The Melbourne Event 2015 Cranbourne East, Victoria, Australia
By Geocaching Melbourne on 14-Nov-15. Waypoint GC5GCJ8

This was our first ever event. We were pretty new to geocaching and didn't really know what we were doing. We turned up late into the afternoon and luckily we were directed to the logbook. We signed it and stood around for a bit feeling a bit silly. We knew nothing about lab caches and clearly were not even cluey enough to log it online. We'r had a look at all the cool geocache containers and stickers etc. We bought an ice cream and went home wondering what all the fuss whas about. Fast forward to Parkville Mega 3 years and 1700 finds later and a post goes on FB naming thise who have attended every Victorian mega. I was sad that our name wasn't there. The moe i thought about it the more i knew it should be. I checked this event and whadya know....i havnt bloody logged it online. Yipee.

*2*

Dont forget the 2016 Mega Event on the Surf Coast November 12-13, 2016

### Log your Will Attend [here](https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC65688_the-surf-coast-event-2016) ###

### For the latest information, head for the 2016 website [here.](https://geocaching.melbourne/) ###

Forgot to log. My bad.

Getting several emails from Cachers who were clearly catching up on November logs prompted me to come and check out how many attended logs have been registered on the Mega event, anyway in doing so I see cachers called The Mad was the last person to log and coincidently he/she writes in their log referring to us TeamThommo "Hello TeamThommo, I am the owner of TB "taz le voyager" http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?tracker=TB5HN9N I want to know which people have my TB ?"
I replied to an inbox from The Mad back in December explaining WE DID NOT TAKE their TB 'taz Le voyager' we only Discovered it while at the Mega.
We treat TB's with a lot of respect as they are other people's property, the ones we take we log and move on.
I hope it turns up but it most certainly isn't us who has it.
Thank you

Hello,

Hello TeamThommo,

I am the owner of TB "taz le voyager" http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?tracker=TB5HN9N

I want to know which people have my TB ?

Because my TB is no longer in the cache (https://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GC1V85J&title=western-highway-tb-motel-relocated&guid=6ca697c8-388c-4280-8732-09093c24293c) but it was seen at the Mega event in melbourn (https://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GC5GCJ8&title=the-melbourne-event-2015)

Thank you for your answer.

The Mad

(Je suis la propriétaire du TB Taz le géocacheur. ESt ce que c'est vous qui avez mon TB, car il n'est plus dans la cache WESTERN HIGHWAY TB MOTEL, mais il a été vu ensuite au méga event de melbourne.
Merci pour votre réponse.)

Great event - very enjoyable.

Merry Christmas!

This is our final announcement before this listing will be archived. Don't worry - you can still log it after that. First of all we have a BIG request. Please check if you've already logged all trackables. There are still a bunch of them left in the listing however when we closed shop, all of them were gone.

The second thing is that the organising team wants to say a big thank you to the volunteers, the sponsors, the scouts, the charities and of course all geocachers. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Now what are we going to do with ourselves until next November?

• Get Updates - https://www.facebook.com/geocachingmelbourne
Like us on facebook and get the latest updates about Geocaching in Victoria.

• The Surf Coast Event 2016 - http://coord.info/GC65688
If you thought this year was great, mark next year in the calendar and log a will attend. Of course we also wouldn't mind if you spread the word and chuck in some nice banners and custom log signatures. We provided some templates here: http://geocaching.melbourne/event2016/banners/

We wish everyone great and safe Holidays, a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Thank you so much
The Geocachers of Victoria

Merry Christmas

[size=6][url=http://coord.info/GC65688][black]The Surf Coast[/black][/url] [url=http://coord.info/GC65688][red]Event[/red][/url] [url=http://coord.info/GC65688][black]2016[/black][/url][/size]

The bananas were there.
Well at least part of them.
Merry Xmas everyone.

thats for a fantastic weekend

WOW what a fantastic effort by all involved! We had a blast, look forward to next years

I had great time at this awesome event, checking out the stalls and meeting lots of new cachers. LouiseAnn had convinced me to teach manual navigation sessions and despite my hesitation (haven't taught navigation for many years now) I enjoyed the sessions a lot. Met many cool and interested people and generally had a lot of fun showing them the finer points of map and compass navigation. Thanks to everyone who organised this great event, especially to LouiseAnn and her non geocaching partner who convinced me to run the manual navigation sessions, and helped run them. This was my 1451st find!

