Failed Technology Kinglake, Victoria, Australia
By Paul_the_Hippy on 24-Jan-11. Waypoint GC2MW7M

Super nice spot. Drizzle came down and the sun came out from behind the clouds

A steep climb with Jed74 and Fried lemon at dusk. Tftc

Wow thats the biggest cache I have fond in a long time. Quick walk up the hill from my parking space. Nice and chilly this morning so the walk warmed me up. Great hidden location. TFTC

Found yesterday after a pleasant drive. Pouring rain today (Christmas day) but fine yesterday. Lucky there is a good parking spot off the road and room to turn around. Note also the track is part of the Mt Evelyn circuit walk - will have a go sometime

After a terrific drive through this beautiful area I arrived at the parking area just in time to enjoy a glorious sunset on the walk up. The climb also gave me time to reflect on the awful story of what happened here during those terrible fires. The cache was a reasonably quick find, then a decent in the evening glow, beautiful!Failed Technology is find number 3,247 for me. A great large traditional cache I enjoyed finding as part of my caching trip which started in the Mt Disappointment area and then meandered south into the Melbourne suburbs. Unless otherwise mentioned above, I found the coordinates to be accurate, the cache in good condition and the log dry and with plenty of room to sign.I am logging this one a couple of days late but found it on Tuesday the 5th of December 2023 and the weather was sunny, humid, warm and sweaty. Thanks for placing this cache for the rest of us to enjoy Paul_the_Hippy.Found with Geooh GO

Tftc working on the road thought I'd sneak off and steep hill but found

Uphill walk but found it. Wife turned back with pram.

Not sure if it mattered which end of the track you approached the cache from, it was still a decent hill. After a short stroll, we got to GZ and took a quick look around to immediately spot the cache. We attempted to cover it better after signing the log. Now to go and see what the cars were flashing about and the police car was going down to. Thanks for the cache.

My brother used to live at the roundabout up in Kinglake so I am quite familiar with this area. I haven't explored up here since the bushfires but I was surprised that other than the density of the bush, things hadn't changed as much as I though. Nature is an awesome thing. The cache was found, signed, returned and we were on our way. Off to see why oncoming traffic was flashing us. Thanks for the cache.
(Turns out that a truck had cut a corner with a small car coming around it from the opposite direction. Both drivers appear to be fine but the truck has a lot of explaining to do.)

Had a few vehicles flashing their headlights at us on the way down to the parking location.
We made our way up up up to gz where the niced sized cache was soon spotted and signed.
Once back in the Geovehicle, we continued on to find a police car stopped in the middle of the road, and just beyond, a truck which had veered onto the wrong side of the road causing a (non fatal) head on collision with a sedan. All occupants appeared to be ok, thankfully.

Thanks for bringing us here by placing this cache, Paul_the_Hippy
~~

Found It!
A nice walk up the hill and a quick find once I got to GZ. Certainly wouldn't want to be here during a bushfire though!
TFTC

Second day at the mega with the Rats. Big day around town doing puzzles labs and events. Sunday already and we're up and running after a very wet night. Shoes are going to be wet today.
TFTC Wilbert67

Spending a few days on the road with Wilbert as we travel to and from the Whittlesea Mega event.
Having a great time finding an array of different types and D/T rated caches.
Thanks to all the CO’s for hiding your particular cache.
Day 2 of the mega and fingers crossed for blue skies after a wild night. Thanks to all the volunteers who’ve made this a lot of fun.
My apologies for the boiler style log.
TFTC

the last find on a long day of treasure huntingmany kilometres drivenmany hours searchingmany kilometres hikedthe car and the concentration and the legs have already got their workout for the daybutheywhile we're in the neighbourhoodwhat's the danger in doing just one moredrive down the obvious roadparked at the obvious spothiked up the obvious trailstruck gold in the obvious hidesigned in the obvious light of sunsetif only all geocaching was this straight-forwardthanks for the treasureand thanks for your work memorialising those terrible eventslong may we remember

Thank you! Liver the walk.

