Central Pier Docklands, Victoria, Australia
By abl973 on 17-Jul-13. Waypoint GC4GFN2

Needs Archiving. Wharf is condemned. Only accessible if you over, through or around the fence.

Nothing stays the same in Docklands and so it seems this end of Central Pier has come to an end with demolition works pending. Where am I going to park my boat now?

Thanks for all the favourite points, the finds and cool logs from a bunch of good cachers.

My first hide in Melbourne with 1722 page views from 22 countries, 166 finds, 45 favourites in 3yrs from one of the better vantage points in Docklands no matter what the weather or time.

My view of Central Pier from my balcony has been nice. I've seen lots of activities happening out there and the odd cacher walking around in circles....they all seemed to like the light post but its not there! Closer to the water, no, not over the edge, back a bit.

Watch out for version 2 which is already in planning. You'll need a kayak....

TFTC once we read the hint, the cache was in hand very quickly. I absolutely loved this easy find, it was creative and clever!

Fenced off area?

My gps a bit different on cords, but geo sense helps quickly locate. Nice walk while waiting for son to take care of business led us here to find a smilie. Tftc

Yay! after not going round the fence (as I was trying to pretend to my children that I was responsible, and grown up ) on a previous visit, I swung round it today and had a delightfully muggle free wander to the end of the pier, snapped a pic or two, and then found the cache. There was a rainbow over the Bolte Bridge this morning and someone told me it ended in Geelong. Personally I don't remember the song going that way - "Somewhere over the rainbow, There's Geelong" but you never know. It might be teeming with gold, bluebirds and all sorts. There was also a bird. I'd like to pretend I know stuff about birds, but it was a white and grey one that was neither a penguin or a seagull. That's about as good as it gets today, for ornithology. ***wait right there!!! back the truck up! I have a book.....**** There are a gazillion birds that are grey and white but I have narrowed it down to (drum roll) some sort of cormorant. You are welcome.

Hehe harhar shoe lace fishing line same same

Happy to eventually find this one (second attempt ) and even happier no acrobatics required on the edge of the pier. Tftc

BigD from Germany found it TFTC

In the area for Anzac weekend, so today was quiet with most people at the Anzac Day march. Enjoyed the walk to GZ anlong with the views. Thought it was going to take a bit to find but surprised myself by making a quick find.
Thanks abl973 for placing & maintaining the cache for us to find.
#3261

Doing a maintenance run.

Location ok
Cache container ok
Cache log ok.

While in Melb attending appointments we always like to treat ourselves to a cache and with this cache being our closest we toddled off to check our luck. It was as windy as shit and I was recruiting a muggle but as we were closing in on gz we came across a barrier. My daughter had to stay with the pram but the rest of us went around
I wasn't being cocky at all because I have since failed to find another of the CO's caches elsewhere and I was caching with the phone. Caching with the phone sux because it's never accurate and all it does is drain the battery.
Anyway we were searching around GZ like chooks so we were glad we had the cover of nightfall to hide what would have looked ridiculous! We searched here there and everywhere but with determination we got there in the end
Thanks so much for your time and effort in placing a cache that was hidden in style and not in the first place we looked, Cheers abl973 [^]

Quick find after reading previous logs. Very quiet here in late morning. TFTC from Wisconsin in the States.

Wow i have to admit that I like a hide that hasn't gone for the obvious. Found this thanks to Yogster.

TFTC. Out in Melbourne on a awesome day to bring one of our GeoRetrievers to Dragon Boating with the Vic Squad and decided to make a grab here. The find took us a while and even messaged a couple of previous finders and read the logs twice. In the end a very helpful previous log had us thinking better of our 'overthinking' the hide and an easy grab was made. It was worth the extra time spent looking as this location offers excellent views.

Good hide with fantastic views.
TFTH. Signed log.

Today was the first day in Melbourne for me and Philippluca so we strolled around the city and looked for some caches as well. Sneaky hide searched a bit longer, this is worth a fp despite i do not really like going behind fences. tftc.

Just arrived in Melbourne to stay here for some days this was one cache Jack Dalton and me found. TFTC.