The results from the survey are in and some really interesting data has been collected. We would like to thank everyone for their positive responses and their constructive criticism. It has been collated and will provide some valuable guidance with the planning of The Surf Coast Event, 2016.

Over 180 different teams responded to the survey and a random number generator has been used to choose 5 lucky winners. The winners will each receive their choice of a Cherry, Lemon or Lime Limited Edition The Melbourne Event, 2015 geocoin, valued at $40 each! The 5 lucky winners are….

drednort
The Swaggies
locus cache
geniejoan
Rhyssa6

Geocaching Melbourne will be in contact with these lucky winners to organize getting these coins to them as soon as possible.

One final word, there are still 96 trackables listed as being at the event. At the end of Sunday the 15th, there were absolutely no trackables left. If you could please check through your inventory to see if you have any of these missing trackables and list them as “retrieved” if you do, that would be greatly appreciated.

We hope you all had a great time at The Melbourne Event, 2015 and look forward to seeing you all at The Surf Coast Event, 2016 in Anglesea next year.

Cheers
Geocaching Melbourne.

I was there! Thanks

What a great event. I had never been to anything like this before and I was very impressed. Loves the stalls as I saw lots of stuff I had only seen in the Internet. It is so much better when you can pick things up and feel them rather than going by a picture.
Thanks so much for organising such a great event!!

just dripping my tb's

1> The first is that there is a survey out regarding your experiences at The Melbourne Event. We would like you to take your time to fill it out. It may take about ten minutes but it will help us build bigger and better MEGAs in the future (Yes, we are planning more). Filling out the survey is purely optional, but five lucky teams who fill out the survey will be randomly selected and will win one of the Limited Edition Melbourne Event geocoins in Cherry, Lemon or Lime. These coins are worth $40 each, so it’s well worth your time filling out this survey for a chance to win one of these coins. To be in the draw to win one of these coins, the survey needs to be filled out by 5pm on Friday the 27th of November, please fill out the survey only once, or else you will be ineligible to win a coin at all. Winners will be announced next Saturday the 28th of November. The survey can be found by visiting this link… https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1EzWc88XuaBcc5uRRClSMBe0IvHJsinX0jnz2vYrkBG8/viewform?edit_requested=true

2> There are still 114 trackable items listed as at The Melbourne Event. We know that at the end of Sunday afternoon there were absolutely none left on the table so if you have trackables in your possession, please remember to log them as “retrieved” from the Melbourne Event. To register that you have trackables you can visit this link… https://www.geocaching.com/track/

3> The Official Melbourne Event Polo shirts now on sale ! Geostuff.com.au still has a few of the Official Melbourne Event Polo shirts available, but as of today they are all on sale - $19 for the Men’s & Women’s and $15 for Kid’s. Strictly first come first served on sizing, as Geostuff won’t be making any more. There are a few of the more common sizes available such as XL, 3XL, 16, 18 as well as one-off women’s sizes 20 & 24. Very limited kids stock. So if you missed out, you can still purchase one of these great shirts, or if you already have one, get yourself another one ! Check them out on the Geostuff official merchandise page by following this link… http://shop.geostuff.com.au/collections/the-melbourne-event-2015-official-merchandise

4> If you haven’t realized yet, we are doing it all over again, but this time we are going to the BEACH! The Surf Coast Event, 2016 is live already and we are really looking forward to this one. Set in the picturesque coastal town of Anglesea with the magnificent Otway ranges and The Great Ocean Road on its door step, as well as being only a short drive from Melbourne, The Surf Coast Event, 2016 is set to be one hell of a great weekend for all. You can register your interest by logging your Will Attends already by following this link… https://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GC65688

Lovely to attend my first mega. Caught up with some people that i have met on my very new but fun cachibg journey.

Attended by The Noodler

Well Done to all

Was great to catch up with a few old friends. Weren't the fireworks amazing?