Another great view. Had fun finding this one. The walk up was not as fun but still enjoyed the amazing environment and weather.

As soon as I read the description on this one I knew we couldn’t leave the area without finding it. A quick walk uphill and a quick find. Took a pause to remember the day the fire hit, evidence still remains.

16 July 2022 3:36 pm

Another day of caching shenanigans with Stemicmitsar, and with some more hiking on the mind. Hamfish and his event in Kinglake had caught our eyes, collecting some trads and other odds and ends on the way up for myself as I subject Stemicmitsar to walking the "loop" again.

*Found on the 16 Jul 2022 @ 3:37 pm.*
*Cache find # 13086.*

Today it was time for buhfuhguh and myself to head for the hills, Mount Everard to be exact to attended an event.
After going up and back down the mountain we now set our sights on some other caches in the area.
This one being listed as a large got our attention so off we headed up another hill and on to GZ where we were able to make a very quick find.

**Thanks to Paul_the_Hippy for placing this cache.**

Found and signed with dalerious on a trip to Whittlesea .
dalerious stumbled across a mystery cache as I was busy searching and signing the TWC Mystery caches that were put out for the mega many moons ago. I had not even heard about caching back then, so I had plenty to catch up on in Whittlesea .
We read the cache page of the bonus mystery that all these trads lead you to, and we were intrigued and excited about visiting each of the sites and learn more about the events that brought about this series of caches.
It was night by the time we got to sign the majority of the trads, but we still got to sign more than we thought we would. We have 5 more to get before we can sign the mystery.
It was so heart wrenching reading the story for each area. There was one cache that told a story of the devastating destruction of souls that hit home, as when I first heard of the loss of life of these two particular people, I never thought I would be visiting the area that took them away from this world.
Even though it was night, we still felt and saw what had occurred here and awed at the defiance of nature.
Thank you Paul for the privilege of visiting this area, and for telling the story with respect and dignity.
Looking forward to coming back soon, this time in daylight and get another perspective on what time has done to repair the damage.
We will probably be contacting you Paul, as some of the info is missing from the containers.

Found with catnap777 by torchlight.

The best game ever invented relies on some pretty serious technology, Geocaching would not exist without it. [^]
But even with the latest and greatest GPSr around my neck, there are places I would not want to go without an oldschool map and compass as backup.
When we put our lives in the hands of technology, we do so at our own peril. [xx(]

And yet I still trust aeroplanes elevators and green lights. Go figure.
TFTC and "So Close" series Paul.

After a coffee stop in Kinglake, we're on the home stretch for the day and decided to have a look for this cache. Not too bad a hike up the hill but it is wet and a bit steep, so I was a bit cautious about what it might be like coming down. As it turned out, coming down wasn't so bad after all. Lovely area. TFTC.

On a walk around the Mount Jerusalem Circuit early morning. Thank you for the history of those tragic events that are still some sombre memories.

Thanks,

FBTJ #3186

TFTC!
Nice little walk, Beautiful area around Kinglake, thanks for taking me here!
Side note, the Epacris impressa (Common Heath) was in flower. Was beautiful!

Found awesome trek up!

Hi Paul the Hippy,

finally, I have a free Day AND I am not too tired to do a Tour. So I jumped into the car and did one, of course combined with some caching.

After I participated at today's event in Whittlesea and visited the Masons Fall, I came here to do some hill hiking. It was round about noon and I was melting away.

Next stopps are Toolangi, the Yarra Chocolaterie, Kangaroo Ground, Westerfolds Park and Heidelberg, before I return to St. Kilda.

Thank you very much for hiding and maintaining this Cache and warm regards from your German caching mate

daNator

Today's 4 of 9

What a lovely little walk I’ll be at 300 m of steep stuff we saw and an Echidna along the way....Thank you very much nice hide

Find #4596. Found @ 10:10

I'd just completed a planned meet up with a group of hikers on a scouting hike at a nearby check point, and decided to come here to make the find.

I'd met the group down at the parking area so had to make the up hill walk that they'd just walked down. That was a bit steeper that I expected.

