From Horrors to Higher Education Diggers Rest, Victoria, Australia
By Team Ladava on 15-Jul-07. Waypoint GC14C6H

It looks like this one is gone
Our thanks to all the teams who found it
Ian & Sandra
Team Ladava

Hi Team Ladava,
Is it possible that this cache has been muggled?
Have been back three times in the past 6 weeks and watching the logs. Still no find.

Looks like this one may have gone A.W.L. after seven years.
I will have a look soon.

Went back today for a third look for this cache. Definitely can not find it. There are plenty of signs of people wondering around in this area and all the wear and tear on the area suggests that there has been a lot of searching by geocachers but to no avail. This cache needs checking.

No good for me but I can't honestly say I looked hard enough. I got the info and headed around to GZ jsut as primary school was ending. GZ was jumping around a bit on me and I had a quick search before I started getting some funny looks from the school kids and when I got a phone call I thought I better move on before the police were alerted! Poor timing on my part so I'll try to head back another time.

Made a real attempt here but the bananas are embarrassed to say they could not find this
Just far to hard or it is not there for it has not been found this year.

We walked from the admin building to the cache. Great view! Not your usual tricky selves! lol

Kids and I found this easily. Not very well hidden like some others.

Only one wriggly stick on the way into GZ. But it disappeared quickly. TFTC

Found it! Was difficult expect difficult problems.

Wow, what a massive place! Would be a good setting for a horror movie! The multi was not to hard, and we found the cache quickly! Thanks TL!

Wow what a place. The buildings looked lovely. Thanks for bringing me here. At gz we made a quick find. Nice view at gz too TFTC

Found with Mr Roo and Tankengine on our long weekend excursion to Melbourne. TFTC

This is my kind of multi. nice and quick. I was on a caching run with 2-Drews, abl973 and squarepegs and we had no trouble finding our way to GZ here. It certainly seems like this area is fast giving way to new development.
Thanks for the cache and bringing me past all these beautiful old buildings and giving me a bit of their history.

I was thinking this might be a short day or even a non-starter but the weather remained conducive to finding caches. Today I’m with Square_Pegs, Two_Drews and GazaC and our mission is Sunbury and the surrounding area.

I like discovering these sorts of old buildings but wow what an amazing history. So many things we take for granted now yet when its all reduced to absolute basics life can be hard. Thanks Team Ladava for a really good multi.

This is such a lovely group of old buildings, how sad the early history of it was. It was an enjoyable way to see the different parts of the campus and another great spot for GZ. Thanks for the cache.

Today was a sweep thru Sunbury with a few caching mates GazaC, abl973 and square_pegs. Another excellent historical multi, loved the old buildings and must come back with my camera one day. Thanks for a memorable cache.

An appointment in Sunbury has given me a chance to catch up on some of the my unfound caches hanging around since the last visit a couple of years ago.

Another case of stuffing up the numbers. I ended up near the rotunda in a park about 400m north of the school grounds. A recalc gave me a much better solution and a short scramble led to a cahce find.

Thank you Team Ladava for this cache.
#2190th @ 1317hrs.

What a spooky place!

Seriously, it could be the setting for the remake of the Addams Family. A grand old dame of a building that has really faded from it's former glory, and plenty of random other buildings scattered around with no apparent plan. Anyway, gathered the info at GZ, then went off for a drive just around the corner to find the cache.

At GZ, I clambered along until I saw something that looked a little suspicious. A closer inspection revealed exactly what I was hoping for! It's a well-packed cache, full of little toys and what-not, so would recommend it for the kids, though it is not the easiest to get to.

Thanks for the cache!

Found it without too much trouble.

Tricky!

Glad to have found this one after a few DNF in Sunbury. Great multi cache

It was quite a ride up the hill in the rain today but we managed to find it. Quite slippery trying to get to it though

Enjoyed doing this multi but not so sure about seeing this place again - sad memories came back of working there when the nursing staff went on strike many many years ago. However, it is good to see the place being utilized for Higher Education now? Good hide and the views were intersting indeed - so many houses below and am sure there will be more to come! Left TB and some things for the geokids.
TFTC Team Ladava and the History of "The Hill" - much appreciated.

