bumpy landing Cradle Mountain, Tasmania, Australia
By Wandering Blister on 13-Dec-08. Waypoint GA1303

Not much has changed here in the 14 years since my last visit.
Simon Cubit has a section in his book 'Snarers and cattlemen of the Mersey high country' (https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/147694) describing the crash. It happened in JAN 1973 attempting a food drop into Lees paddocks. Both occupants survived.

Scrambled down the slippery slope from the Arm River Track on our way through to New Pelion Hut to find this most unusual cache. The fact that anyone (everyone) walked away from this mess is amazing. Also, for a crash that happened in 1973, the wreckage is still in remarkably good condition, and quite incongruous out here amongst the native forest. Thanks Wandering Blister for placing the cache, and giving us the opportunity to visit this extraordinary site.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Came in today on a bushwalking club trip - quite warm it was. The club has made a number of trips here over the decades but today was our first visit. Walked in via the spur 17 track picking up the Arm river track just before Wurragarra Ck where we made a welcome stop to top up our water from the delightful creek. Much appreciated on such a warm day. The track took us within about 300m of the plane wreck (and cache) at which point we headed down the fairly easy to follow pad. This was to be our lunch stop and we spent a little time here at the wreck. Also took the opportunity to locate the cache which was somewhat damp inside. Log book was also damp but still able to be written in. Got rid of all the torn wet plastic bags replacing the log book in a new zip lock.

An easy find due to accurate coordinates & the GPS picking up a good signal despite the tree's. Took a bit of bush bashing as we could not find an obvious track after we left the boardwalk. It's hard to believe anyone survived, let alone walked out. Thanks for the cache, it was a bit wet but still in one piece. It is one of those places we would probably never visited if it were not for caching.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Found crash site after walk up Mount Pillinger on a glorious day.
Amazed that they survived this crash and were able to walk out.
Used GPS and took short cut from Base of mount pillinger but scrub was a bit thick in places, then walked out on track back to arm river track.

Rated: for Overall Experience

An amazing bushwalk that we did and forgot to log on geocaching though I wrote a story on my blog and on the facebook page. We, The CEyrettes and I, walked up to the plane wreck one snowless morning with a friend. The skies were crystal clear and warm so we didn't have any ice either, totally unexpected for this time of year. The wreck was found and was of particular interest to us since the flight involved crashed whilst supplying a boys brigade camp that was linked to our church and the organizers of that camp are still active members....The pilot walked out without boots and walked downstream where he met some of the organizers, so the weekened was fairly memorable. The cache was found found easily and we were amazed that everyone survived the crash. Thanks Wandering Blister for this cache.

Rated: for Overall Experience

A facinating find, not only for the mechanical debris everywhere, but to be surrounded by all those ancient king billy pines. It was certainly not your average lunch spot stop.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Its a while since I have been to the wreck an its slowly being reclaimed by the elements. Had no troubles with the signal down here today and it was an easy find. TNLN Thanks

Rated: for Overall Experience

Water had been rushing through here by the looks of the debris everywhere. Had a look around and back on our way to Pelion for the night. Hope the rain eases off soon, we are very wet!

Rated: for Overall Experience

I actually met one of the guys who first went to the wreck back in the 70's and have always been intrigued by it. I must admit I have reservations about making such places more visible but the few cachers so far seems to suggest that only the most persistent are going to be looking anyway. Though the pink tape makes the path clearer, I think we could do without such markers in wilderness areas.
Loved the KIng Billy forest and was very grateful for assistance in finding the cache as the GPS didn't want to co-operate. Quite incongruous when you come across the remains of our mechanised world in such a natural place. Thanks for the experience.

Rated: for Overall Experience

a friend of mine found this cache on 23/10/09

Went into Pelion Hut to re-supply a food cache yesterday, so decided to find this cache today on the way out. Had wanted to try to find this crash site before a cache was there but had'nt got around to it. I kept a look out on the way in for the pad leaving the Arm River Track and found it OK - A retired FT Surveyor has kindly put some discrete pink tape near the start of the pad. The pad is quite distinct and easy to follow, gets a little harder once down in the forest but by then quite clost to GZ. It was quite exciting finding this wreck in the middle of nowhere, certainly would'nt stumble upon it by accident. The cache was found quite easily thanks to the new hint and all is well with it.
Excellent cache Wandering Blister, Thanks

Rated: for Overall Experience

Found the feint start of the pad to the cache without too much trouble but the head scratching started on trying to find the cache as the GPSr was all over the shop. Only after 10 min. or so of thorough searching saw 'Dippy' retrieving the cache from its hidey hole for a well deserved FTF. Certainly an unusual and unique site with the remains scattered among the King Billy Pines. This site just confirms my fear of flying...lol. A great cache...many thanks Wandering Blister...Cheers.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Despite the fact that I never would have been there if it wasn't for Sirius, he assured me that I could take the FTF seeing that I happened to find it first. And I'm not the argumentative type!!! (But I do feel a bit of a fraud). Thank you Wandering Blister, for a most interesting cache location - it really is unique. We took quite a while to find the cache, so were relieved and pleased when it finally reared its smooth plastic head. A bit of a steep pinch back out to the track again, and we continued on our way. Thanks, top cache.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Excellent one Wandering Blister, I had heard of this crash site but hadnt been able to pin down an exact location, had a rough idea from a thread on the (www.bushwalk-tasmania.com) forum, - now you have made it so much simpler to find, and a cache to boot!- Thanks
Apparently the plane was doing a food drop to a Boys Brigade camped in Lees Paddocks when it came to grief.