Once I got to GZ, I had a quick look around and spotted something that warranted closer investigation. This nicely turned out to be the camouflage of the nice sized cache.

Took two trackables, left nothing, grabbed clue, signed log and visited some other trackables.
Thanks for the cache Paul_the_Hippy.

Dad and boy wanted to get a quick look at AMA Dablam.

No way that’s gonna happen today, ahh well let’s try another.

Wow the fires were brutal!

Great little stroll and sweat. Dropped a few bugs off.

Out walking with a group of friends and have taken a little diversion

Find number 7589 at 11:25:36 am
Travelling from Croydon to Goughs Bay via Greensborough and these Heidelberg-Kinglake Road geocaches.
Parked and walked to GZ with MuggleWifeDoes and made a reasonably quick find.
We were surprised to find a couple of freshly emptied tuna tins behind a log that someone had dumped after consuming. Disappointed that some people are just pigs these days and will chuck anything anywhere. We removed the rubbish but just wish we could remove the trash that created it
**Thanks for placing this cache Paul_the_Hippy**

---
Big things are continuing to happening in Victoria! *Are you joining in the fun?*
[**The St Arnaud Event 2019**](https://coord.info/GC7DN55)
*16th & 17th November 2019 - GC7DN55 - St Arnaud - Victoria*

On the way home and decided it is time for another walkin and this one was it. So parked up the Geo Navara and unloaded the Geo Pup for a walk up another hill to the cache. once on the GZ cache was readily found and log retrieved and everything duly returned. once again TFTC from the inspectorrexteam.

12:45
FITW lynnydd

I had maybe heard about the fires some time before but didn't really know anything. So this cache was a chance to educate myself a little bit, and to see how the nature has been regenerating.
Short but pleasant walk, just watch out for the slippery ground!

#6686

#7 | 25/8/19 12:45

Discovered how unfit I was finding this one with ivss_xx. Lovely walk but a bit slippy on the way back - avoid wet leaves. TFTC.

Doing the Mt Everard circuit. Fine cache, seldom found, but we like it

Not as short a hike as you'd think, pretty puffed when I reached the top! Only now when I'm logging this did I realise that I forgot to get the number from the lid...

Great spot hard walking up hill

Ruschie and I were meeting friends for lunch at the Kinglake pub. Recommended for good meals and pleasant staff. We picked up this cache while in the area. Took a couple of rest breaks on the way up the hill. Thanks Paul.

Found today with Crustyvarmint
Yftc

Out and about enjoying the first day of winter exploring the breath taking views of the north-east ranges of Melbourne. Even though it started off bitterly cold, the clear blue skies and sunshine made for a perfect day to cache in the areas impacted by the 2009 horrific bushfires. This series is a great tribute to the devastation left by the "Black Saturday" bushfires that impacted the environment and communities in so many ways , so we thankyou, Paul_the_Hippy for enlightening us with your knowledge and passion for our land as we travel through the recovering bushland and towns.
We left this cache retrieving and signing for the fitter Triton today as we headed up the hill, thankful for the manned fire towers that guard all our forests.
Thanks Paul_the_Hippy for bringing us here.

I was after a few caches and letterboxes today with a day off work. I haven't been back to this area since a week before the fires. Such a tragic event. A nice walk but I get get puffed a little up the hill with the cold I have at the moment. Signed and replaced as found

**Thanks to Paul_the_Hippy for placing this cache for us to enjoy**

The technology may have failed in the bush fire situation but technology also lead to the hiding place of this cache. The hint was noted, so protective gloves were taken. It was just a pity that they were still in the pocket when the dive for the recovery was made. Anyhow, all was done in the proper order before the return walk was undertaken. Thanks again to Paul_the_Hippy for a good sized cache placement.

A quick dash up the hill with jimbo_80. My own technology keeps failing me a bit at the moment, sending me ever so slightly off-course. The consequences tend not to be in any way devastating though, thankfully. At worst, jimbo_80 finds the cache in a hiding place I've already walked right past, which is what happened here. Thanks Paul_the_Hippy!