Well... what do you expect when you find a multi cache taking you through an area such as this? Certainly not that one of us could identify this building and area as the previous building's purpose that's for sure. Another great multi which goes to show how little we actually know about our own neighbouring suburbs, or at least how much we've forgotten! Also when travelling to the GZ, we perhaps in hindsight discovered that travelling by car rather than hoofing it may be a better option, or at least following the road, it was way too easy for us to come across buildings blocking our path in our "as the crow flies" directions. TFTC

Found on our caravanning and caching tour of the area.

A lot of history in this area that we would have missed but for your caches. A magnificent building that hides its past within its walls. Thanks for bringing us here and for the cache.

Turned the clue retrieval stage into a driveby, then took a wrong turn to get out and up to the cache site. I walked back and forth for a bit, getting sunburnt while I scouted out the hiding spot. It was pretty obvious once I made it out, thanks for taking me to view your beautiful vista.

Found at 8.25am. No. 8 of 33 for the day. School aint quite so bad now hey....except too many come out the other end without the same standards that was expected 20 years ago. Really enjoyed the view here (and the history lesson). TFTC.

Found this one today. Interestingly I had been around this campus with Irontoad last time we were in Sunbury but had no idea of the history. Thanks for introducing me to the history - I note that part of the campus is now used by the Sunbury Specialist School which I presume still caters for some of the types of people that in the past may have lived here (my presumption - sorry if I am wrong). The buildings and the architecture are quite amazing despite hiding a gruesome past.

Today I looked at the sign and as others have mentioned - the sign has changed. I made an educated guess and managed to be mostly certain on half the coordinates but the other one left me two options. One fitted better so I came up with the correct coordinates using my educated guess. I managed to retrieve the cache but think the terrain rating should be a 2.5 rather than a 2.0. I almost gave up but continued and got the prize in the end. I signed the log but didn't swap anything today.

Thanks for the cache Team Ladaya.

Date: 28.10.2012
Time: 15:45
Find # 2217

My regular caching partner was away on holidays, so I put the call out onto the Melbourne Facebook group and ended up with Two volunteers (lochb and Nufrat) to go caching with me early on Sunday morning. It started off quite a cool and overcast morning but turned out to be a beautiful 20+ degree afternoon, perfect caching weather. We had decided to head out to Sunbury and find as many caches as we could find.

This was the very last multi in town and also the one that gave us the most trouble. The original sign seems to have changed so we ended up plotting nine different way points and chose the one that seemed most likely to try first. We got very lucky and the cache was found at first go.

Thanks to Team Ladava for the cache. TNLN.

out caching today with ahomburg and lochb, this one had us puzzled, the sign seems to be different to when the cache was placed, we were pretty sure we had one right so decided to put it with 3 other options, we headed to one that sounded like previous logs had said and found we had the right one first time, great views from here, tftc

This multi caused us a bit of grief, but in the end logic prevailed! It appears that the sign no longer lists what we were looking for. We ended up plotting all 9 waypoints, and given a previous log post that there was a nice view, looked at the contour lines and found a likely candidate. What also helped was that one of the buildings most likely would not find much other use so we had at least one of lat/long locked in.

The cache was found at the first location we checked. This cache could have taken us ages to locate! So glad it didn't.

TFTC

Thanks again Team Lavada. Have been to Sunbury many times and heard of this building but never visited. What a beautiful piece of architecture. Thank you for placing this cache and giving me a reason to go there.

