B&W (V) Royal Park Parkville, Victoria, Australia
By Geocaching Australia on 20-Aug-10. Waypoint GA2322

Cache Details

Difficulty:
Terrain:
Type: Burke and Wills
Container: Virtual
Coordinates: S37° 47.335' E144° 57.363' (WGS 84)
  55H 320023E 5815636N (UTM)
Elevation: 44 m
Local Government Area: Melbourne

Map

Whodunit Difficulty
Planned (2)
Cache Tracker
Mayor
QR Code
Log Count
Public Tags
Private Tags
Rating

Description

This is a special Burke & Wills cache listed on Geocaching Australia.

This cache requires you to visit a Burke & Wills historical location and take a photo as described along with your GPS receiver and if possible yourself in the picture. Once you have logged this cache as a find, you are required to load your picture to your log to validate your find.


Validating Your Log
Take a picture of your GPS receiver and if possible yourself in front of the cairn and attach it to your online log.

Important Information
The Burke Wills Historical Society notes: "The actual route Burke and Wills followed once they left Camp 78 is unknown and one of the most intensely debated issues. Wills' map and some of his journals containing astronomical observations have been lost. Because the journals have never been transcribed, it means the expedition's track north of the Diamantina, through the gibber rises, confused sand dunes and extensive claypans, is a matter for conjecture."
Travel in Outback Australia can be extremely hazardous. Plan your trip with care and seek and follow local advice on what precautions to take. Be aware of private property restrictions. Do not risk your life to log this geocache.

About This Location
The Burke-Wills Cairn in Melbourne's Royal Park marks the beginning of the legendary journey. The monument has been here since in 1890, taking over commemoration duties from the tree that marked the actual departure point, which was originally fenced off in tribute. The cairn is 200 metres east of the tree.

It was here that the expedition party trained in shooting and camel husbandry, and where the stores were amassed for the excursion. The VEE set off at 4pm on August 20, 1860 - three hours later than planned, but there were many pats on the back to be received.
The Melbourne Herald: "At an early hour crowds of eager holiday folks, pedestrian and equestrian, were to be seen hieing along the dusty ways to the pleasant glades and umbrageous shade ... Hour after hour passed in the preparations for starting. In the bustle of hurried arrangements, some very amusing contretemps occurred. One of the most laughable was the breaking loose of a cantankerous camel, and the startling and upsetting in the scatter of a popular limb of the law. The gentleman referred to is of large mould, and until we saw his tumbling feat yesterday, we had no idea that he was such a sprightly gymnast. His down-going and up-rising were greeted with shouts of laughter, in which he good-naturedly joined. The erring camel went helter-skelter through the crowd, and was not secured until he showed to admiration how speedily can go 'the ship of the desert'."




Additonal Information
Source: Paul Dorsey Used with Permission

Logs

16-Jul-24
Came to Royal Park on a bike ride on a cold and windy Monday morning, but appropriately rugged up so everything was fine! Came and checked out the Burke & Wills departure point while catching a breather from riding around the circle path just to the south.
Thanks to Geocaching Australia for this excellent GCA series, this is now the 3rd one captured I think!
Cheers
MajuraHathi
 
05-Jun-23
Will and Burke are everywhere in Melbourne! Found the Cairn near the grass circle in Royal Park. Such a lovely day.
 
06-Jul-22
An amazing part of history.
Thanks for sharing this interesting location. Dancing
Dropping someone off at the Women’s Hospital, I took a stroll whilst I waited seeing the sights, the amazing colours, the natural beauty. The geocaches are a great bonus of my day out.
Thank you for this cache here. Clapping It’s amazing to see the country in the eyes of a Geocacher.
 
15-Apr-21
Enjoying a walk around Royal Park today and it turns out there are a few B&W caches in the area!
Took a picture of the cairn and attached it to this log.
Thanks to Geocaching Australia for this cache!

TFTC, Brainiac03 Very Happy
 
22-Nov-18
It was great to see the start of the B&W trail today. A great series of caches - thanks for bringing me here Smile
 
20-Nov-18
After checking out of the Motel I had nearly the whole day to do caches around the area before heading out to the airport so decided to walk from the motel into town doing GCA caches along the way.

