Southern Aurora Disaster Violet Town, Victoria, Australia
By Team BGF on 22-Jul-17. Waypoint GC6N6VT

Thanks for taking us to this site from D & HA B-A.

After visiting the Violet Town Markets a short detour was made to see the crash site memorial and of course grab a cache.TFTC

Great to see a cache now at this historic spot.. and yes.. the green glass you can still find here is from the windows of the Aurora's carriages. Thanks Team BGF.

Gotcha - found with a bit of extraction difficulty. Didn't have an extraction tool . Tftc

Found it - now to get to it!! Tool in hand and log out! Thanks for the hide.

Last time we visited Violet Town we dodged rain drops to visit Helping Hands cache, an informative tribute to the train tragedy. In sunnier conditions today we visited this memorial at the cache site. We sat in awe, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the impact of this rail disaster.Theres obviously been a bit of local rain as we dodged puddles at gz. Cache found in good condition. Thanks Team BGF for a cache in memory of the people who died in this historic rail tragedy.

Read about this crash many years ago, so today heading back to Melbourne, I decided since there were a few geocaches relating to it, that I would meander of the freeway and visit Violet Town. Dropped out to the crash site after visiting the memorial park in town. Devastating piece of history TFTC Team BGF

Sir_spectre and I had hoped to join in the fun of the Mega in Canberra but unfortunately life got in the way so we planned a trip for a few weeks later. We might have missed all the great events and catching up with geocaching friends from far and wide but at least we got to find lots of great caches still.Any cache that needed some love got it, if possible.Thanks

This is a new vic LGA for me. Just grabbing a few finds. quick find. Found with Mogni. Myself and mogni are headed off to canberra on the " I missed the Capital GeoBash Mega " holiday, since last minute family problems came in to play and we had to adjust our plans by a few weeks. On the way over we targeted multi's, wherigo's and puzzles to make sure we had 25 in each or at least close to that total ( or more ) as possible, getting as many new New South Wales LGA's as possible, the 17th most favourite point NSW cache and every cache size in New South Wales.In the ACT it was getting 2 of the 5 oldest letterboxes, oldest wherigo in Australia, 2nd oldest earthcache ( with a side trip to get the oldest earthcache of course ), and ACT oldest cache too. I also hosted a CITO and planned on getting every different cache type i could and eevry different cache size as well. I also needed 9 more virtuals this trip to get my virtual count over 100. Finally canberra was far enough away from from house to complete the well aged well travelled cacher 0 to 1000 kms with a cache every 10 km's ( i only need 7 more caches to complete )Leaving the ACT it was going via Victoria to get there last active web cam cache and slowly getting a total of 20 finds in each LGA i passed through if i had enough time plus also hosting a CITO in Victoria as well. A busy 11 days. Trust me by the end of the holiday you would have thought the 6 meter ladder weighed more than 13 kg's to amount of times it was used or carried up hills or over creeks. If your cache was found with a broken container/lid it was replaced or if the log was full it was replaced or a extra log if the container was big enough ( except for nano's, do your own maintenance on nano's.

A sobering stop here. Time to reflect and remember. As a bonus, had to wait for a train at the crossing.

Found on the way to the Canberra Geobash. TFTC

We are on our way to the Canberra mega, taking our time, doing some caching and being tourists as we go. It feels strange not to be bringing our caravan with us, the freedom of not having to be aware of where we can park or if the street we have just turned into is going to big enough to turn the caravan around in. All the caches we have found are in good condition. SL TFTC

A quick find. Thanks for the history lesson!

After no luck at the train, this was considerably easier! Tftc

It's such a sad story behind this cache, which l found without issue while driving through.

Nice hide!

Travelling through Violet Town grabbing caches before I head off to do the North East silo tour. Great spot for a cache and a nice tribute to those who lost their lives on that tragic day. TFTC

Found it

Found it, was a little wet inside tho. Log is a ok

Ignore previous, not wet, wrong cache

Additional logsheet added

Thanks Team BGF. A clever hide found with Jimmytherat on market day.

A quick find on a hot day. Glad there's not much grass here as I saw a snake earlier a little way into town.

Thanks for bringing me to this piece of train history. GJ

On our way to Ballarat to do the Tour before it is archive.Came through Violet town on the way, it is a pretty little town to explore with a lot of rail disaster history. Interesting reading of the history of it all.It was an easy find and there is no problem with the cache all good. found it, signed it, replace where found then onto the next one.Thanks Team BGF this cacheLilDonna

A nice tranquil spot (when no traffic is around) to sit and appreciate how lucky we are. Isnt it great to see that there are still a lot of amazing people in this world. TFTC

TFTC

A very pleasant stop in Violet Town to break up the long drive from the northern beaches of Sydney to the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.This disaster was a thing I knew nothing about previously. I am always grateful to the wonders of geocaching for bringing me to new places and new knowledge. TFTC

Thanks for the find. Come to look at the memorial.