Thanks to the organisers, top job!

Dropped in and managed to talk to a few fellow friends but a call cut short our stay. Disappointing
but that’s how thing go sometimes, thanks to all involved with the event.

Attended with Eartheddivine and GeoRo11. We had no idea about geocaching before we found your event. Thank you

Attended with Eartheddivine and GeoJulz. Thanks for introducing us to a fun past time

Find #23. Attended with SirJ-Oz.

Now that I have my own account, SirJ-Oz is logging all my finds.

Thanks for the event Geocaching Melbourne

Find #145. Atttended with j-bean, muggle Mum and to see SirJ-Oz present a session on c:geo.

I'm catching up on my logs (well, SirJ-Oz is logging them for me).

Thanks for the mega event Geocaching Melbourne

Accidentally retrieved a trackable when logging 300+ discoveries so dropping it back in the event again....

Attended Mega for the first time. The people are so friendly and I enjoyed catching up with friends. Also went caching afterwards.

Well done to all concerned.

TB visiting

Found by caughtatwork at 10:47 on 15/11/2015
I came. I found. I chatted. I cached. I did all of the good things that make a mega a convention. Kudos to the organisers.
Took nothing, left nothing.
*Overall Experience: 5*
GAFF 1
*Recommended*

Rated: for Overall Experience

our first event ever.... only was there for a short time due to other commitments but we had a great time...

It was great to be part of this event with Mrs one-eyed and Son In Law Imapom and Mrs Imapom

The green frog was there too. Congratulations to anyone involved in organizing this wonderful event.

Had a fun weekend and did some very enjoyable colouring-in at the activity table. Didn't win the colouring prize, but felt like a winner anyhow!! [:o)]
Thanks Team Mega.
GrimRaider.

Traveled from Geelong for this event. managed to do a few caches around the area on the day. TFTE

This is my very first Geocaching find

I still don;t have a GPS device but will do soon

Thank you for making this an easy find

Cheers Jillaroo.

Dropping this off at the Melbourne Mega into a vic hopefully headed to the Americas

After the road trip from South Australia, which started on Thursday and ended on Monday, with Freddo and locus cache, I attended my first Mega event. I had a great time, met lots of new people and made some lovely friends along the way.
I found some great caches; collected travel bugs and swapped pathtags.
This area is very pretty with it's wetlands and walkways; bushlands that have been created. It looks like the area is rapidly developing too.
Thank you to the organisers and volunteers on a job well done. Thank you to all the sponsors who made the event possible.
I look forward to another event in Victoria.

Attended with Schatzsuche1 my lovely wife just after listening to the Mayors speech and official opening.
These events take a lot of planning and effort to pull of such a well executed weekend. I really enjoyed the regular updates sent out building up to the weekend. they were very informative and really built the excitement for us.
Thanks so much for all your hard work and, no doubt, sleepless nights on occasions. I'd also like to thank all the sponsors for their contributions and support.

We had a blast and loved the whole weekend.

Thanks again,

Cheers and Happy Hunting
Southern Cross Caching.

Thanks to the organizers: Phillipp, Sarah, Louise, Steve, Day, Bernie, and the volunteers so the sponsors, for a great weekend.

Attended with Geo wife and a friend,
We stayed for about 3 hours.

Dropped TB

Thank you for putting on such a great advent my family and I are looking forward to becoming experienced caches

[red]Find #538 Event #6 MEGA! #1!!!! [/red]

Well what a day!!!

I woke up at six and we left for Cranbourne just after seven, really excited to attend my first MEGA event. Upon arriving we were very quickly greeted by some familiar and some new faces. Chatted about before going in 'The Doohickey room" for our first session. Walked into the room and knowing nobody except for the host (ThePacMan) I quickly made friends with some other cachers. The session started and Joe did an exceptional job speaking about waterproof containers, (what works and what doesn't), different containers he has made, glues and materials he has used, some popular caches of his (well all of them are great but you can only share so many...). He had about a billion different containers on the table and showed us the creation process, some of his inspiration and his favourite containers. I thoroughly enjoyed all of it, MEGA Thanks to Joe!