From this cache I was doing Burke and Wills caches and a couple of history caches as I passed them.

Requested image was taken and attached.

Thanks Geocaching Australia for the cache.
 
At long last we remembered to stop and not just drive passed, not having many of these in Tassie it was nice to grab this one.

Thanks for the cache.
 
18-Nov-18
I drove past this a lot between the hotel and the event site, always in a rush. Time needed to be made so SSR and I parked around the corner and played chicken with the cars to get over to it to take our photos. I enjoy the B&W caches and their related history. TFTC
 
17-Nov-18
I traveled back home to SA from Perth for family reasons and decided that Melbourne is only a short hop from Adelaide, so I logged an attendance at the Parkville Mega event and headed over for 5 days in Melbourne. I hired an E bike and had it for 4 days so was able to get around to many places and grab lots of caches as well as biking from the Youth Hostel in North Melbourne to Parkeville which was only a short ride. After checking into the hostel on Thursday i jumped on a tram and headed down to the markets and then jumped off and went for a stroll through a park nearby for another cache. On the saturday of the event myself and 2 other west aussies rode right out to Maribyrnong grabbing gc and gca caches and we stopped by the racecourse to get a gc and i grabbed a photo while here. We rode about 25km on the ebikes. Was great fun and saw lots of sights on the journey. On the way back to the youth hostel i saw this statue in the middle of nowhere and wondered what it was. so rode in and found another Burke and Wills Statue. Looked right out of place where it is. The things you see when riding a bike....much better than having a car. Thanks for the cache Geocaching Australia. still trying to log all my finds from the event.... Clapping
 
17-Nov-18
Found while at Parkville for the Mega Event. TFTC
 
17-Nov-18
In Melbourne with RLD4963 for the Parkville mega event. A good chance for us Tasmania's to grab a couple of Burke and Will's caches. Walked past this one after lunch and grabbed the required photo.
 
17-Nov-18
out and about with Lil Rafa at the Mega Parkville event this was in range.TFTC TNBPLN monument dry
 
11-Feb-18
Out on a walk round Melbourne to get the local B&W caches before setting off on our B&W trip
 
15-Jan-18
While waiting for the twilight zoo to open made the short walk to grab this
 
09-Nov-17
In Melbourne for a conference and I had just enough time before it started to grab a cache. The hardest part was crossing the road in early morning traffic. Great to get a bit of exercise before sitting inside all morning. Another Burke & Wills crossed off my list.
 
21-Sep-17
The traffic was all snarled up along Royal Parade, so I got off the tram to walk and took a quick detour to pick this up.
 
16-Sep-17
I have driven past this spot three times in the past week (and many, many times in my life). Eventually this afternoon my husband and I had some spare time to park nearby and walk back to take the required photo to log this cache.
It is certainly an interesting looking monument which holds a lot of significance for Australia's exploration history.
This is the tenth B&W cache that I have found and I am looking forward to finding lots more.
 
20-Aug-17
Today we decided to tick off some B&W virtuals and bag ourselves a Dragon Zone trophy. This was one we snapped and we enjoyed our visit to the various locations.

Thanks Geocaching Australia.
 
17-Apr-17
Interesting marker for what was obviously a very important expedition at the time. Perhaps helped to overcome a sense of isolation?

Found at 9.23am
 
excellent monument.
 
01-Feb-16
A great day to be out and about playing a few different geolocation games.
One of these had me strolling past this spot and luckily I remembered the B&W's locationless here so I thought to snap my pic in front of the monument. Clan Griffin
 
26-Dec-15
Did the short walk from cemetery to this 1 – thanks for the history
 
17-Jan-15
#GA337 - 10:00; Day 2 of my B&W expedition in Melbourne. After eight finds and a single DNF on day 1, there were 12 caches left on the list for today. Taking to the geomobile, after a day on foot yesterday, I'd made it to Moonee Ponds and was now on my way back to the city. Parked the geomobile at the nearby oval and didn't notice the muggle asleep in her car after what was likely a big night out! Walked over to GZ, pausing on the way over as well as the return leg for heavy traffic. I had seen this cairn before, but hadn't associated it with these intrepid explorers. TFTC Geocaching Australia Very Happy
 
25-Mar-14
I've been past here so many times it's not funny but there never seems to be a good time to stop. I was in the area for a puzzle cache today so stopped in for a visit.
Thanks Geocaching Australia for the cache and the history.
 