Yet on another clear winter’s night, The Demotion Crew (TDC – Quasar3671, Blacklegend, and TrailRunning) are out on another mammoth night-time caching run. This time the route took us north of Melbourne. One could describe it as a run through the northern outer suburbs from Eltham to Sunbury, and the final part of the night (or should I say just before daybreak) in central Melbourne. We have all cached these areas before, but with new caches being published all the time, and multi’s yet to be found, the night yielded a swag of over 70 caches. Many of the multi’s had been worked out using Google and streetview in the planning phase before the night. The night was going so well, we were well ahead of time, so we stopped for a beer at a local Sunbury pub. There is nothing like helping out the local economy! The highlight of the night was Cladocalyx (GC2RTN3). This cache I had previously attempted immediately after doing the Woodlands series, but I was so tired I was unable to get to the cache. On this night we had great success in harnessing up Marty, and pulling him up to the cache using my climbing gear. I'd solved this one at home, and the boys confirmed my co-ords. It was a matter of picking this one up. Not much of a view at night, but I'm sure it's quite good in the daylight. Thanks.

Pretty good view, almost walked right past it!

Great hide.

TNLS team BFF strikes again

Nice history along with this one. Thanks

Ha ha maybe my parents should have sent me here when they found out my interest in geocaching. 4 multi finds in 1 day and 1 dnf. Must be mental tftc

Found @1020 #1547
Today found myself required to perform the task of "dropping someone off at the airport" at a rather early time I must say. However I saw the positive aspect to this as it would give me an excuse to do some caching in the surrounding areas. Been meaning to get out this way for awhile as its not a part of Melbourne I need to visit often. Overall today's run resulted in 34 finds an epic result.

Headed to Sunbury to check out the region which I haven't been to before and was amazed by the cache quality seen in the area.

11th find today and another fun Team Ladava multi completed. Interesting history and a little sad to hear about. Due to the weather was easy to approach GZ as there was no one around. Nice views from GZ too. TFTC Team Ladava another of yours found today.

3rd find for the day and the first multi. What wonderful old buildings, pity about their history. Thanks.

Find number 17 for Team Moo.

Found on a day out with spottyteapot.

I had already logged this find, but it appears to have disappeared so I hope that I'm not doing this twice.

I really enjoyed this cache. We took some time to look around the grounds and in particular the "ha ha wall". So much sadness in one place.

Once we retrieved the coordinates for GZ it was a pretty easy trek to the cache. Loved the views - they were just breathtaking.

Thanks so much for the cache.

First multi found... Yet another with lellabella... Go team moshi!!
Such a beautiful place hard to imagine it holding such horrors...then onto the next part... Beautiful views
TFTC

Really good nice area and views

Found together with _husky_. Watched sunset from GZ. TFTC!

A great history lesson. Thank you

Was our very first find. Loved it, fairly easy to find. Took/Left nothing

Didn't feel like tackling another multi in the heat but I am so glad that I changed my mind.
These buildings are very impressive and the stories horrific. Despite the horrific tales I enjoyed my travels through the grounds and am thankful for the accurate co-ords.
Another favourite today. TFTC Team Ladava

With a little time on my hands today, I thought I'd go find a couple of multiples in the area. Found this one ok. Great views as usual and thr trip around the establishment was interesting. Thank you.

Maintenance carried out long ago.
Just logging to get of rid of the tag.
Ian
Team Ladava

A short detour to grab a few caches while travelling to Melbourne. Calculated where GZ should be but ended up in a street with the GPS pointing to someone's front yard so a quick trip back to WP1 showed us the error of our ways which then led us to the correct GZ.

Thanks Team Ladava.

Great view. Kids enjoyed the search

Beautifully restored buildings and thankfully used for improving young minds now. Great view at GZ. T4TC

Took the scenic route past the "little" house of horrors. The iPhone wouldn't settle down so dragged out the Vista GPSr. As it happened the iPhone found it first at 2pm. Must be the rocks. This is our 1250th cache so our 250 Finds coin visited. Dropped in the Black Cat to celebrate. TFTC

This entry was edited by LinearZZ on Sunday, 04 September 2011 at 11:43:56 UTC.