After having some lunch and finding some nearby caches some which were firsts for me such as a large bison tube (Size small), we arrived at the EarthCache session. I was quickly introduced to Geoff (gmj3191) and he started talking to us about many different things about EarthCaches. A very informative session for sure! I learnt lots of guidelines and features, such as an EarthCache should be aimed at the intellect of a 14 year old person and EarthCaches can not be about the same geological event at the same site. It was also great to get to know Australia and New Zealand's EarthCache reviewer Monty (GeoAwareANZ) who also explained many different aspects of EarthCaches and the process they go through, what gets published for what reasons and how to prove that the person has been at the EarthCache site. Thanks to Monty and Geoff for a fantastic session!

My final session was the wherigo workshop. I had brought along my own laptop and was up last night downloading the software. As the EarthCache event went slightly over time I had just enough time to grab the nearby traditional out the door. Signed the log and headed back inside to set up my laptop. Got onto the program and the session commenced. It started off with some great examples of what happens with wherigoes, how they get so many favourite points and why you need to test wherigoes before they're published. One wherigo he showed us had major bugs when it was published and the person published it and then five minutes later posted that he had just tested the wherigo cartridge and found out that it had big problems so people should hold of on finding it until 3:00 PM the next day. He debugged it and then there was a DNF stating that the cartridge had major glitches and then he had to fix it again.....and then he archived it. We quickly got started into programming and Joe taught us many things such as the basic structure of a wherigo, displaying messages and inactivating zones when you exit or enter new ones, playing sounds when you are in a certain distance from or in a zone and displaying messages. I have started creating a basic wherigo that I plan to put out in Geelong soon. Thanks again for a brilliant session that I have been dying to attend. I can't wait to see some future wherigoes you put out!

Before I left, I asked Joe about how to do a LAB cache. He taught me what they were and how to log them. I found one LAB at a bucket of balls, and three others that I can't remember their names. An extra four caches added to my find count!


Thanks very much to every single person who contributed to creating this flawless MEGA! event with infinite great aspects. I really enjoyed every single session and all of the fantastic LABS that were put together to make this MEGA! event what it was. Well done to everyone!

[red]MEGA![/red]

We had been looking forward to this event ever since it was published. We even picked up several interesting geo coins to bring with us when we travelled through Canada and Iceland earlier in the year. Alas for planning, Mrs SKI spent the weekend sick and in hospital!
Our thanks to Freddo1 for taking the geocoins to visit and to share, and for picking up on our preordered coins and pass tags. It's great to have good friends to help out when you're feeling miserable. On the mend now, and we promise to attend next year if you repeat what many have said was a fantastic event weekend
Congratulations to the organizers who put in so much work in both planning and running the event.

Just came for Scott's amazing mountaineering session. That was really good!

Xoxoxo
Anna

A great weekend! Nice to catch up with familiar old faces and make new geo friends. Fireworks were great to watch, as were the workshops. Thanks to the organizers!

Found my way to the fields and wandered around having a ball. Only needed to fix one cache over the 2 days.

Didn't find many caches but had a ball all the same
Did anyone there see us lucking around?
TFTE

arrived with herbie112 on November 6 from Germany and then a mega Event is our first Event and our first vist to Australia. Thanks to the hosts sph1

with sph1 to the event .thanks say herbie112

Attended late on Sunday after driving guests at a friend's wedding in Erica all weekend.
Not a lot going on at this late stage but happy to make it to Victoria's first Mega-Event Cache all the same.

Wow, what to say that won't take me over 4000 characters?

Firstly to all the doubters and the nay-sayers - WE DID IT!

I had never been to a MEGA before as for myself personally; Easter was a bad time of year with work and family commitments. I had resigned myself to the thought that I just had to wait for an OZ Mega to come to Victoria.

But I sat and watched as the ACT one was announced and then the Alice Springs one in 2017. It seemed like OZ Mega was just never going to come to Victoria and it would literally be YEARS before I was going to be able to attend a MEGA. Not to take anything away from the OZ MEGAs, they seemed awesome; they just weren't anywhere I was going to be able to get too.