I enjoyed the steep walk up here, getting the heart racing. We headed off the trail and I soon found it with the help of the hint.
I can't imagine what it would've been like as the fire tore through here.
Thanks

**Find #1430**

A nice drive by with some heart pumping action to the cache. A quick find. Grabbed the TB. A very interesting story behind this cache, and glad it had some good outcomes on the horrible day that ravaged the area. It certainly was the perfect storm. Today there was some nice wild flowers on display.

Thanks **Paul the Hippy**

TFTC.

Im stuffed after that !!!Dropped a TB TFTC

Headed to the Kinglake area with Jacko for an enjoyable day's hiking. Okay, a little driving too, but a lot of hiking . Inlcuding the hike upo this little hill.
Black Saturday was horrific, but sometimes the best technology cannot stop what nature has intended.
TFTC.

A nice little hill here - feeling good at the top!

A sad story here, in this game we get to read the personal first hand accounts and stories. I recall seeing the fire on the news - a man talked about how he climbed into drain pipes with spiders to escape the flame. Horrifying stuff.

Also - how the hell did a muggle log end up in here?!

Cheers

Last cache for the day on what felt (and frankly was) my letterbox tour (minus the Aba Dabba Do set) of the Kinglake area. I confess I picked this particular cache for the size rating as I'm working towards a Mt. Beckworth challenge which requires 100 Large caches to be found.
I'm glad I did this since the contrast between what was after the 2009 fire and now is striking. There isn't much of a view anymore for all the regrowth in the area. From this city slicker's perspective that's a good thing. What it means it terms of fuel load, well, I'll leave that perennial debate alone for lack of first hand experience.
Thanks for the exercise Paul_the_Hippy I admit to being puffed once at the top of the track but I always compare the steep ones to Another Thompson View and have yet to find something of equivalent or greater steepness, that really was a heart starter of a cache.

Found it! It was a Walkabouter's day and our route around the hills lead us past this cache. We investigated the nearby telegraph pole on the way up the hill and enjoyed the views. The pink heath was in full bloom. A quick find as the others walked on. I caught up with them at the graffitied water tank. TFTC SL Thank-you Paul for your story!

First one of the series for me, Thanks Paul.

It is amazing how the Australian landscape can change. I rode my push bike up this road in 2011 and 6 years later the bush is green and thriving.

First one of the series for me, Thanks Paul.

It is amazing how the Australian landscape can change. I rode my push bike up this road in 2011 and 6 years later the bush is green and thriving.

Out for an afternoon with Benjoda and we came to the agreement that we would find 3 caches. Being a teenager his interest tends to wane with these, however he is on a bit of a health kick and so a short walk was in order.

As we climbed the hill, I reminisced with him about Black Saturday, the toll it took, and still takes on the local community.

I wasn't on the hill that day, it is a good thing too, I was looking after Eltham in my CFA role, stationed on the pumper crew.

Over the next few weeks, I did travel the road here many times, taking crew to and fro, night shift at Kinglake Fire Station and so much more. I truly hope I will not live to see another day like that, but that is out of my hands.

The pagers did indeed fail that day, lots of things did, but there was good too. But the thing I remember most was my two boys, putting together bags of their toys on that day to give to the people who had lost so much. Such giving hearts and innocence...

I took a few photos of the area shortly after and leave one here to ponder.

Resilience is a necessary thing to have, but the strength of community and the love of one another in adversity is a power which will always overcome.

TFTC.

Biggest sistema ever found. Will upgrade contents.

Is hard to really put into words all the emotions here.

No 9 out of the series
Another nice walk up to GZ
You can see Mother Nature fighting back after 2009
A quite bit of reflection over the events
Thanks for continuing your story and bringing me here TFTC

Sensational spot, great hill walk, wonderful plants to see and a quiet spot for reflection. Thankyou and merry Christmas

We didn't live in Australia when this event happened but we heard about it........until you experience things first hand it is very hard to understand what it is like.....we moved to Melbourne after the Christchurch earthquakes so have our own knowledge of mother natures power and technology failed badly in that disaster as well.
We hope we live and learn but sometimes things are out of everyone's control. Thanks for bringing me to this beautiful regenerating area.