Quite of lot of numbers there when you check the note pad. They all made sense and GZ was absolutely spot on it was in the first place I looked. Damn hard to get a park near GZ. What's with the rocks on the side walk???? Clear skies from TeamAstro.

Quick multi on our Sunbury tour. The cache was quickly found with impressive views of town.

All good. TFTH

I quickly collected the clues with the assistance of cars headlights then returned to the good view for the find.. but not before I walked into a really prickly plant that embeded itself in my shin.. youchies.. neverthe less the good sized cache was soon in hand and the log signed.. tnln dipped various coins and bugs for find # 1350

Had to have 2 goes at this cache. Lovely spot. Magnificent view across to Sunbury. The place is much larger than it initially looks. We had a walk around in the grounds climbed a tree and just absorbed the places' history. Thank you Team Ladava, good cache.

Out night caching in the Sunbury and Riddells Creek region with my mate Blacklegend (Marshy). Very interesting and sad piece of local history. Definitely were hard times back in the days. Got the required info and headed off to GZ. Took quite a while to locate the cache but got there in the end. Thanks Team Ladava.

One of 31 on a night run with my good caching mate Marty (Quasar3671) this time in the Sunbury and Riddels Creek areas. Took quite a while to locate the hide at GZ, but we got it in the end, or should i say Marty did.... Very sad history about the little kiddies. Great bit of history. Once again Team Ladava, a great cache.

We got the co ordinates but at gz we were stoped due to a brown snake being in our path. Wasn't to be today

Came up here a few weeks back but the signs had changed... now the cache was adjusted, I came back to do this while cleaning up the south end of Sunbury. This facility has had an amazing history, and I am glad that it will not be forgotten.

#590 @5:45pm Well,we probably didn't go the right way about doing this cache as we stumbled upon GZ whilst looking for a suitable spot to hide a GCA "moveable" cache. Was in the area on an overnight stop while on our way to Tasmania for a caching holiday with friends. Drove past GZ and thought, that looks like a nice location, and while searching for a suitable spot, and what do you know!, a cache container right where i thought, that will do for hidey spot! Bonus!
A fellow cacher who lives in Sunbury tells us it is a great multi to do, so next time we are down here we will have to do the rest of it!

Took;- Purple watch
Left:- Peg with loveheart and "success" stone.

TFTC

Interesting history here. Found the cache after a bit of a search as the gps kept changing it's mind on where it was. Tons of kangaroos around as well.

Had a few minutes to spare before dropping the kids off, so navigated our way around the top of hill to make a quick find. Thanks for the effort with the history.

with crank1 and alchemy2

a great cache with some fantastic views at GZ.
TFTC

Beautiful view. Found with Laker63, Alchemy2. TFTC

Find # 199 & our 4th find of the day at 1500.
We can see Jacksons Hill from our back yard and have not been up here on a regular basis, so it was a pleasant drive around with views of the city and surrounds.
Left a toy soldier and took a yellow car.
Thank you for the cache and for bringing us up to this part of Sunbury.

The roadway to here is clearly marked as a one-way road, and I was a little suprised to see an oncoming car as we turned left to the 1st waypoint. After gathering the clues, we set off in search of GZ, and made an easy find. Some great views to be had from the cache location when we got there at 3PM.
TFTC

Re-jigged to accommodate the new legends
Our apologies to the teams who attempted this cache with incorrect data
Regards
Ian & Sandra

Looks like we better have a look at this one

Drove up to the sign, and it no longer contains the same legend as previously, as it is now an Anglican Grammar School. (just as Squareroot93 suspected)

My daughter used to go to VUT until last year when it closed. I believe the legends have now changed.

TFTC TNLN

Thanks go once again to team Ladava for another well put together cache.
Enjoyed the multi, not so the story, and made a quick find at GZ.
No swaps made

I love this building, its a pity the history is filled with such sadness... tftc

Could not find it with gps in iPhone, but walked straight up to it with a borrowed garmin gps. Did not have fun with this one, lost balance and grabbed the thorny tree..... Ouch!!

new a little bit of the solen white generation,

thanks'

I found this one more disturbing that "The Forgotten Children", which references the same site. Although it was a fairly sunny day, it's easy to picture these buildings as something of the chamber of horrors they would have been in the past.