Thanks for the find.

Thankyou

Great detour to Melbourne with a couple of great caches in Violet Town. TFTC and SL at 9:20am.

Thanks for the cache! Looked a nasty accident from the pictures nearby

Find number 12025 at 10:53:44 am on Wednesday the 17 May 2023
Travelling from Croydon to Goughs Bay via the long round about way chasing favourite points for this months GCHQ souvenir challenge. The bonus is that I get to find some great geocaches in the Victorian counrtyside
A quick find, nice container.
**Thanks for placing this cache Team BGF**

---
Did you nominated your favourite geocaches from 2022 for the Victorian Cache of the Year Awards?
Join us for the announcement of the finalists on 21 May at the nomination event at Edwardes Lake Park in Reservoir, see [GCA69WK](https://coord.info/GCA69WK) for more details.
To find out more about the Awards click [here](https://geocachingvictoria.com.au/category/awards/#:~:text=Victorian%20Cache%20of%20the%20Year%20Awards%20Program%202023)

Wow, very interesting about history.
Find it and sign the log as EV, and thanks for the cache and hunt.

FP from me

What a great little town. Had fun in the school holidays on a nice sunny day3 out of 3

I made a detour through violet Town on my way home from the Rutherglen Mega Event and dodging rail showers and plenty of water on the ground I was able to make the find. I remember seeing and learning about this disaster on the news.

Find 4139 on April 7, 2023

Found on day #2 on our way to the Rutherglen Mega.

Thanks for showing us the history here. It must have been quite the scene at the time.

TFTC Team BGF

A quick detour and an easy find. An interesting location. TFTC
Cheers,
The Hancock Clan

Heigh-ho, heigh-ho
It’s off to the mega I go

With this song in my head
Since I got out of bed
Heigh-ho Heigh-ho Heigh-ho

To search search search search in Rutherglen the whole day through
To cache cache cache cache is what I really like to do
It ain't no trick to get a smile quick
If you search search search search with a torch or a pick
In Rutherglen! In Rutherglen! In Rutherglen! In Rutherglen!
Where a million caches shine!

To search search search search from early morn till night
I cache cache cache cache up everything in sight
We dig up multis by the score
A thousand trads, sometimes more
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
Heigh-ho

Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
It's off to the mega I go

This cache was my second find on the way to the mega.

It’s an awful tragedy and one that is close to home with my dad having many stories as a railway worker.

Thanks for sharing the story Team BGF

Arrived at GZ but there were tourists reading the plaque.
I drove up the road and collected cans from the side cut until they left.
Proceeded to GZ , signed the log and took a moment.
I lived in Kerang in 2007 when there was a terrible train crash.
Not only did it impact the surviving passengers and the loved ones of those who lost their life, it also impacted first responders, emergency services, medical staff and the community as a whole.
So very sad.
TFTC

I remember this accident from when I was a kid (yep, I'm that old ) so with the cemetery multi completed, I mosied on over here for a look at that long ago tragic location - and the cache as well. After checking out the info signs about the accident, a bit of scrounging around finally had me spotting the camo and signing the log at 13:30.

All well worth a fave point.

TNLNSL, although our BYO pen geocoin had a visit to mark the occasion. Thanks Team BGF.

Find # 11667

A break in the trip to Wangaratta.

Decided I needed more than a 1 cache rest, so I tackled the 3 here in town.

Interesting bit of history.


TFTC Team BGF

Nice spot! TFTC!

Travelling home after a tassie road trip. Looking for a stop to change drivers and stretch the legs, so stopped in Violet Town. An aunt of mine once lived here, so I new this place on the map over other choices.
Okay, wanted to add an LGA to my map, so picked a cache to do whilst here, and this one seemed to offer the most from a history lesson point of view.
Collected the cache, and read all of the material. Wow, this is excellent to learn.
Cache is missing a lid, but otherwise in good condition.
Thanks for the history, and bringing us here.

Quick find. Grew up in undera. Live in Qld now. Back to visit family. Never know about this. Tftc!

**Total find count: 1229**

After a significant geocachig hiatus, as well as a few years between extended breaks away from home, what better way than to start the trip with geocaching.

All geocaches were found with Crzymelly and TeamPQS in tow.

Before hitting the road to continue on to Melbourne after lunch, another high FP find was to be made. The cache was quickly located under the watching eyes of a passing Melbourne-bound train, as well as the 'headlight covers' hanging overhead.

