Trunk Lead Gold Mine Cardigan, Victoria, Australia
By sully1 on 30-Sep-07. Waypoint GC16BDV

Time to say Goodbye.

Tftc found with polkys quest )

Found as part of auzzie convicts and myself's trip to Melbourne tftc

A quick stop on a short detour on the way home from the Grampians. Found the cache easily enough, but was a bit worried about drowning it. Fortunately, didn't drop it, signed the log at 4:20pm and returned it safely.
TNLN
thanks sully1

That last day and another of you Lisa found quickly!
28 caches today. see you soon

Tftc. Mum spotted from the side and I made the grab. Plenty of running in the dark to hide from passing cars

10:04
Having enjoyed the mid section of the trail back in July and with our attempt to finish thwarted by the weather last month, we have been watching the forecast closely in the hope of returning to the BSRT series.
Who could resist the pull of a cache so close to the rail trail? Initially we thought this may require wading luckily we found another avenue of approach.

TNLN . . SL . . Thanks for the hunt sully1.
7032

After the morning tea event we headed out with The 2 Wanderers to find some more of the local caches. The day was freezing cold and the intermittent rain meant we could only attempt the caches close to the roads without getting drenched.
Thanks sully1 for the hide,
Regards The Coffee's.

Found while out on a day caching. Thanks for this gory of this one.
TFTC

We started out on this run at 8am, Oh the wind is lashing lustily
and the trees are thrashing thrustily, and the leaves are rustling gustily,
So its rather safe to say that it seems it may turn out to be, it feels that it undoubtedly,
it looks like a rather blustery day, today.

we did all these caches on foot... head wind all the way, doubling back to get the car every few kms.

will be copy pasting this for the whole trail.... exhausting days work. Managed to get 55 caches done before dark.

thanks to the CO's for this cache run

TNLNSL

I am glad I did not have to get wet for this one. Good hide. TFTC

As we approached GZ we commented on the fact that the paint job had been for looks only - the sides closest to the roads had been painted white but the other side was a very dirty shade of white. Accurate coordinates led to a quick find. The cache and its contents were in good condition. TFTC sully1

Easy find

Caching with Motndarg this afternoon, we found ourselves on the wrong side of the road for GZ. Waited for the busy (fast) passing traffic, crossed the road and BINGO, we had the cache in hand. Signed the log and replaced. Great to find out a little about the mining in the area. Thanks for bringing us here.

Noticed debris still clinging to the fences from the previous flood. Mining in this area must have been horrific during the gold rush days. Very interesting read about the history of this mine.
A very busy road....take care.
The cache was safe and dry. Thanks

Tftc

Nice quick find with S 4 Sammy after completing the new trail on the Ballarat To Skipton track, this is a really cool old bridge

TFTC

Thanks for the interesting information about this mine. Mining was an appalling way to try to make a living. Cache easily located. TFTC

Found this one after work while testing out my new geocache app, now that I know how to use it, its awesome!
A used to live up the road from the intersection and had always wondered about the origins of the mullock heap and the history of the site.
Ps, sorry about the late log, I remembered I hadnt done it when I went looking for another local one today..
No swaps today, thank you for the hide

Took my daughter on her first geocache hunt. Fun start for her and did a small swap. I feel this is the start of something bigger. Well kept cache sully1

TFTC after a search had the cache in hand!

Nice easy find, but I was on the wrong side of the road before my GPS got its act together. TFTC Sully!

Nice easy find on way to Cargnham for BBQ. TFTC

I over thought this one and spent some additional time looking. TFTC

The first on a day of travel from Ballarat to Portland. Interesting spot. TFTC

Managed a quick find on our way to Melbourne from Horsham, thanks for the interesting info on the area, TFTC

TFTC. Can't believe how often I've driven past!

Good hide. 3rd for the afternoon on my drive around the area. TNLN TFTC.