Muggle friend (MF) and I headed here after finding a cache by the CO underneath the "Wheel of Death"...err, I mean the "Melbourne Observation Wheel". It was well and truly dark by now and I was banking on some lighting at the end of the pier since I had come very ill-prepared. We were out of luck in the lighting department but it made for an amazing atmosphere standing on the end of a dark deserted pier with the lights of the city around us, the Observation Wheel putting on a fabulous display of changing colour, the sound of the crowd roaring in the stadium and the quiet lapping sounds of the water below. As we walked out along the pier MF wondered what we had done wrong in life to not be the lucky owners of one of the luxury boats that were moored nearby. One was called "Vegas" and it was almost the size of the city it was named after and it looked like it would be just as much fun! Honestly though, can't complain about our lifestyles at all.
We set about looking over every little structure by the light of our iPhone torches and seemed to be going around in circles. Eventually, as I was ready to throw in the towel, MF (she is the persistent one) encouraged me to follow someone else's suggestion of trusting the GPS completely and really concentrate on that spot. My compass needle had given me a little bit of grief but there was one spot it was pretty insistent on most of the time. I'd scanned over it a number of times and had not seen anything unusual. Time for these two women to get down and dirty! We threw off our heels, hiked up our dresses, and assumed the arse-up position. MF casually mentions that she has spotted a .......... in the spot she's shining her torch and I immediately cried "THAT'LL BE IT!!" She thought I was mad but my hunch was correct. We sat on the pier chatting with relief and admiring the view as I signed the log. The crowd roared again at the stadium and we brimmed with delight at the fact that our young boys were experiencing the exhilaration of 25,000 people screaming around them. MF says to me "the things I find myself doing with you.....if I was with anyone else I would be in a cafe sipping coffee right now". We got up and straightened up our dresses and kept enjoying the warm walk in a quiet part of the city.
I'm giving this a fave point for many reasons. The very clever hide that really tested us, the interesting location that I'd have never ventured to otherwise, and the overall fabulous atmosphere at the time I came here which I won't forget in a hurry. Thanks for placing this great cache
(Also attached a photo of a nearby view)

After a long journey, 3724km, we've arrived in Melbourne. As we are staying nearby we decided to go for a wander and Se what is about. Of course a cache had to be found. geoP made the find whilst geoD was still looking at the GPSr.

17/01/2016, 17:31 Find #3259

TNLN SL TFTC

Really sneaky hide second try

Wandered in circles, after bypassing the fence, and cache was in a place I was sure I had looked earlier. At least with the fence up, meant that the place was deserted and I had time to sit down, relax and spend 5 minutes extracting the log!
thanks for the cache

Had to sneak around the fence but soon had it

Tftc

Nice area.

Just swinging by to log a TB visit from Adelaide

This took much longer than it should have but eventually we found it in the end. A very clever but simple hide and great hint. TFTC!

Felt the need to look at some water and clear my head, so wandered down here late this arvo. Every other cache I found today was done in spite of GPS bouncing around all over and/or being consistently 10-20m out, thanks to canyon-esque building surrounds, but out in this gloriously open location there was no such problem.

And the place was literally deserted. One guy had been cleaning the deck of the lone motor yacht ("stinkpots", my ex-deckhand missus calls them) moored some ways off, but even he disappeared a minute or so after I arrived.

So the coast was absolutely clear to search - a fairly unusual sensation in a city location on a weekday afternoon, to be sure. So far, so good. Except... after five minutes of trying in the most obvious-seeming places, I kept coming up empty.

Sat on the end of the pier and looked out across the water for a bit, then decided to try trusting the GPS absolutely. Wait... That looks a bit odd... Surely not...? But yes! When all else fails, Trust The Co-ords!

Signed the log, visited a trackable. Thanks for a lovely little hide, in a refreshing location!

Suscoe was enjoying a wander around Melbourne after visiting the Myer windows this morning.
A terrific location out here with a couple of fisher folk bust catching little fish.
A bit of wandering around finally had something spotted and then the cache was found.
Well done abl973 for a terrific idea.
What a nice experience, a cache, a wonderful view of all things expensive that float and a sunny and mild day.
A favourite from us.
Thank you.

*** Cache checked, good to go, replaced with new log***

Clever hide, I like it. T4TC

Found with buggolos

Found it today with KayleeV and her friend great location!

Area is now fenced off so will need to be disabled or possibly archived.

Early for the train away from my home land so went and this is now my closest cache to southern cross or was. The crowds seem to part and had the area to myself for a quick find. Tftc

Enjoyed a walk from my hotel to the pier. Very good coords made for an easy find. TFTC

Out and about in Melbourne after training today and went for a walk around the docklands and Yarra.
The stand out cache for my walk this afternoon.
Love a cache with history and this one delivered.
Great writeup and excellent hide with spot on co-ords.

Trying to fill in my caches-found-for-day-of-year grid so popped out at lunch time with mistermagee. It was cold wet and windy and it took a bit of searching but mistermagee eventually found the cleverly hidden cache. Tftc

This entry was edited by diana8 on Friday, 06 November 2015 at 04:15:53 UTC.