TFTC. Found some headlight covers hanging in nearby. Soon spotted something a little out of place. Found with @itsonlybarney and @teampqs

I have been Geocaching for the last year as part of team Dromaniax. We have enjoyed the Geocaching caching around a lot of Victoria in that time. From our first trip up to the Murray River, the next trip to Lake Eildon and the area around Buxton, an epic trip to the Little Desert to attack the This is SA series, then a great trip with our father to the High Country in Victoria, a trip to the Mornington Peninsula and a trip to the Albury-Hume Reservoir area.

I finally decided to set up my own account and am claiming all the caches I have found as part of Dromaniax.

Thank you for this Traditional cache TeamBGF

Caching on my way to Melbourne today. A quick find here today. This disaster sounds pretty awful I have to say..

I would like to thank Team BGF ️ for bringing us to this cache and telling us this sad story . Another fantastic cammo too. Have to put one as a love ️ .

Thanks BGF for putting this cache here, so very sad what happened here all those years ago

Just found the cache as a freight train came through

A quiet place to reflect on this accident. We found a piece of glass and left it at the foot of the monument. A clever little hide, SL, TFTC

Lid is still off but cache dry. Plastic bag replaced. RIP dear souls. Helenoftroy

Found it, but the cache container is a bit of a train wreck. Needs maintenance. TFTC Team BGF

A quick find at GZ. Lid is off the cache, but is dry inside despite recent rain. A spider has made it's home inside as cache guardian. I vaguely remember the crash when I was a young lad. TFTC

Find# 2679

I found Southern Aurora Disaster today. Just a short visit as we are out here to get some bargains at the market.

Many thanks Team BGF for providing and maintaining this game piece for our enjoyment.

Found it!

Thank you.

Cache need maintenance.
Lids missing, log is damp, spiders nest inside, and area is a little boggy.

Thank you for a great cache and history lesson!

Unable to sign book unfortunately due to pen not working and cache lid missing, cache filled with water and spider nest inside.
Pic of area to show we had found cache as proof

# 14871 Found and logged at 8:44:00 AM
Finaly some fine weather to get out caching
Heading south this time
Thanks for the cache Team BGF
Lgoody

TFTC

Nice little spot and a quick find. Tftc

Quick find nice cache

TFTC

Heading home from the Grand Final weekend and stopped off in town for a few caches. First stop was here and the was soon in hand. After signing the log, I had a wander around looking the info/photo boards. I was 11 when the accident happened and can remember the newspaper stories of the time. Long time ago now...

Thanks Team BGF...first time visit to the actual location.

Tftc. Kids found...

I was on Euroa today as I had to drop my dog at the vet to have surgery doing a few geocaches to distract me. Nice quick find. what a lovely memorial of this incident. Log is dry. Tftc.

New logsheet placed in a protective plastic bag. Further maintenance will be performed shortly to restore the container, but left in place for now.

TFTC
Cache is missing it’s container cover, so rather soggy and filled with slaters. A very peaceful, poignant place.

Thank you for the catch another bit of history

Beautiful tribute to a tragedy, took longer than it should have to find the cache, after dismissing it earlier

I’m having this week off as others at work had the Easter break off so it was my turn and another trip up North to Mildura was planned.
I left Melbourne nice and early on Friday to get a few caches in on the way up to Culgoa.
My main aim of the weekend at Mildura was to finish the Turtle series and to start the Paddle Steamer series so all good on those 2.
So after a great 3 days in Mildura then an over night stop in Boort and then Euroa time to head to Marysville for the weekend to catch up with friends.
I was not taking the most direct route as I wanted to drive through some old towns that are now only dots on the map and I want to take the back roads as well.
7 hours to do what is a 312 kms direct trip then 6 hours to do 211km direct trip I really must be taking the round about way.
I was only young when this happened and do not remember the incident but I do remember seeing the train growing up either in the evening or early morning on some of our family trips away.
The memorial in town is also a nice spot to visit as well.

Thanks Team BGF TFTC.

Great little cache on our way to Corowa for a few days. Thanks Team BGF, certainly some sad history here

Heading away to Corowa with Bogonghazy for a couple of days. Easy find. Thanks Team BGF for placing the geocache

After a few camping trips with his muggle brother Mr Dromaniax suggested that they have another camp trip and invite their muggle father along for the ride. After leaving Ballarat around 10.30, we headed towards Smoko Campground in the High Country.

We had chosen to take the road less travelled and avoid major highways whenever possible. This was so we could view scenery we hadn't seen before.

Most people would want a bright sunny day; we were very happy with the moody sky and the misty atmosphere.

