Manildra Explosion Lysaghts, New South Wales, Australia
By fluffyfish and Tbone on 12-Mar-10. Waypoint GC2453D

Turning this into a munzee.

Thanks to all the previous finders.

another quick grab and a very interesting place. having not been in wollongong when the explosion happened we were unaware it had occurred so it was good to learn about it. thanks again for another great cache fluffy fish! sl

easy find for geo son, SL, TFTC.

GPSr was telling me over the fence. Started looking for potential hiding places and found it in the first place I looked. TFTC

Great find for my geokid!! Grabbed it before geodad had a chance!! Nice work son!

geokid found this one [:d]

Quick easy find. SL TFTC

Found at 2.00.

Easy as.

TFTC

Nice easy one. Tftc

Quick find, would not have liked to been arround during the fire. The guys in the service station were wondering what I was doing, but sat in the car till they left befor replacing cache.

A little tricky but found after not too long a search. This too is near where I used to work. TNLNSL. TFTC.

An interesting read TFTC

We are spending Easter with family in Dapto, so we headed out to do some caching at Port Kembla. Marco's Dad remembers this explosion happening. We parked very close to GZ and after a quick look around Marco spotted the hide. TNLNSL TFTC

Tried this one on my last flex day but too much passing midweek traffic to even attempt a retrieval. Being a public holiday today was so much easier... well as soon as the slow moving "L Plater" passed. Sure I walked faster kph's crossing the road than they were driving!

A nice little quick drive by cache to end the days caching in the gong.
there was not a soul in sight so no stealth required.
love the sleek cache container.
TFTC

The last on the way home and most finds in a day new record set for me anyway, a quick park and
find must have been one hell of an explosion thanks again fluffyfish....

Love the photos and history. Stealth required on this one. Quick find.Good hide. SL TFTC

Not quite sure where the Manildra name comes in with this cache.

Had an uneasy feeling about this cache so made a quick find, declined the offer involving a naked flame & made a hasty getaway. Thanks.

Like container - more neat. Signed the log. Thanks fluffyfish.

Stopped in on a quiet Sunday afternoon. All good. Happy caching!

It was interesting to see the location of the accident after all of these years. Easy find, as there are few places to hide a cache. TFTC!

I was writing in the log thinking if it went up now....... Thanks

An easy find. An interesting piece of history which we were unaware of.

Lots of muggles, so needed to do it stealth style.

F@
Jo
Cohen

Interesting to drive along huge industrial area...
Thanks for bring us here..
TFTC

nice quick find, the well hidden cache stumped me on the first few searches but geo-man found it first time left a little happy-stamp. TFTC

To log some TBs.

Compared to the Black Mountain, this one was too easy.
Thanks for the story Fluffyfish, thinking other kind of explosions and toxic gas could have been released, ethanol was not too bad I guess.

Took plastic spider as the cache wasn't closed properly when we found it TFTC

A find whilst out on a caching run with Black Bunny and Just a Cacher.
Thanks for the cache! Sorry it's taken so long to log this.

Out for a very long caching day with Candy Cane 101 and Black Bunny. Black Bunny was feeling in need of caching run, so Candy Cane 101 and I agreed, just to make him happy, of course! We started around Bowral, and quit at dusk somewhere around Wollongong. It WAS going to be a two day adventure, but we couldn't find anywhere to stay. We then bought chicken and chips, ate it in the dark in a park, and then drove back to Canberra, arriving well after midnight. A long, long day, but Black Bunny went to bed with a smile on his face.

Thanks again, Fluffyfish and Tbone! I learnt something interesting, reading the description and looking at the area.

Out on a run to pick up a few caches with Just a Cacher and Candy Cane 101. I used to pass this area frequently when I lived just down the road in Shellharbour as a kid. A quick find by Just a Cacher before I had left the geowagon. SL TFTC

Nice hide, easy find for the kids. Nice piece of recent industrial history.
TFTC

Hadn't been found for a while so decided to check this one out. All good. Thanks for whoever put the spider in there

TFTC.

It was a big bang for sure

Hmm last I was here I could remember feeling the heat from the fire. All nice and shiny now. Along with CougerZ. TFTC

Quick driveby, but worth a stop to check out another angle of the nearby smelter, Thanks for bringing us here

A nice quick find in a muggle-free environment. Glad the tanks decided not to go up again while I was there. Thanks for the cache fluffyfish and Tbone.

Rated: for Overall Experience

found it with dddcc

Tnlnsl tftc. Nice cache container idea.

712 - 7 for today. Found on 11/07/10 1:40 PM
A quick and easy drive by. TNSLLN

Nice fast find - SL TFTC

A very quick find. thanks

Brutal photos. This one was pretty much a driveway. Was in the first spot whoever found it looked. Thanks for bringing us to the area.

This was our 4057th overall find.

Found at about 10:40 AM. Now that would have been an impressive fire! The cache was a nice quick find!

Thanks to fluffyfish for the cache.

TNLNSL

A quick find this morning before a early meeting just up the road from here.

Reperio at 0715. Stopped by this one on an extended trip home to the ACT, and whilst there was only one spot to check, I needed to do a double take just to make sure that it was the cache I was looking at.

Great history and cache page.

Gratias.

Nice and easy. Tftc!

thank you kind sir for the log. found it with Hoschke118 & jit1bv. found easily enough...unfortunately jit1bv walked away with the container when we were signing the log..had to chase her down

This entry was edited by daniel is good on Tuesday, 08 June 2010 at 04:33:57.