So a few weeks after Alice Springs was announced, a flippant comment by someone on a posting on the Geocaching Melbourne face book page about how Victoria had more geocaches and more geocachers than all the other states, surely we would be able to support a MEGA event? I threw in my two cents worth to the conversation and shortly after received an inquisitive PM from BernieH. "Do you think it's possible?"

Of course it is possible!

So we began some initial enquiries and surrounded ourselves with our good friends, each of which had a vastly different skill-set, so when combined as a team we were eventually able to overcome the many many many obstacles that were thrown our way.

What followed were months of planning. There were committee meetings that went into the dead of night and resulted in me getting home in the wee hours of the morning. Meetings with council, meetings with parks people, meetings with waste management, meetings meetings meetings.

The excitement of the event grew and the planning behind it became meticulous. It wasn't all plain sailing, but the committee all remained friends throughout, or though at times this was surely tested.

In the end we pulled it off. I sit back now, a day after it is all done and dusted and everything returned to how it was. I sit with a glass of wine and look back at the whole event and reflect.

I met George, george71, the original geocacher of Victoria. That was a definite highlight for me.

The sponsors were awesome. Carl put his money on the table when we were literally nothing. We had no money, we couldn't even pay for insurance, we couldn't guarantee anything to Carl and he still backed us! Steve was incredibly generous with his donations not just with his meat, but with his personal collection of coins to help us get the incentive that we needed to get jobs done. Without this kind of support, things just don't happen.

The minions. This is where the whole thing makes or breaks. You can have all the sponsorship and organization in the world, but without people to carry out the basic tasks, nothing gets done and without the amazing volunteering efforts of our minions, this event would never have been the success it was. Thankyou to each and every one of you.

To the committee. Well guess what? We are still all friends. And better than that, I think we have come out better friends than what we went in as. What an amazing experience to share with an amazing group of people. As I said, each with their own awesome skill-set, I couldn't imagine pulling this off with any other group of people.

I am absolutely chuffed to have been part of this event and I cannot wait for The Surf Coast Event, the plans already being made in the wings and we will insure it is even BIGGER and BETTER!

WOW!! It was clear to see that so much work had gone into organising this event. And I'm sure I'm not alone in my appreciation of the organisers, volunteers and sponsors that worked so hard to pull it off.
This was my first Mega and I'm sure it won't be my last. I LOVE LOVE LOVED the Lab Cache, though I'm still not sure how to log it. That was heaps of fun, even though my toosh got wet in the kayak!! I met some new cachers who helped me solve the RSL leg and we went to the park in Berwick and stumbled upon a wonderful youth band playing in the old rotunda. I came back to Casey Fields to finish off the rest of the clues, grabbed another sausage and had one last browse through the market.

A superb day!! Thank you so much!!

Well glad to say I've now placed a smiley on my first Mega.

Only a Sunday attend unfortunately.

Managed to find a few lab caches and caches in general in the vacinity.

Munzees aplenty to.

Well I capped of with 15 icons completed for the day!!

*Moveable Cache GA4693 Secret Green BINGO
*Traditional Cache GC4KNF7 Sewer Surprise
*Locationless Cache GA7033 Australian National Parks
*Waymark WM8WYK Rowville Police Station
*Lab Cache ahomburg Balls Balls Balls Balls Balls
*CITO Cache GC61TWN Lysterfield South CITO & CUAD
*Trig Point TP5449 Harkaway Hill
*Letter Box Hybrid GC5B7Q4 Z
*EarthCache GC5WVC2 AWITP – Granite
*Multi-Cache GC5X95T AWITP – Berwick Springs
*Mega-Event Cache GC5GCJ8 The Melbourne Event 2015
*Mystery Cache GC66MWX TelecommuniCACHEions
*Wherigo Cache GC5Q2KJ C.F. 33 Alien Landing
*Virtual GA5973 The Rogues Gallery
*Webcam GA3186 Beach Cam – Revisited

Long day lots of fun.

Thanks to all volunteers, organisers, anyone else and the BBQ chef whom made me a mean snag.

See you all on the Surf Coast next year.