TNLN TFTC

found with mum. nice and easy in a geocaching way.

cheers scott&nat

I am so wrapped that I finally did this one, my husband and I did stage one many months ago but we came up with different 2nd location, so mere male decided his was right and we headed in his way, and surprise, surprise we didnt find it...... today out with geo son and I suggested we do 2nd location with my coords and WOW I was RIGHT. rang hubby and told him, he's not amused.

Redpaw64 found this cache at 1435. After getting all the details required, I started heading to the cache and woops one way road... quickly turning around we drove around through the university and then found the cache.
TFTC NINO
Happy Caching

Found at 14:15hrs. Took glass orange egg & necklace. Left Ronald McDonald and bubbles. I have never been to what was once known as 'Caloola', but have had the pleasure of working with many of it's residents who were relocated to residential accomodation in the Bundoora area when this institute closed. Some fascinatingly beautiful old buildings, that have at least been maintained, and put to good use. Unlike the Janefield institution that is now quite derelict. Both have a haunted aspect about them to me, as the title implies, we can only guess and cringe at some of the horrors that were played out behind these walls. Better, me thinks, to contemplate the architectual outer beauty rather than the history contained therein! See attached photo taken at WP 1. Many TFTC!

Found by Bob at 1715

Having worked in the Higher Ed sector for nearly 30 yrs, I guess I have a bit of a professional interest in seeing what other campuses look like, so I was keen to get this one done today. I must admit to being pretty impressed with VU's Sunbury campus - great looking buildings and some really nice views too - I don't think I'd mind working here! The history was quite interesting too - although I'm sometime inclined to think that all Higher Ed institutions are still lunatic asylums . It was a nice spot for GZ too and a nice hide.

TNLN

Thanks again Team Ladava

We had attempted this one on our last trip up to Sunbury but brains frazzled from a day of caching kept breaking the laws of mathematics. Fortunately today we were able to complete the puzzle and retrieve the cache.
T nothing
L Glass Easter Egg

1916 re-logging due to name change

The buildings are lovely even if the history isn't all that happy.
Thanks for the history lesson, still makes grateful for the life I have had.

TFTC

Found with Landsergruppe & Darkvala.
What Landsergruppe said.

Thanks Team Ladava. Another great cache down and another 457 U-turns to go!

Got the clues yesterday, on my run, finished it off today:) nice view, TFTC
TNLN

Easy find. Lots of beautiful buildings, pity about the history. Makes me so much more grateful of what I had has a child. Great views but I see civilisation is closing in. TNLN SL

Poor calculations on Mr VP4s behalf had us clambering up a stone wall and walking aimlessly around future housing sites. After recalculating we ended up in the right spot admiring the views. Some grand buildings observed while gaining clues SL TFTC in Canadian geocoin and worker out notebook.

Found at 12:50pm after collecting the clues and doing the maths. Great view at GZ.
Took nothing
Left bottle opener
thanks Team Ladava

Thanks for the efforts of your cache and being a part of my caching experience today.

TNLNSL - TFTC : VK3JAP

Found today at 1200.
The 12th of 24 for the day.

Nice easy find.

Took - NIL
Left - NIL

Thanks for the cache,

VKC1SR

Found with Highrod on our Sunbury Saturday Day Trip.
We smashed our most finds in a day record which was 17, 23 will take quite awhile to break I'm sure!
Find 17/23 at 2:50pm

I must admitt I rarely read the cache pages but this was very interesting.

thanks for the history lesson Team Ladava, lucky we never had to go through such terrible times. great cache
Cheers

Easy

Another multi I moaned as I arrived. Nothing to fear though.

A great starting location (beautiful building) and equally impressive finish (top view). Easy maths and stop hop, step, jump to the final location. Nice cache.