Nearly didn't bother looking because of all the standing water under the bridge at GZ, but managed to retrieve the cache

Find #207 @1025
Find No.7 for today

Tyred n Cranky wanted to ride the Ballarat to Skipton rail trail so i was there to drop them off in Ballarat and pick them up in Skipton. they were caching the trail so i cached all around.

had to park at intersection and walk back to this one. it is amazing what you can do with a high viz jacket on.

Took smiley face badge
Left poker chip keyring

TFTC good hide location

46for the holidays kids are trying for 50 nearly there

Great holiday fun for kids. Bit busy on road so be careful!

We tried this one a while ago when there was too much water around.
Today things were a lot better and we found the cache ok. Had to wait
between cars to retrieve it.
T- Fishing Bell
L - Smiley Badge
SL TFTC sully1

Found TeamRav, another quick drive by, one foot may have got a little wet. Need to watch for fast moving cars. TNLNSL

found with stooy tftc

It had been an icy arvo caching west of Ballarat and now the weather was getting even colder when we found this right on dusk. I was surprised how busy this road was. There had been alot of rain the night before so the lower lying area here was covered in alot of water. Just as I was about to volunteer to be the sucker getting wet I spotted the cache and devised a dryer way of retrieving it. Thanks sully1

Found today 1/4/2012

Tricky underfoot but we got it. Tftc

hmmm...one more spot but it was too wet under foot to pursue. next time

Was a bit of quick fun finding cache on the way to my sisters. Good hide, thanks. Took gold ingot travel bug & fish, left mighty bean. TFTCSL

Lucky it wasn't too wet underfoot. TFTC

Found on our Ballarat Smackdown weekend with DazRascal, Blacklegend, Trailrunning and Quasar3671!

We pulled up and we must admit we weren't too confident with a find here, but were pleasantly suprised with the amount of flood debris around the area.
Found and logged before moving on.
Many thanks for you informative cache notes - appreciate the effort.
Cheers.
TNLN SL.

Found on a Ballarat weekend with Haveanez, Trailrunning, Blacklegend and Quaser3671

Was doubtful when we pulled up to this one as we could see the flood levels from the amount of debris till stuck to the fences. Searched on the wrong side before the cache was found, left a gold ingot trackable.
Interesting info on the cache page, well done.

Cheers.

One of 184 cache finds during our "Ballarat Smackdown" weekend of caching on the 23rd to 25th. There were 13 of us including Blacklegend and three of his kids, Trailrunning, Haveanez and their two boys, Dazrascal and myself amd my two boys Tyler and Cooper. We'd spent a few weeks planning the trip, with every Ballarat Puzzle solved in the area, cache lists and road and route maps all ready to go. We stayed in the Miners Retreat Motel for the two nights and the accomodation and facilities were great. Our goal was simple - find as many caches as possible in the time we were here !

We found a great variety of caches and hides during the three days, which also involved a bit of walking and some 4WD fun as well in the state forests north of Ballarat. The weather was quite cold of the Friday and Saturday morning but eventually cleared to nice sunny weather Saturday arvo and Sunday. We all had a great time, especially the kids who did really well to keep up with the pace we were moving.

Our second day of caching and it was to be our biggest day and fullest day too. Into the afternoon caching now and the weather had cleared up nicely. Upon arriving we all piled out and started looking for the cache. Soon found and log signed. Thanks for the hide.

One of 182 caches I personally found during our "Ballarat Smackdown" trip. The trip included teams Quasar3671, Trailrunning, Haveanez, Dazrascal and myself. Caches included around 30 mystery caches, a few earth caches, lots of trads and multis and both day and night caching. Some 4WD action was encountered as well, which was great. All puzzles within 60kms were solved.

I took three of my kids, Jasmine 7yo, James and Jemma 5yo twins, traveling from Tocumwal. The trip covered 3 days and two nights, staying in Ballarat. Quasar3671 took his two boys as did Haveanez. One of the best caching trips I have been on, and certainly lots and lots of finds, almost clearing out the main Ballarat area. Home base was the Miners Retreat motel, which was quite pleasant and quiet.

