Monthly Archives: October 2016

As a follow-up to my previous post on the oldest currently active caches of each type in Australia, I’d thought I put together a list of the oldest caches of each type in each state and territory. I took the advice of Sandy from the Podcacher podcast, and simply used the search function on geocaching.com, rather than setting up Pocket Queries. This certainly made the process a lot easier. The states and territories are listed in alphabetical order, and each cache is listed in chronological order. Those caches marked with * are the oldest of their type in Australia, and dates are in dd/mm/yyyy format.

Australian Capital Territory

Traditional: Canberra Nature Park (GC6CF) – 15/4/2001

Multicache: A Stroll Around the Lake (GC3C22) – 21/2/2002

Virtual: Animal Antics (GC9534) – 30/9/2002

Mystery: Botanic Boggle (GCH0XY) – 6/10/2003

Earthcache: Earthcache II – the geology of WoolShed Creek, ACT (GCHKCK) – 29/1/2004

Letterbox Hybrid: Isaacs Post Office (GCXT3K) – 18/8/2006

Whereigo: Athllon Adventure (GC1D01M) – 6/6/2008

Webcam: none currently active

New South Wales

Virtual: Lane Cove (GC3E) – 18/5/2000*

Traditional: Sydney Geocache Relocated (GC1F11) – 11/11/2000

Multicache: #1 Frog Hollow (GC596) – 29/3/2001

Mystery: #38 Under Pressure (GC39EC) – 15/2/2002*

Earthcache: Earthcache I – a simple geology tour of Wasp Head (GCHFT2) – 10/1/2004*

Letterbox Hybrid: Postman Rat (GC18AZA) – 6/1/2008

Whereigo: The Search for Ned Kelly and the Stolen Treasure (GC1KK89) – 8/1/2009

Webcam: none currently active

Northern Territory

Traditional: Sungroper 4 (GC3399) – 22/11/2001

Multicache: Geocentrical (GC7CED) – 27/6/2002

Mystery: SUE DOUGH COO #1 (GC16CRF) – 5/10/2007

Earthcache: Ellery Creek Big Hole (GC1TA92) – 5/6/2009

Whereigo: The Great Escape (GC4BV4E) – 12/5/2013

Letterbox Hybrid: Snail Mail (GC4DFY7) – 3/6/2013

Virtual: none currently active

Webcam: none currently active

Queensland

Traditional: Queens land (GC8E) – 17/10/2000

Multicache: Simon’s in the Orchard (GC7150) – 14/7/2002

Virtual: Ku-Ta Views (GC86B3) – 30/8/2002

Mystery: Look No More (GCGT19) – 29/8/2003

Earthcache: Whitehaven Beach (GC11A5E) – 7/3/2007

Whereigo: (Virtually) A Common Problem (GC1ETED) – 13/8/2008

Letterbox Hybrid: Free Camp!!!! (GC2045F) – 21/10/2009

Webcam: none currently active

South Australia

Traditional: Riverland Geocache (GC114) – 1/1/2001

Multicache: Scott Creek Multiple (GC1E2) – 3/2/2001*

Virtual: Victoria Squircle (GC40E2) – 10/3/2002

Mystery: 007 (GC83A8) – 24/8/2002

Webcam: Penguins (GCC1EC) – 10/1/2003*

Earthcache: The Sugarloaf Earthcache (GCM4WR) – 24/11/2004

Whereigo: Where We Used To Go (GC1XH4W) – 25/8/2009

Letterbox Hybrid: Frog Mail Box (GC2NQAG) – 11/2/2011

Tasmania

Traditional: North Tassie (GC388) – 25/2/2001

Virtual: South Tasmania 1 (GC408) – 4/3/2001

Multicache: Clinker and Carvel (Multi) (GCD476) – 14/2/2003

Mystery: Codeword+029: Happy Mothers Day (GCNWYY) – 10/5/2005

Letterbox Hybrid: The Apprentice (GCRF2Z) – 11/12/2005*

Earthcache: Fossil Bluff (GC1CH39) – 23/5/2008

Whereigo: Sneaky Monkeys! (GC5BYYE) – 30/8/2014

Webcam: none currently active

Victoria

Traditional: Melbourne’s 1st (GC7A) – 8/10/2000*

Multicache: Rainbow’s End (GC14E9) – 6/8/2001

Mystery: BBB (GCD420) – 13/2/2003 (there are a couple of movable caches currently in Victoria which are older)

Virtual: More Melbourne Television Trivia (GCE258) – 10/3/2003

Webcam: Spirit of the Skier (GCMJ2J) – 19/1/2005

Earthcache: Colqhuon Quarry (GC10PCM) – 1/2/2007

Letterbox Hybrid: A Penny for Your Thoughts (GC10T6T)  25/2/2007

Whereigo: Flight of Fancy (GC1BCA3) – 20/4/2008*

Western Australia

Traditional: Albany Quarantine (GC576) – 27/3/2001

Multicache: Crystal Brook Multi-Cache (GC3397) – 20/1/2002

Virtual: Boat yard bliss (GC733B) – 20/7/2002

Mystery: King Arthur (GCCD53) – 1/2/2003

Earthcache: Living Rocks Earthcache (GCKZB4) – 31/10/2004

Letterbox Hybrid: The Green Angel (GC26YA2) – 17/4/2010

Whereigo: Lucy in Woodvale (GC306CA) – 14/7/2011

Webcam: none currently active

Inspired by the discussion on show 566 of the Podcacher podcast about when and where the first of each type of geocache was placed, I decided to try and find this information out for Australian caches. The following list (from oldest to newest) shows the earliest currently active cache of each type i.e. it does not include archived caches, some of which may have been placed before the ones listed here.

Virtual: Lane Cove (GC3E) – 18/5/2000 (NSW). This is actually the first cache placed in Australia. It was originally a traditional cache, but was changed to a virtual when the container had to be removed because it was inadvertently placed in the habitat of an endangered plant.

Traditional: Melbourne’s 1st (GC7A) – 8/10/2000 (Vic). This wasn’t the first traditional cache placed in Australia, but it’s now the oldest traditional due to Lane Cove changing to a virtual.

Multi: Scott Creek Multiple (GC1E2) – 3/2/2001 (SA)

Mystery: On The Run (GC3720) – 3/2/2002. This is one of very few movable caches still active in Australia.

Mystery: #38 Under Pressure (GC39EC) – 15/2/2002 (NSW). The oldest non-movable mystery cache in Australia.

Webcam: Penguins (GCC1EC) – 10/1/2003 (SA)

Earthcache: Earthcache I – a simple geology tour of Wasp Head (GCHFT2) – 10/1/2004 (NSW). This is also the first earthcache placed anywhere in the world.

Letterbox Hybrid: – The Apprentice (GCRF2Z) – 11/12/2005 (Tas)

Whereigo: – Flight of Fancy (GC1BCA3) – 20/4/2008 (Vic)

So if anyone wants to find the oldest active cache of each type in Australia, you know where to go.

Note: I’ve only included caches from geocaching.com; I might prepare a separate list of caches from geocaching.com.au.