A cleverly camouflaged hide given the location (yes, that could be construed as a slight clue). There is a fence in the way, but it is easily sidestepped. Found in the rain with Diana8 and 'GC tolerant' friend. Tftc, +1 fav

We are from Sweden and are here to visit our daughter during a long holiday erected. So we thought fit to receive occasional cache on the other side of the earth. It does look good in the statistics, too.
Was looking for a while and after a while we found it. Ingenious hide . TFTC

*** Cache checked, good to go ***

Quite fun at night after dinner across the water. Thanks

Really loved this one. A favourite from us! Thank you

The seal was perished and fell off in my hand so it will need a new one in order to remain waterproof.

Got about 150m from GZ and there is a fence up that I had to go around. After that I got to GZ and searched everywhere except where it was. Then I trusted the GPS and had an ah-ha moment. Very clever cache. T4TC. Deserves a favourite..

Took a while sat image helped no need to climb

After watching my Doggies win at Etihad, I decided to pick up more smilies at the waterfront. This cache ticks alm the boxes for a great inner city hide. A fave! T4TC abl973!

I was on a lunchtime run around Docklands and armed with further information, so took the opportunity to have another go at this one. I didn't use my GPS, but looked at likely spots and found it pretty quickly, just as it started raining. Good location for it!

Almost quit until Jono got it

Hamish was just about to rage and leave and then we found it

I was glad to get this cache before this end of the wharf is developed.
TFTC!!!

I've tried this a couple of times without success. On both occasions I was hampered by a fisherman, but maybe my caching abilities just aren't what they should be.

We are visiting Melbourne for our wedding anniversary so what better way to celebrate than finding a few caches. We headed to the Docklands area to get a few smiley faces in this area. Halfway along the pier we were blocked by a fence but were able to easily step around it without falling in the water. Once at GZ we searched and searched and were about to give up when Marco spotted something. Sure enough it was the cache. The coords were spot on. TFTC.

Quick-ish find after a footy game with becca85, neisha07 & boo09. Very sneaky. TFTC

Quick find after a footy game with becca85, chan02 and neisha07. A great & sneaky find! TFTC

Quick find after a footy game with becca865, chan02 and boo09. A great & sneaky find! TFTC

Walking back to the car after a very disappointing football game at Etihad, we decided to cheer ourselves up by making a small detour to find this well-favourited cache. After deliberating as to whether to ignore the large black fence (technically there are no signs to say No Entry...), the GPS then got quite confused. We used the satellite pic to help us and it got us to the right spot.
We expected a tricky find based on some previous logs but were pleased to spot it nice and quick. A wonderful, sneaky find. TFTC

Found with dodriR on our visit in Melbourne on our tour through Australia.

Thanks abl973 for the cache and Greetings from Austria!

#1942 @ 26. Juni 2015

Very tricky nearly gave up but tada found it

Looked and looked. Maybe next time.

Walking past a police boat when we walked around the fence! Haha. Thought we were going to give up! Very clever.

Found it after 3 days searching. Best location ever!!!! Glad my shoelace came undone...

It took several minutes to extract it from its hiding place. Great hide! TFTC

We found this at night. There was a fisherman near by but he was not interested in us. Did not like going around a fence to get to the pier. Turns out this was a quick find. It was like where else could it be. TFTC AZLovers

Even some fishermen were acting at the pier I could successfully log this cache w/o their notice. Many greetings from Germany and TFTC.

Find 1010

Was a little early to meet some friends before the footy so decided to kill some time with a couple of caches in Docklands. This area was getting busy with cars but I slipped past and had only one fisherman on the the other side of the pier to worry about. When I spotted the location I was able to retrieve easily enough and make sure the hide wasn't compromised. Took nothing, left nothing, singed log and visited my personal TB. Thanks for the cache abl973.

[green]1 of the day and Find # 5372[/green]...

I was in the city today with a muggle friend... Decided to grab some caches & a couple of waymarks around the CBD...
Certainly enjoyed my time in here this afternoon...

A glorious day to be out & about and an enjoyable stroll around this beautiful area...

A bit of a stroll, a bit of a search, made the grab, stamped log & replaced... It will certainly [be interesting to see what happens with this area in the comming years...

My sincerest thanks to abl973 for the effort gone into this cache...

Took: Nothing
Left: Nothing
Stamped Log...
[green]Cache Condition - All Good[/green]...

#5620

On our trip trough Australia with the hole family we looked also for some caches. They often showed us places we would never had discovered. Thanks a lot to all the people who care about this lovely hobby .

Melbourne was our last stop. Here we packed all together and we made us ready to fly home. But we also want to visit Melbourne and look what there is around .
Found this on a first visiting-tour with the bike.
Cool, worth a favo. Had my time to find it .

Greetings from Switzerland .