This was a find on our massive Saturday run, which included both day and night caches. Lunch was a picnic in the bush at one or our cache stops. A night caching run was undertaken after a rest and dinner.

Quick driveby dash, as many got out of the vehicles and poured all over the bridge. Located safe and sound. TFTC.

After a successful Friday evening to start off the “Ballarat Cache Smackdown” with 34 finds on the first day the Saturday was always going to be a day of superhuman effort. It started early with a run heading west and south, only to finish the day and night with a run to the Northwest and North. A great day was had by all because there was some good 4WDing and the weather held out for the day with only one notable shower. A total of 98 caches were collected today, and it shows you how quickly a cache can be located with so many searchers. This cache was one of them. A fair bit of evidence of flooding near the bridge. Luckily the cache had been replaced. Thanks for cache #90.

Dropped off TB

2 of 15 for the day on a 500km trip (a long day).

TFTC

This entry was edited by BernieH on Monday, 23 January 2012 at 11:02:35 UTC.

Suscoe arrived here this afternoon.
A short search revealed the cache.
Hard to imagine the business of this spot back then.
SLTNLN.
Thanks to sully1 for sharing this story with us.

found will on my way to pick up an item at Haddon. This is a very busy road had to take lots of photo's. While doing the cache I thought the bridge looked like it had seen better days and when I arrived to pick up what I had come to get the people informed me that that particular bridge had been the scene of a tragic accident that 3 kids survived and there father died when he run off the road at the bridge here. TFTC TNL1

Found today with
GEO kid not to hard
TFTC TNLN
Thanks

Found this one on the way out to cardigan my second cache for the day. TFTC TNLNSL
It looks like the bridge has sustained a bit of accident damage just recently.

to easy guys

Thanks for replacing this cache. You don't realise how many cars use this road until you try to retrieve the cache! Logged and took micro Canada GC. TFTC Sully1.

Logged by geo-son, welcome back. Left Canada micro geocoin.

Cache has been replaced today, so back in action. Crossing my fingers that we've seen the last of the floods.

Checked this one today after it's recent DNF. Sure is gone. I had checked it after the Sept floods, and it was all perfectly intact, but looks
like it may have been washed away with the more recent downpour. Or it's been muggled. Took a replacement cache with me just in case,
and it wouldn't fit, so taking down till I can get there again to replace with smaller container.

Did not find. Looked in all the hidey spots I could but there is still a bit of water there. Wondering if it's still there given that it looks like the water may have risen quite high through there and appears to have damaged some of the structure. And maybe noone has been here this year? Will keep an eye on this one for the future.

Didn't pay any attention to the story (sorry) but I do remember the cool hiding spot for the cache!

A bit awkward but all good. Great to see so much water around.
TFTC

Was tricky to retrieve this one.

This entry was edited by PacketStorm4 on Tuesday, 16 November 2010 at 05:07:23.

Cache quite hard to retrieve lucky PacketStorm4 is flexible had to dangle from the top over the edge.
Cache container needs to be replaced lid is broken

TFTC

Well today there was quite a bit of water in the creek! Retreival was quite, well how do I put it....slimy. Had to laugh, here we were on our way to Hamilton to celebrate Grandma's 98th birthday and already in need of changing clothes. TFTC

Checked today, and all intact. Although, dependant on how you retrieve this, the difficulty rating should possibly be increased for the time being. I guess it's up to the individual, on how they choose........

With the floods over the weekend, I need to go & investigate the possibility that the cache may have taken up body surfing, and could very well be many miles away by now. Will hopefully get there on the weekend.

A nice hide, team caching at its best with MoorhouseMob. We may have been the last ones to see this after all the flooding!! TFTC SL

Found after a little while on a cool winter's day. Hard to stand around innocently as the traffic goes by. Tricky hide.
Note GZ under 300mm of water the next day!!

nice little hide 4th for the day, got splashed by a truck as it went past TNLNSL

A nice easy find to start our caching day. Loads of cars passing and soggy feet on a cool day, but it's a find!!!
Took ring and left spider.
Thanks for the hide.

