WHSS #2 - Mechanics Institute Williamstown, Victoria, Australia
By The Lone Random on 08-Jan-10. Waypoint GC22RWA

Good Weather is returning and its time to update those old hides.
Look out for the upcoming new local hides ...
The Lone Random

The Mechanics Institute movement was admirable in every way. In many rural and regional areas it was the precursor of lending libraries and adult education movements. Wonderful to see this old building still in use ... from two pesky old people, but we weren't there on 17 August! Living proof that there are many of us ...

Rocked up on a Tuesday afternoon, the hall was being used by pesky old people who insisted on hanging around outside, no way that I could look for the cache.

Another quick find. T4TC

A quick find without a muggle in sight. TFTC

Found by crochetboy yet again, easy one to find, but have to watch out for muggles even on a sleepy sunday

Best thing about cacheing in Willy is all the old buildings was great to read the history at the front after that cache was quick in hands.

Found at 11:30 am. Out caching with my little girl, Indi. A great little cache - very well concealed. TNLN SL. Thanks for the cache. [8)]

3yo had fallen asleep after a GIANT weekend, so I grabbed the cache and dashed back to hubby in the car to sign it. No one around at 4:30pm on a Sunday so easy to find/replace.

Found by Bob at 1700

Having finished all my planned caches a little early today, I had a quick check around and headed to Willy (from Altona) to try for a few more. If I'd been a little earlier, I could have popped into the Mechanic Institute, but they were just packing up and loading stuff into cars out front when I parked there. I initially thought the cache was around the front somewhere and I wouldn't be able to search for it but my GPSr quickly lead me around to the correct GZ and I was able to locate it in the 2nd spot I checked. I did have a read about the history of the Institute and how it started with the troops going off to the Boxer Rebellion.

TNLN

Thanks Lone Random

Found on a caching rampage through Williamstown with Mrs Iamapom this afternoon. Lovely building. Location of cache was fairly obvious - and retrieve was easy. But wile making the replace I was somewhat sprung by two old ladies, and an eccentric looking Indian man on a bicycle. TFTC

Great spot! Had to watch out for muggles & pretended we had a pash of romance at times so as not to look suspicious! SL. TFTC.

Miss Trouble couldn't fnd it then I checked again....FOUND IT...WTF she said as we walked back to the car to log our found before returning the cache to its place. Logbook a little wet but still ok...

I was looking fore it and just did not spot it and my boyfriend Hiker3 found it!!.
So i think i have to look a bit more

Found by Mr Jibblets whilst swaggie1 was gazing around trying to look interested at the building whilst a few muggle mums were looking at us with interest. Don't really know why, must be just our handsome looks...............

Another cache found with company from The Swaggie's on a clean up cache day around the Williamstown area.
i enjoyed seeing these historic building's around the area.
Thanks for the cache The Lone Random

Find #8 on a clean up Williamstown night run with my mate Marshy (Blacklegend17). Found the cache and signed the log.

Found with my good mate Marty Quasar3671 on our clean up Williamstown run. Quick find at night with no muggles around. Cheers.

Quick find on a day out caching ......TNLN TFTC SL

Found while on my day run.Quick easy find. TNLN TFTC SL

Found by v93 and his wife. TFTC!

Nice easy find
Many thanx to The Lone Random

found it after spoting the ovios spot.
TFTC

Another high traffic area but this was an easy find. Signed log with Burge. TFTC.

Good cache muggle traffic however is quite high. Tftc tnln sl

Found @ 19:10 with davroy tonight. I got this one after a short search between rain showers tonight. TFTC SL

Found @ 1900.

Found with ggkof on our usual Tuesday night caching expedition. ggkof came up with the cache after a short search. I love the old architecture.

Found with The Quiet Plodder. TFTC

The location of this cache is amidst a gorgeous collection of old Buildings that are a delight to photograph and to learn of their history. The GPSr drew us to nearly on top of the cache which was quickly to hand. But it is the Mechanics Institute and the nearby Church Buildings that made the finding of this cache all the more enjoyable, terrific that you can go inside these Buildingas as well and to be made very welcome. They certainly don't build 'em this way anymore! Thank you to 'The Lone Random' for this cache and especially for it being placed with some fine old architecture. TQP

Found 13:00, on a day of caching with Muzza.

TNLN, CSI=2 thanks to The Lone Random.

Found!

Yep found it! Sometimes ya gotta look up not down!

TFTC

Pretty straightforward find. CDJLMSS

Fairly easy find after work tonight.

Great spot to walk around and grab a few cheeky caches

Cheers gordo

Great wee tour of Williams town. TFTC

Located this cache very quickly. Cheers Gav [5767]

A 'Williamstown' anywhere seems rich in history. T4TC, M@

One of numerous caches visited on our MEGA Wagga Wagga MEGA trip.
TFTC (from NZ).