TFTC

A very clever hide indeed. Other logs were definitely a help with this one.
Great spot for a cache and worth a favourite point from us also.
TFTC

Certainly a very clever and tricky hide.
Other logs helped find it.
Found with 2peasinapod2012 and kihmmy
TFTC

Nice one. Makes me feel like fishing

TFTC. Great cache to start the holiday

Picked this one up after having lunch nearby.
Thanks abl973,
Regards The Coffee's.

Found after a bit of thinking and reading several other logs. Visiting from NZ and have a day to cache. TFTC

Found on our Monday caching adventure in the city. TFTC

Tricky nearly got through the cracks this one

Cool cache. Took a little while but referring to satellite view helped

Found 11:08:00 AM on a sunny Thursday morning cache run.

TNLN, thanks abl973.

Nice walk despite the fence that tells that area is restricted and despite the fishermen. They were too busy with fishing than watching my activities on spot.

Greetings from Latvia!

Found. Thanks

This entry was edited by BmFreja on Monday, 26 January 2015 at 11:23:14 UTC.

Clever hide. Took e few minutes. Happy Australia Day everyone.

This entry was edited by erroma on Monday, 26 January 2015 at 09:18:10 UTC.

I had a walk by this one and it seemed to me as if a new fence has recently been put up maybe for some impending construction work there. It's pretty easy to sneak around to be honest if you choose the right time but that was not the case today. I'll keep an eye out for this one but hope I can grab it at some stage.

Very clever spot. Took us a while but satellite image led us to the right spot. Thanks

Tftc

On a night run cleaning up few city ones we hadn't found. Fellow cacher baluke had been before but had read the clue totally differently to me....man v woman !! So taking my interpretation of the clue we had the cache in hand within minutes of arriving. Woman's touch ,,,, beautiful night for standing on pier tftc

After a lovely dinner at the docklands we walked around to this cache, there was two young fisherman right at g.z.
I got talking to them as they were very keen to help me look, I nearly gave up but then I spotted it, in a cheeky little spot.
I gave them a quick lesson in caching and then they showed me a cool app on hoyts cinemas where you can get free movie passes, I wished them well in fishing they were using prawns! I suppose fancy bait will catch fancy fish,

Thanks abl973 [:x]

Sando23468 and I were 8 shy of our 500th find, so had a plan to complete those around docklands and finish with the wheel for our 500th just before midnight. Sadly, due to the placement of fireworks this cache wasn't accessible, with the whole end of the pier fenced off and patrolled by security. This meant we wouldn't make the 500, so we changed plans and headed for new quay to eat and drink. We already had a plan for a little series on new years day, so we'll aim for our 500th there and come back to this when he security isn't quite so tight lol

Cleaver hide. Great place for pictures in all directions. TFTC from Team TED.

Clever, just reel it in, we signed the new log! Tftc, having a great time in Melbourne, TeamTED.

Good eye by eelee. TFTC Team TED

This one took a few goes to find it! Thankyou for this.

This is a lovely one!
We were almost giving up when i did indeed see something not fitting in...
TFTC! Great job!

Tftc - almost gave up, until... Here it is....

Heading to Harbour City shopping complex and diverted to check out the history and of course the cache in the area. Soon found the clever hide and signed the log. Returned the cache to its hiding place. Visited a geocoin. Enjoyed the history and the cache. TFTC abl973.

Note to CO: The log is full after my entry. Also the "o" ring needs replacing.

Nice hide. Tricky to spot. Just have to trust the coords and look for something out of place.

Came here with !Go! at night. The pier was deserted so we were free to look around without stealth. We saw some starfish on the pier and wondered how they got up there? Was it from the wind? The tide? Do they crawl up here? I need to Google these questions. We searched and searched as GPS was being dumb. I said let's give up,
!Go! continued searching then after about 20 mins I yelled I think I found it! There was a camo piece of cloth wedged in a crevice! No that's not it. Then !Go! made the sneaky find, I just thought it was rubbish, as I'd already found some of that stuff, but sure enough the cache appeared! Awesome hide, a fav from me!

Decided to do a bit of caching after attending a AFL dinner at the Docklands. The weather tonight was lovely. Geodad and Geoson headed off to the end of the pier to grab the cache and found after a short look. Great views,great night. TFTC abl973

Im working in the area today and rather than upset my sleep schedule I decided to go early and find a cache or two. This took considerably more time than expected. I tried a few areas without any luck and was about to give up when I spotted something exactly where the coordinates said. Very tricky! Great job on the hide. Tftc

Staying near by on holiday. About to walk away and noticed something out of place and there it was. Great hide. Thanks for placing the cache.

Found it with plus + on our way through Melbourne. We already wanted to give up, but then I saw something... yeah, that's it! TFTC!

Hard one to find but the hint made it. No need to climb