26-Oct-13
Since relocating to Victoria in December 2012, we have driven past the cairn many times. It was good to stop today and follow some of the Burke & Wills trail!
 
27-Aug-13
I used to play schoolboy football near here before they turned the oval into what is now the native grasslands. I remember seeing this monument but (typical of callow youth) failed to realize its significance. Nice to revisit this area. Thanks for the cache and the series.
 
09-Oct-12
11:22
A mixed day of GC and GCA caches and Munzees... oh, and a froggy.

After a walk around Carlton, I looped around to the Zoo, and managed to add another B&W virtual to the collection. Then inadvertently logged the multi instead. D'oh! Fixed now.
 
30-Sep-12
In the area following up as few caches.
 
06-Aug-12
Found this arvo, finally getting around the area...

unfortunately i think the multi is missing.....

Cheers Gordo
 
22-Jul-12
I didn't realise there were two here due to them both plotting on top of each other Evil or Very Mad so only grabbed this one, but initially logged the find against the wrong cache. Anyway, not too far from our hotel and we had driven past it the previous night. A walk today to get a few finds and I got the photo. Good to get some B&W ones that are harder back home in Sydney.
 
05-Sep-11
As usual I had planned a night of caching with my good buddy jsmyong55. We had quite a number on the list, and I never thought we would get through them all. We did and then some! The final tally for the night has not yet been realised as there are both Geocaching Australia.com and Geocaching.com caches in the mix, but we both know we both grabbed over 50 caches each. To get jsmoyong55 over the line we detoured from a direct route to his home to get a few more. It was the first time for both of us to get over 50 so we were both pretty pleased with our efforts. This cache was one of those we grabbed. Parking here was a nightmare, but as there are three caches in close proximity the walk across the oval made it all worthwhile. Thanks.
 
03-Sep-11
Walked over from 'On Their Way' and saw the Cairn from a good distance away. Impressive.

Thanks for another in the series.
 
08-Jun-11
As the pic shows, it was dark when I got to this cairn, but the flash works, and makes it look eerie (although the GPS got too much flash light).
An interesting series, thanks.
 
10-Apr-11
Interesting history here
Thanks for bring me here
 
02-Mar-11
02/03/2011 20:17 Found: #299 After taking a picture at the Tram building I made a beeline straight here through the long grass. Shoes now full of pointy grass seeds. Never been in Royal Park before. Its just a big paddock! Checking my phone database I see that this location is ALSO the start point for a multi.! Hmm, why not!! TFTC TNLN SL
 
08-Dec-10
Couldn't get close to the cairn due to long very wet grass, but snapped this photo as best I could. I ended up soaked to the skin by the time I made it back to my hotel.

Thanks. Smile
 
06-Nov-10
Found by Team Ladava around 11.00 caching on my own while the better half of Team Ladava was attending a medical appointment.
Love this Burke & Wills series.
An excellent and informative set of cache notes and a historic (if ugly) cairn,.
Took the happy snap, some quick calculation and off the nearby multi. Two for the price of one. What more could you want
Our thanks to GCA (especially c@w for pulling the series together)
Cheers
Ian & Sandra
Team Ladava

 
06-Nov-10
An earlier GC cache had alerted me to their starting point but in the context of the B&W series, this visit at 16:10 certainly added to the experience Very Happy.

Took pickie, L. Thanks once again Geocaching Australia.
 