The fourth of four planned for today on a quick visit here.
Quickly located and signed.
TFTC

Driven past the building heaps of times but never looked in. Geocaching is helping me pick up local history. Veni Vidi Vici

Found whilst out for a day's caching with Bushfire, Packetstorm 4 and RHPS. Whilst I was reading the plaque, Packetstorm was off hunting and quickly came up with the goods. TFTC.

PacketStorm4 had this one quickly in hand TFTC

Found easily.
TFTC

Found by Mary & David at 1320. A building we've passed many times, but hadn't stopped to admire. Our thanks once more to The Lone Random.

This was the eleventh find today on my clean up of Werribee and then onto Footscray and Williamstown. While logging these caches a new cache has just popped up in this area so I guess all the locals are rushing off for a FTF!

Once again the co-ords were spot on so made this an easy find signed the log and off to the next. Thanks again to The Lone Random.

Nice hide. Easy to reach, but hard to spot.

Found this cache after a short search.
Love these old buildings.
Thanks.

OK I am guilty of not logging caches over the last year or two. Due to 2 operations and rehab it has made it difficult to log caches even though I have been mostly chair bound sitting for short times has been difficult as well.
What I have done is create this log in an attempt to bring our found and DNF’s up to date so I can resume my normal habit of stories rather than a TNLN – TFTC.
Most of these logs will not include the owners team name so I think it is appropriate to say a Big Thank the cache owners for their caches and some wonderful memories of caching adventures.
Also thanks to Team Crackers who have made our caching trips so much fun and their help in working out what caches we did and when.
Regards
Mr.Coffee and the “I promise I wont let this happen again after all these coffee’s er I mean caches are drunk er I mean logged” Coffee Clan.

Out with the Coffee Clan doing a days caching and after the last two Lone Random caches we were keen to see this one.
We parked in front of the Masonic Lodge which is now a lot worse for wear. Very strange how it has cracked down each side as though the has moved only on the outside ends of this once great building. We then headed off to another very interesting building that would be able to tell a lot of tales. The boys were still reading the near by plaque when the girls found the cache.
Many thanks again The Lone Random for bringing us to this historic location and for helping to make today's cache grab enjoyable.

I took a few minutes to read some of the info on the board here. I do enjoy visiting these grand old buildings, they've got so much more character than buildings these days.

I think there is scope to extend this historical series, keep it in mind.

Cheers,

R - B

Last of the Willy caches...so I thought..another one released today but I find out when I get home.
I guess another trip down here one day is in order then
I love these old mechanic's institutes, always a handsome building from an era when they really knew how to build.
TFTC

Found the cleverly hidden second in the series afetr a short search.
Thanks again, The Lone Random, for the history lesson, and the cache.
SL

I was down in Willie this morning participating in water-based activities and I had a short caching window before I had to head back home. After finding The Lone Random's Williamstown Historic Site #1 I drove straight to this one. The streets were quiet and I was able to grab the container quickly at 13:50 before heading to the shade of a tree to sit down and sign the log,.

Many thanks to The Lone Random.

Found at 1520. The third stop on our tour of Williamstown today, and once we were at GZ, Captain Brooks and I had our eye on a couple of very good places to hide a cache, but found the cache sitting in a much less evil spot.

Thanks again for the history and location.

This was cache # 13 of 36 for the day, in the company of Alansee. A nice quick find on this one, I was interested to read what this building was, there is a Mechanics Institute in my home town of Warburton that was recently restored. My thanks to The Lone Random for the cache.

Found while out on a day caching with Acts2YouthGroup. The day had warmed up by now which made an easy find quite welcome. This part of Melbourne is starting to become quite historic now. Thanks The Lone Random.

12.30pm
Found by Roma and Max.
As we approached from a distance we could see workmen near GZ!
However they turned out to be working on the building across the vacant block and were uninterested in us.
We left our mark in the log and thank you once more The Lone Random for this experience.
Romax.

Find # 3131 and 1st of the day a t3:18 pm Accompanied by Wheelchair Access, Easy find and a nice piece of history. TNLN, left my mark in the log, Thanx to The Lone Random....

with my friends. one of them race to look for this. she got it and gave me the log.. Luck no muggles around at the moment as was raining before. Found it. TFTC

Found at 5:05pm on the way home from A Watery Transit. No muggles so this was a quick find.
TNLN
thanks to The Lone Random for the history lesson and cache.

Wow this is a busy little street even at 11pm !

A quick search of the GZ had the cache in hand . Returned to the car to write in the log and take cover from the muggles milling around !

