B&W (O) The Housekeeper Kerang, Victoria, Australia
By
The Morris (adopted by WazzaAndWenches) on 20-Aug-10. Waypoint GA2446
Cache Details
| Difficulty: | |
| Terrain: | |
| Type: | Burke and Wills |
| Container: | Regular |
| Coordinates: | S35° 43.269' E143° 55.410' (WGS 84) |
| 54H 764449E 6043038N (UTM) | |
| Elevation: | 79 m |
| Local Government Area: | Gannawarra |
/143.9235,-35.72115,14/400x200?access_token=pk.eyJ1IjoiY2F1Z2h0YXR3b3JrIiwiYSI6ImNqa2l4ZzNzMDE5bjgzdm1sZGpuODF1Mm0ifQ.q8YMzVyzDJJlJHHV8EMjwQ)
Description
The cache is not at the posted coordinates.
The posted coordinates will take you to the grave of Mary Fraser and her husband. Mrs Fraser was the housekeeper at Tragowel Station when the Burke and Wills party stayed there and she was presented with a book of Longfellow poetry. The whereabouts of the book is unknown but it is hoped that her family has treasured it.
To locate the cache stand with your back to her grave - to your right and just over the road is a large bush. (The first in a row of them.) The 1 ltr pill container is in the bush next to the Church of England sign. The coordinates are S35 43.274 E143 55.419.
The Victorian Exploring Expedition of 1860, usually known as the Burke and Wills expedition, stands as a landmark in Australian history. They succeeded in crossing the continent form South to North, at the cost of several lives. These geocaches mark important points associated with the Expedition.
Robert O’Hara Burke was a former soldier and police superintendant in country Victoria when he was selected to lead the Expedition. Their goal was to explore the unknown areas north of Cooper’s Creek with a view to finding a route to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Along the way, they were to conduct a full scientific survey, and identify good grazing land. If Melbourne were to establish an outpost on the North coast, it could also serve one day as the landing point for a transcontinental telegraph link.
The Expedition left Royal Park on the 20th of August 1860, with 19 men, 26 camels, 24 horses, six wagons and 21 tons of supplies. Many of these supplies were left along the way as Burke progressively streamlined the party, obsessed with the idea of beating rival explorer John Macdouall Stuart to the north coast. Burke came within kilometres of the open sea along the Gulf of Carpentaria with a small group of four men after a punishing journey across unforgiving country. He returned after four months to the depot site at Cooper’s Creek to find the relief party had left that very morning, burying a small cache of supplies near a tree marked with the word DIG. Burke and Wills died by the banks of the Cooper. Of the four men to reach the Gulf country, only John King survived.
The scientific goals of the expedition were greatly curtailed by Burke’s haste, and much of the land they traversed is marginal grazing country at best. The eventual telegraph line followed Stuart’s route fromAdelaide to Darwin. Nevertheless, the bravery and persistence shown by the members of the expedition has ensured their names live on even today.
Logs
Thanks for the cache WazzaAndWenches
Thanks for the cache WazzaAndWenches.
TNLNSL. Thanks The Morris.
Thanks again for another B&W cache The Morris we enjoyed the information about Mary and her part in the Burke & Wills story.
We are currently touring Victoria with our geovan in tow, using geocaching as a guide. We have visited many amazing locations through geocaching and today our journey followed in the footsteps of Burke and Wills - bringing us to your cache B&W (O) The Housekeeper.
Many thanks The Morris for publishing this cache for our enjoyment and adding to our geocaching experience today. Made a quick find after following the instructions.
Cache and contents were in good condition.
Tassie Trekkers are now a locationless geocache we have published a 'Geocacher cache' - Travelling Trekkers GA10932 - so if you spot us in your area sign our log book and receive a code word to earn yourself a
We were one of the lucky teams to receive a pathtag from Geocaching Australia for publishing a "Geocacher Cache" - thanks Geocaching Australia. We are on our way to the Alexandra Event which is happening on the eighteenth to the nineteenth of November 2017 hope to see you there.
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Arrived about 6.00pn and soon found the required spot. Did the turn around, look over there thing, wandered over, spotted the other sign and spotted the cache hiding nicely as stated. Great to see it has remained since the new cache was installed. No sign of anyone else around..so all good in that respect.
Thanks again The Morris.....great to learn something different in the series....
In the meantime the GPS had come out and we had found it and the cache anyway.
He did tell us that there was another older cemetery in town but that the gravestones had been moved to this one.
Thanks, a nice bit of history learnt from doing this one.
Thanks for bring me here and information about the housekeeper.
Thanks, Robmc.
TFTC
SL TNLN
Another excellent and informative cache in the Burke & Wills series tracking the exploits of this brave party and their amazing test of endurance.
TNLN
Signed the log book and off to the excellent nearby bakery for lunch.
Our thanks to The Morris for the generous sized cache and your part in series.
Cheers
Ian & Sandra
Team Ladava
Managed to park close by but with a funeral starting we had to be carefull not to be too disrespectful. It turned out that our search area was far enough away to be no problem, once we found the right bush the cache was a quick find.
We swapped pathtags and signed the log
Thanks The Morris for a great cache
At least I can claim a smiley for this one.
Thanks, yet again, The Morris.
I guess this must be where our paths crossed.
The cemetery is one of the more interesting with lots of olde graves to wander around.
Very neat too
After saying hello to Mary I wandered off to find the 'dig' tree and find the cache
Good to read about the history of this trip - hope to do them all some time. TFTC.
Found by Roma and Max.
Third B & W find on our way through to Mildura for a family visit.
Thanks again The Morris team for bringing us here.
Romax.