Found at 4 p.m. with Karate Kids who were disappointed not to be trapsing around a mine, but forgot all about that when KK2 spotted the cache in its hide and gleefully carried it back to the car to check out the 'treasure'. Took ball and eraser, Left carabena and platypus. TFTC

Find number 50!

Found on a cold and windy day with cars occasionally whooshing past, quick find was a relief.

TNLNSL TFTC

Found on a clean up of Ballarat and surrounding areas with tackle_head on a lovely day. Steve found this guy while I was on the other side. had to be a little careful. Thanks for placing this cache.

Found while on a caching day with Bushfire , nearly got the feet wet after this long caching day - thanks Sully1

Wow this one is difficult to get to without looking suspect when the road is so busy! I think I was successful in avoiding being muggled. Oh well, its all water under the bridge I suppose..

Awesome mine. TFTC

Found on what turned out to be a big day's caching in the Ballarat area.
Didn't take too long to find.
TFTC

Quick find. Not many places it was going to be. Saw a small bird of prey nearby. Cheers Gav [5584]

Wouldn't want to slip into the drink. T4TC, M@

One of many caches done on our Wagga Wagga MEGA Event trip from NZ.
TFTC

Found @ 15:30

Good hiding spot.

One of the cache flaps fell off upon opening, this thing has seem some intense heat.

T: Ring
L: Lady figurine

SL TFTC

Easy find, but have to agree with stormchaser's log. It is a very busy road during week days and patience is required. TNLN. TFTC.

Found on an afternoon ride. It was a busy road today, so timing was paramount. TNLNSL. TFTC!

21/02/10 Found by Team 42b (Nalhcal & 42below)

TNLNSL - TFTC

Found 21/02/10 by Team 42b (Nalhcal & 42below)

TNLN
TFTH
42 below

We braved the prickles and found this cache nice and quickly
Took - goat and soldier
Left - pencil grip and hair clip
TFTC

Found with Last of the Time Lords

Thanks

Found with Team Geoplesk on a lovely sunny afternoon

good hide and cords spot on left geocoin

Nice day for caching...sun is shinning, not a cloud in the sky, it's 25 degrees, geokids are happy with the school holiday buzz, can of coke is half full... T:ring L: lisa TFTC

Find # 712 @ 12:30 and 6th of 17 for the day.
Nice drive by. I would not have known there was a mine here if not for geocaching. The only sign is the heap.
TNLN Thanks for the cache sully1!

Finally logged it two months after the find, TNLNSL Thanks Sully1 for the cache

NIce easy drive by. Didn't take long. Scared all the girls when a very small spider appeared on the lid
TNLN
TFTC

Having the cache owners tag along on this one made it easy.
However didn't really need any extra help. TFTC Sully1.

There's certainly not much sign of the huge mine now, except for the big tailings heap of course. It was pretty cold and miserable here today, so we didn't linger. Thanks for the cache.

It was certainly a lot different here today than when this mine was in it's heyday. It is hard to imagine the noise, excitement and suffering that went on in what is now such a peaceful area. We wonder if taking a canary down a mine shaft would stand up to today's OH & S requirements. After the bucketing of rain we had last night the whole area around gz was quite soggy but fortunately the cache was placed in such away that there was no need to get wet.
Thanks Sully1 for the history and a nice cache hide

Done while travelling to Point Cook with a Cadet on board nice easy find

Thanks for a great story, and an easily found cache. Just another example of driving past a little history without knowing the story behind it. Thanks again sully1 FTC, TNLNSL

Found easily once started looking in the right area. Nice and wet today but able to get cache easily. TNLNSL.Thanks for the cache.

Found the cache this morning at 11.00am with beanie Reading the cache notes and the history of the area made this a most interesting cache
Left a little black goat and took nil

Thanks sully-1 for the cache