Thanks for the cache .. A very interesting historic sight i didnt know was there !

A nice easy drive by, no muggles about today. Grand Old Building. TFTH...SL....TNLN

I walked past here yesterday and returned with the GPS at dawn today.
Cache was quickly in hand and log signed.
My thanks to the Lone Random.

(Relogging our cache because we changed our username.)

This was our first GeoCache ever, it was find to have a go at it, and this location is near our home. Like someone else said, we suspected the spot we found it in, but ended up doing a lap of the building for good measure then proceeded to our target. Thanks for the fun, we're hoping to find many more. One more thing... the GPS never lies.

This was our first GeoCache ever, it was find to have a go at it, and this location is near our home. Like someone else said, we suspected the spot we found it in, but ended up doing a lap of the building for good measure then proceeded to our target. Thanks for the fun, we're hoping to find many more. One more thing... the GPS never lies.

Find # 801 @ 12:55

It was too good a day not to go caching. I arrived at the hall and quickly found the cache in the first place I suspected but didn't look there initially until I had eliminated the first place I looked.

I observed an adjacent building on the right undergoing some urgent underpining work. Looking further I noted that the building has numerous cracks all the way from the bluestone foundations to the very top of the building, the worst opening up about 150 mm or more, basically breaking the building in half. The right hand side has subsided considerably as well. This is worth a look.

TNLN SL Thanks to The Lone Random for the cache.

Found by harry_stamper on 20/1/10 @ 4.05pm with PR&F.
A nice easy find by PR&F especially with the streets near deserted!

TFTC!

Found by PR&F on 20/1/10 @ 4.05pm.
Found cache easily and was in likely location.
Quiet area of Williamstown this time of day- not much happening at all!
Singed log and we were on our way!
TFTC The Lone Random!

Found 11.00am
Great old building, it seems to be wearing very well too. You would think by now that we would just trust where the GPSr is pointing rather than saying .... it think it's under there, or over there ..... once we had gone through all the places we "thought" it would be we found it right were the GPSr was pointing .

TNLNSL
Thanks The Lone Random

Found by caughtatwork at 7:05
After dropping Jess of at a party, GabGab and I decided to do some cching before heading home.
I know this building well as I acted as support to the sound man for two productions at Williamstown Light Opera. If you ever saw Brigadoon or A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum then, I was there, up the back, in the dark.
Took nothing, left nothing.
Thanks to The Lone Random for bringing me back to a memory from days gone past.
*Overall Experience: 3*
GAFF 1

Rated: for Overall Experience

I found this cache with caughtatwork tonight. It was cold but fun to be out at night going caching. Thank you.

Found after a short search, in a suitable hide for the type of container. Signed the log sheet.

TFTC
Wally

Tristan the Travel Turtle Tag (TTQWTC) has come for a flying visit back in time.

We found this cache at 3:55pm as the 12th of 21 on our Bay to Maribynong Afternoon. To save some trampling and to limit the possiblity of being spotted from the neighbours window, we went for the hint early. Nice colour matching on the cache container. Thanks from D & K B-A.

Late last year I was looking around my local area to hire a venue for a meeting, this was one on my list however it was already booked out for the date and time we wanted.
Good to come past today and see it from the outside.
Thanks The Lone Random for the cache.

I headed down to Willi for a couple of quick finds this afternoon. If only I'd waited another hour, then I would have also have seen #3 in this series being published this arvo, and the chance of a FTF! Oh well. This one (#2) was a quick find and replace, in a pretty safe location. Thanks for the historical tour of Willi, Lone Random!

I was got off work a couple of hours early, so I headed to Williamstown to do a couple of caches, this being the first. Nice quick find. Thanks for the cache, and for the history lesson.

With a spot of high tea being taken in town, I thought I'd head over to Willy to see if I could nab some of the newies (and oldies as well ). This was first on my list and was a nice easy find at 12:25. Some fascinating history about the old home town .

TNLNSL, although our BYO pen geocoin had a visit to mark the occasion. Thanks The Lone Random.

From the look of those huge brackets on the wall, they are still constructing!
Used to come here to see movies put on by the local film society, but it has been a while.
There is also a good local museum open rarely.
Thanks, Robmc.

found at 1115 good to learn some on the Mechanics Institute thank you to The Lone Random

Nice easy one today and to think I was in Williamstown at the beach yesterday!! tftc

Found by The Empire
*** First to Find ***
10/1/10 @ 1:40pm
I had NO IDEA this cache was coming out! When I got the notification on my iPhone, I saw that these were only 1.2 kms away from my place and set out straight away to get them, only when I opened the first container did I realise they were by The Lone Random.
TFTC SL
- M

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