24-Oct-10
Loged on a beaut day for caching.
Just returned from a bushwalk and was in the area.
TFTC
 
20-Oct-10
With the sun out today I skipped work and headed out to complete a few caches. Nice one.
TFTC Very HappyVery Happy
 
03-Oct-10
With the sunny weather the whole monument and the surrounding area was crawling with millions of ants and their flying queens (the faint lines to the left of the GPS in my picture are ants). Luckily they weren't the stinging kind (although some of the dozen on my GPS were trying their best to give me a nip!)

Oh and watch out for territorial Noisy Miners - I was swooped several times coming back from the cairn because I got too close to their lerp gumtrees (no danger, just can give you a shock! I was actually enjoying trying to get a photo of one swooping at me! Laughing)

Some kites were flying, a cellist was practicing here too, and a martial artist doing kata (or just tai chi I wasn't sure) - what a wonderful place! Smile
 
01-Oct-10
Found by The Empire + H @ 2pm
4th of 10 finds on this warm and sunny day for caching.
- M
 
19-Sep-10
A belated log, I don't bother hooking the phone to the computer very often..... A quiet morning, so I had plenty of time to take a photo before moving on to the multi. Thanks.
 
18-Sep-10
Thanks for bringing us to this historic location. It is very hard to appreciate the conditions facing Burke and Wills as cars rush past the memorial late in the afternoon.
 
12-Sep-10
I found this cache with caughtatwork today while we were hunting down the B&W caches around the city. I loved this place as we walked across the park to the cairn.
 
12-Sep-10
Found by caughtatwork at 16:11 on 12/09/2010
The cairn! The cairn!
A lovely walk across the park to this location with the sun in our eyes and the breeze in our hair, GabGab and I pretended to be part of the expedition, heading towards our goal at the cairn, rather than death at Coopers Creek.
We took a few snaps for the record and then headed on to the Multi cache starting at this very location.
Took nothing, left nothing.
Thanks to everyone involved in the B&W Project.
*Overall Experience: 3*
GAFF 1
 
09-Sep-10
Woot! 2 for 1 Very Happy I logged this virtual at the very cool cairn with a photo, then proceded as is my habit to delete the POI off the TomTom. I was momentarily confused as it seemed to still be there... until I realised there is a SECOND cache (the multi) starting on the same spot. Yay! Off to grab that then...
 
05-Sep-10
This memorial often gets lost in this park. Thanks for bringing me here
 
30-Aug-10
I remembered this virtual cache as I was gathering the clues for the nearby multi, and took a poor quality photo with my really old phone!
 
22-Aug-10
I've spent a bit of time around here over the past month or so, scouting out a good location for my physical multi cache placed nearby. Today I dropped in to check the multi, and grab a photo of the cairn while I was there. See my little eTrex sitting there on the cairn? It's been so much fun being involved in the project, and I hope everyone has as much fun finding them all. Cheers!
 
21-Aug-10
15:00
On the day of the Federal Election, along with Robyn of The Morris and Princess Diala, we voted to follow the B & W Party.
At the location of this virtual cache we were able to blend in with the regular tourists and capture a photo of Alice – The Ship of the Desert (SW0228) along with the GPS’r.
It was interesting to contemplate the contrast in scenery and activity 150 years on.

TFTH
 
21-Aug-10
We had a great day wandering around the city completing the B&W caches, both traditional and virtual. Found in the company of Princess Diala, Phetlern and Alice.

Have to say this is an odd shaped monument
 
21-Aug-10
I decided a long whilst ago that since I helped place this series, I would not be crazy and hunt for this series on the first day, instead work through the city caches during on the Saturday.

I COULD have logged this cache when I visited here fore the anniversary ceremony on the 18th Aug.

Many thanks for the Pheltern and The Morris for the company shared throughout the day.
 
20-Aug-10
Lucky this was a virtual, as the place was packed today.
Folk singers, Film crews, heaps of spectators.
Thanks, Robmc.
 
20-Aug-10
Managed to get the morning off so we could do some of these B&W virtuals round the city. A very nice way to spend the morning even if it was quite cold.
 
Published
 
Melbourne (C) - dragonZone
988.20 12.00
20.00 978.20
dragonZone Points
Downloads
GPX file
ZIP file
Gallery
Gallery
Other
Graph
Plot