Hey good one FluffyFish, no lantanna for one thing. TFTC

Found on a run to Wollongong with fitzy_1965.
This must have been horrific at the time, thanks for sharing the history with us.
TFTC.

2376 - Found on a run down to Wollongong with ACBC66 for a Birthday Party - how convenient !!

A nice cache in an area with an interesting history. A neat little hide as well - thanks !

TNLN - TFTC !!

Cheers....

After failing at Gabriella, it was uplifting to find this one.
The first hand account of the fire that day was eye opening to say the least.
I had never been down to this part of the world before.
Thanks for the fun I had here.

Nice quick one thanks Fluffyfish and Tbone.
Those fire fighters are brave when you think of the other tanks around the burning ethanol. Lucky it burns clean, imagine if the bunker oil and tar in the other tanks had gone up, what a toxic mess that would have been. Or even more chilling if the lid had landed on the coke ovens next door and set off the pipes with the blast furnace and coke ovens gas or the benzine. Then there would have been a catastrophe. Brings back memories of when 7 battery blew up back in the 90s. Very bad day that one, lost a friend. Don't work there any more thank goodness.

TFTC
Ironbark.

What an explosion propogated by stray currents associated with welding! This type of fuel in gaseous form has an ignition temperature of only 425 deg C. It has a lower explosive limit of 2.3% in air and an upper explosive limit of 36% in air. This makes it a relatively volatile gas. Typical ignition sources to ignite this gas can range between 0.019 mj to 0.29 mj. A typical human can store between 40 and 60 mjs at any given time. So simply wearing the wrong clothing and creating a static spark from your body in the right atmosphere can cause this type of explosion, let alone what a stray welding spark can do.

Nice easy find and did it on the weekend, so totally muggle free...TFTC

with the smell of sulphur so thick in the air, and the word 'explosion' spoken freely, this wouldn't be a nice place in such an event.
found with two geodaughters, one asleep. Thanks for the micro.

Ace7 and I were on a quick search and find mission having been allocated an hour before dinner. Thought we would drop by this one and complete. As I parked at GZ, Ace jumped out and retrieved the cache before I was out. we signed the log and returned. I remember the explosion and thank god we weren't filling out the log as we were today. Thanks fluffyfish.

Me and Toadmiester7 did this one together it was pretty quick because i had already found and located the cache.

Found it No. 2615 ... early start before anyone was around .... TNLN

Found it easy-peasy. Gizmo was a bit off but I looked for logical spots. I drive past here several times every day, yet never knew of the explosion story. Fantastic pics, but hope it never happens again! SL, TFTC

Checking out the weather proofness after some rain. Seems ok. Will keep an eye in it. No coin in the cache. Maybe went with the last finder.

Cache run on the way from Auckland to the Megga Event in Wagga. Interesting story and a great hide, took TB will drop off at the event in Wagga T4TC.

Found today glad all the storage cylinders keep their cool....and left their lids on. Never seen the cache container at bunnings though. TFTC.

Managed to get out today and get my last few finds before heading off to Wagga later this week. This was a nice easy one and at a spot I recall very well, it does pay to be in the emergency services some times as we could get up close and personal to this fire.
Left a TB for the next finder.

Yes I remember that day too. My office view allowed uninterupted observation. I know two others who were driving on Flinders Rd at the time - both within about 300 meters of GZ. TFTC

Being relatively new in this area I didn;t know about the accident that happened here. I can only imagine what it would be like if one of these big boys explodes!!
Luckily there where not that many possibilities arriving at GZ, my GPS was about 10 meters out and it might have been difficult otherwise.
TFTC Wilbert67

Headed up this way today and decided to make a quick stop to find the cache.

It only seems like yesterday that happened, where does the time go.

Thanks fluffyfish and Tbone for another great hide.

Ah that was a big bang. I work about 300m from this one and it certainly moved the earth for me. We thought the Blast Furnace had gone up it was that loud and the shock wave that big! Out for a driving lesson with Woodyson in the dark so a relatively easy find with no muggles around anywhere. Thanks

A nice and easy drive by cache - found the cache, wrote on the log and returned the cache and was back in my car in about 60 seconds. Nice memorial cache.

I remember the BANG from this one. Found quickly needed to use the "Talking on the mobile phone routine" because of the muggle mowing the grass on the other side of the fence and the trucks fueling up across the road. TFTC.

A quick find after work with Chip and Ding. #1,999 for me, now it is off for the big milestone!

Cheers

Wow, the things that you learn from caching. Looks fairly dramatic.
Cheers.

Wish I was able to be asleep at 10.30 also but that was not to be caching dose still come first some times. Made it to bed at 5.30pm only tone back up at 7.30 and off tonight shift and aiming for bet by 11am tomorrow.

This incident was before our time in the Illawarra

Was almost asleep when the email on this one came through so that was the end of that idea.
I followed Tom Tom straight to gz and if the co-ords are a bit out shoud not cause any problems as it is a nice easy quick drive by.
7 million Litres of alcohol now that is what I call a party and we don't drink.
Thanks for the cache and the FTF (11.02am)

t coin

Well I wish I was able to be asleep at 10:30am ... unfortunately I had to wait until lunchtime to duck out of work and make the find.
There were plenty of muggles around but I was still able to cruise by and discreetly sign the log.
Glad I wasn't this close when it exploded!
TFTC

I was waiting all day yesterday for this one to be published but today was the day.

I'm a fan of caches around industry like this and I remember the incident when the whole place went up in smoke. TFTC!

Published

Coin drop

was happy to find this one