As we neared this cache, we were reading the cache page and my muggle father discussed his memories of the incident.

A nice quick find here of a cache in excellent condition.

Thank you for this cache, Team BGF

A solemn place. Quick find and a moment of silence for those who died.

Found it TFTC

Good hide, no lid so paper falls out

**Found whist in en route to family in Corowa**

After the prerequisite coffee, I headed off towards Violet Town to grabbing a few caches along the way. Really enjoyed my visit to this lovely town. Haven't been here for years.

A nice straight forward hide here (although cache has no lid).

Thanks for the cache Team BGF. Interesting story, fascinating history and appreciate your efforts in highlighting it.
- P

*Took*: Nothing
*Left*: Fave Point.

**Warning**, this hobby can be addictive. It can lead to learning new things and finding interesting places you might not have known existed otherwise.

Cache on!
**#17011**

A quick find on a sunny day. TFTC.

Quick find. CO may need to do a maintenance check.

Today we found Southern Aurora Disaster on our travels. We are meandering our way home after the mega. What a devastating scene this must have been…& my head asked how on earth could this have happened. If only the train driver had retired when his doctor told him too, if only the guard hadn’t been asleep, if only the fireman hadn’t gone off to get a cup of tea at that moment. I think the coroner was very lenient in his findings.

Thanks Team BGF for being part of our geocaching fun.

Wangaratta Mega
Day Five: Wangaratta to Drysdale
The missing Victorian LGAs

Strathbogie is the first of my missing LGAs, so I’ve pulled off at Violet Town. Some great caches here, just look at all those FPS, I ended up caching the whole town.

I was around, but quite young when this happened, and was not aware of it. It’s sad to read the chain of events because the much more recent crash near Helensburgh was somewhat similar I believe.

Thanks for showing me this Team BGF.

On the way home from the Mega and we managed to get a few smilies along the way. Second time today that there has been a bra hanging in the trees. Not sure what this is all about but anyway made the find and on our way. Thanks Team BGF

The name of the train rings a bell from my youth. What a disaster and a good way to remember the fact.
Nice hide thanks Team BGF

14/01/2022 10:16:00 PM
Found by torchlight while carefully navigating the moat surrounding GZ, miraculously the cache has managed to stay dry.

Thanks TeamBGF


Find recorded using GCDroid and logged using GSAK

A special spot. My wife at the time was almost killed in a similar incident. She was 7 months pregnant with our son Thomas. The incident happened in1988 outside the RAAF base in Adelaide at Edinburugh. The driver and another passenger were killed. Sobering thought. Watch out for trains.

Thanks Team BGF and clear skies from TeamAstro. ️ Cache the planet!

Watawieh from Norfolk Island South Pacific

I have teamed up with TeamAstro to do some caching on a road trip from Adelaide to Wangaratta for the Mega.

It is tragic what happened here all those years ago. TFTC

Found & logged using Cachly for iOS

Log replaced. Fav point for the history. On the hunting trail again with SeasonedBird. I’ll leave the more interesting detailed log to Mrs Geo (aka: SeasonedBird, Salty Chook, the Old Boiler, Old Chook, Dirty Bird or Angry Bird) because she writes so much more eloquently than I and usually has much more time to do so while I’m driving. It’s a great day for caching. TFTC Team BGF
Find #8160 at 14:37.

Found out caching with Wollaston on a slow meander north. What a dreadful event.

Container missing lid but contents dry
Log full, replaced with new now has lots of room

Thanks to CO’s for taking time to set out and maintain hides and for showing us your very special part of the world

Log signed in first open spot with stamp

TFTC Team BGF

Find # 5786

Nice cache !
Careful on hot days!
Log is getting little manky

Found it today while having a wander around Violet Town, lovely memorial to lives lost. Many thanks for the cache.

Thank you for bringing me here, and thank you for the cache.

2 weeks before this disaster I travelled on this sleeper train from Sydney to Melbourne so on a child's mind this crash had a huge impact.
For a long time after I was reluctant to travel long distance by train.
This is the first time I have visited the site.
Nice cache placement too. Thanks Team BGCF

Found quickly. Lid to container is missing so logbook could potentially fall out, the paper is also quite dirty. TFTC

Tricked me at first but found it yay

Fun, adventure, travel, history, geology, mental stimulation, social gatherings, support and friendship are just some of the elements of geocaching.

Out and about enjoying the opportunity to grab a few caches, yours being one of those I targeted on my journey today. Thanks ??

Thanks Team BGF (F=4933 H=102) for placing this cache and adding to our game.

TFTC great day for a few caches

Took my nieces to find this one good hide nice camo