TFTE

We had a great time caching with our son and grandson over the Saturday and Sunday.. Many thanks to all the organising committee, volunteers and cachers that placed and maintained the many and varied cachers placed for our pleasure - many thanks to all of you. The fireworks were great.

Bill and Diana - Greynomads TFTC TNLN SL

Finally arrived ltf

DROPPED tb

Dropped a new trackable.

Attended Saturday 14/11/15. Great to catch up with friends and do some caches. Congratulations to the organisers on such a great event. Fireworks were enjoyed by all and top the night off doing a night cache.

What a weekend. Got a compulsory work day on sat, and a 50th in Sth Gippy Sunday. Fortunately was able to get down here this morning. Fantastic event. Thanks for organising!

Drop trackable

Thanks for a great event. Silkyie

TFTE had a great time coming down from Logan in Brisbane. Thank all the local Geocachers for hosting this event and supporting all the caches we found. Very impressed with Melbourne Geocaching and will tell our friends and come back.
Logging my 600 on my map today.

We made it!! Finally! Got our show bag. The youngest geokid has claimed it for him. We signed the logbook and had to head back home for family and activity commitments. Will be able to head back and do all those fabulous caches in the holidays. Thanks so much everyone.

Just been to big event. Picked up a few trackables to send. And found some lab caches!

Dropped some TBs picked up some TBs

Already here

Just logged in

Amazing!

What a great experience.

My first ever mega event.

Thanks for being our 400th. We have had an awesome time.

Yay, this one makes our #750th cache, and what a very fitting Melbourne first. We had a great time, found some caches, bought some merch and made some friends TFTE

Dropped off a red Lego building block

Thanks for a great day out! Scouts did a great job of the snags!
Well done to the planning committee and the minion helpers!

We'll run,interesting event. Thanks Victoria

just attended my first event so far, thanks for it! although it was just a short visit, it was a pleasant atmosphere!

Best regards from Switzerland!

#181 15.11.2015 11:25

Had a great day today. Thanks for a very well run day.

Thank you guys! To the organisers and volunteers

Here with Caching Supplies all weekend. Great meeting so many people. First mega!

Made it down to my first ever event with ryanofoz. Good to see lots of people and check out the stalls. Great weather too!

Fun!

Enjoyed our first ever Mega! Lovely people and were very fortunate to receive our first path tags from very generous people. We had no idea what we were doing on the first day but came back to complete the Lab caches on the second day. Bought a few bits and pieces to assist in future missions. Looking forward to other Mega events. Thanks to all the organisers for a great adventure!

A great event and thanks to all those who organized it. Spent the day collecting the lab caches and had a great time doing it. Thanks all involved

Thank you to everyone involved in what was a great day collecting lab caches and the like.

Well done by all

Number 500!!! Woohoo!!! Awesome to see everyone

Trackables drop

Great day out. Had fun with the LAB caches and watching Paerole graciously retrieve the kayak cache

Thank you to all the organisers, sponsors and volunteers who made this happen. Couldn't have been happier with my decision not to make money this weekend so that I could attend some of the Mega.
Lab caches: wow! What fun!! Particularly loved the cache at Bunnings and also really enjoyed getting about in a kayak for the first time in years.
BBQ & Fireworks: amazing night. Awesome food and really cool fireworks. Met people I was dying to meet and didn't find a few others. Oh well, next time.
This time last year I was terrified of events. The camaraderie I experienced here was really cool. Thanks all

Had an absolute blast at the mega with Genyo running a stall. We flew in from Brisbane on the Friday and have enjoyed meeting all the cachers who attending and all the cachers we recognise from Queensland. Definitely an event we won't forget.

TB Drop

Attended the second day as well. Dropped off a new trackable.

What a fantastic event. Was great to catch up with people we knew and good friends that had traveled long distances as well. Kudo's to the organisers for a job well done and thanks to the Minions who gave up their time to make the event Mega! I'm sure the coffee vendor will sleep for a week after the event!! TFTE

I will attend this event
I will be coming from north of the border (South Australia )
I don't have a GPS yet and this will be my First to find , or is that first I have found .
See you all soon
Jillaroo.

Dropping trackable