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After the success of Cachemas in July last year we are pleased to bring back this caching festival in 2024.

  1. Cachemas in July Lunch – 27 July
  2. Twelve Days of Cachemas (TDOC24) Cache Series
  3. Victorian Geocache Statistics

Cachemas in July Lunch – 27 July

Be sure to mark 27 July in your calendar as we welcome all cachers and muggle families to join us to celebrate Cachemas in July, an afternoon of fun, food and good times with fellow cachers. There has been a short delay in event publication, however we expect this should appear next week and will be available at GCAPPGD once published. All the details are below:

  • GCAPPGD (publication pending)
  • Saturday 27 July 2024
  • 11:30am – 3:00pm
  • Kensington Town Hall, Kensington
  • Fully catered lunch (lunch and dessert)
  • Soft drinks available for purchase
  • Games, prizes and Kris Kringle (optional)
  • $28 per person – Book your tickets at https://www.trybooking.com/CRXGK

We can’t wait to celebrate with you on the day.

Some snaps from last years event.

Twelve Days of Cachemas (TDOC24) Cache Series

We were thrilled by the response to last years Twelve Days of Cachemas (TDOC23) cache series and are pleased to welcome it back for 2024.

This year we are opening the series up to the community so that more people can participate. Are you interested in submitting a hide to form part of TDOC24?

To register your interest, create a cache page (it can be blank for now – you just need a GC code), and then complete the cache registration form by 2 June. You don’t have to have hidden your cache or completed the cache page details by then, we just need an idea of your hide so we can plan for it in the series. You can start working on your cache straight away. We will touch base with you once registrations close to confirm your hide and supply cache page artwork.

Importantly you should initially plan to have your cache submitted for review no later than 7 July 2024, however earlier is better. If this is one of your first hides, or your hide has some tricky review elements, you should initiate the review process a week earlier.

If you need to change your submission or have a specific question you can email us at cachemas@geocachingvictoria.com.au.

Some guidelines to help with your Cachemas geocache are as follows:

  • The final and any associated waypoints need to be within Victoria.
  • We encourage use of the Cachemas theme throughout your hide, however it is not essential.
  • Include “TDOC24:” at the start of the cache name and include the series banner and intro on the cache page (content will be provided at a later date). The remainder of the cache name and cache page are entirely yours to design as usual.
  • The cache will be published at a designated date and time per the series schedule (with reviewer support). This will be advised.
  • Please keep your cache and timing to yourself to enhance the enjoyment for everyone during the festival.
  • You can accommodate multiple attributes into your cache (ie it can be proposed in the Mystery cache category and still incorporate a rare LGA type or rare D/T.). The broader the mixture of types, sizes, locations and attributes the better.
  • You can propose a cache in more than one Cachemas category, although we recommend focusing on quality and variety vs quantity.
  • Use your main CO account (no sock puppets).
  • We may reach out to you for help if there are limited caches in a particular category or location

Victorian Geocache Statistics

If you are wanting to add an extra dimension to your Cachemas (or other) hides, you may like to visit our new Victorian Geocache Statistics page. This page has various statistics for caches placed in Victoria. You may like to work towards adding a cache to one of the rarer spots shown in the statistics grids.

We can’t wait to see the ideas the community has for this years series, and look forward to joining you on July 27 in Kensington for the Cachemas celebration event.

Farewell 2023, Welcome 2024!

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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!

Year 2021 in Numbers

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Secretly many of us are total nerds…GEONERDS! We love the numbers, the databases (GSAK, Project GC), pocket queries, caching stats, dates, finds, hides, logs, maps, FTF numbers, streaks, DT’s… the list goes on! The beauty of the game is that there is lots of ways to play, lots of challenges to chase and more than enough caches to keep us busy.

Despite much of the state in and out of lockdown during 2021, many of us still managed to get out and cache. But have you wondered how your numbers stacked up against others in the geocaching community?

In the spirit of fun, we thought we would share some of those numbers with you! Congratulations to those that made the list! Please note that Lab Caches are not part of the statistics listed below.