Oh My Goodness... Slippery when wet!!! HaHa... Maybe we did get our hands dirty
Good hide and thanks for the cache

Visiting from UK. Imagine the community here isn't too pleased with how popular the road is with cyclists but it was a great way for me to take in what happened here. Stopped on way down and scrambled up to the cache, eerie location. Thanks for the cache.

A madness prevails, somehow I decided to attend an event nearby tonight.. Nice drop of rain hey!!!!
Anyway, was at the parking spot a bit early and got restless so here I am. I'd love to say what an awesome view.
Cheers Gordo
7:15 PM #1178

Kids had fun climbing the hill then walking through the bush to find this!

Out and about for Australia Day. TFTC

Eerie location. Left my heart and some football bicycle valve caps. Took a fairy sticker. Thanks for placing this cache in this special place for us to find. All the way from NE England x

On my way back to Melbourne from Melbourne's First geocache I stopped via Kinglake and went for a walk up the hill. Plenty of evidence of the 2009 fires here with lots of regrowth now. Quick find of the cache and it's one from one of the local (to me) cachers in Sydney - Paul the Hippy moved some time ago but left a trail of orphan down here! P the H often makes comments about cache situations which cache owners take the wrong way. He's also famous for winning many lucky door prizes at geocaching events. But I'm not here to slag him off or make disparaging comments. I signed the log and replaced then walked to the top of the hill and spotted what I thought was a flame robin and quite a few DLBBs (dull little brown birds).

Thanks!

Nice little walk and a good spot to stop and relax really. Thanks for the cache and taking us some somewhere nice again

Out for a drive in my new car with geobrother tftc.

Was out last night with geobrother as he wanted to take his new car for a drive so y not do some caches while out. tftc

Walked the Mt Everard circuit and found this on the home stretch.

3rd find on our trip around the area with the Geokids. Another unaided find by little miss gourmet and a test for 3yo master gourmet's legs on the walk up the hill! Beautiful spot to stop and have a bit of a rest and a snack, and explain a bit of what happened up here to the kids. Took animal ball and blower, put in miniature notepad and a loom band bracelet.

3rd find

Quite a steep climb just on dusk but the GPS took us right to the spot.
TNLN, TFTC

Of the caches found in this series today, this was one of the more affecting. The horror of that day would never be forgotten by those in the vehicles.

Sad it burned down. Thanks for the cache.

Nanna %GeoHawk% decided to sit this one out, and %GeoHawk%Snr was huffing and puffing after eating a little too much at lunch time. We reached GZ and the Cache was found. Thanks for the exercise and thanks for the Cache!

Thanks

TFTC

Nature will not be denied. The bush is coming back. TFTC

On a trek today to pick up as many of this series as I could in 2 hours , I got 5 and this was the third, after driving past the cache a suitable turnaround was made after a kilometre, then back to the parking bay and a walk up steep track with a few slippages on the way to the summit, large cache was found and then the return downhill careful trip to the car, thanks for this story , I would never have known without this cache, fav point

Got to the parking area and said to miss 5 that I think I should get this one on my own. No way was the reply so off we strutted up some seriously steep terrain. Loved this cache and made it all the better that when signing the log I see that I am signing underneath my brother TFTC.

Nice walk UP to the cache. The clan is not in good shape it turns out. Once there it was a quick find and then back to the car. TFTC

Nice spot going to be tricky to find in a few years

Reverent reminder, of a devastating time.

Thanks nice spot

Found this cache today. Boy that hill is steep but is still an amazing reminder of that terrible day. Prior to doing this cache I was most impacted by one of Gaza66's caches who said she would always remember the smoke covering the valley as she evacuated. Signed log today but didn't swap anything.

This is a big shout out to all the people who participated in Black Saturday in an emergency capacity or afterwards in helping people, animals and communities restore, rebuild or generally move on with life. Often these people are the unsung heroes of the emergency and often they don't get the mention or the thanks they deserve. Thanks for the remainder and the cache Paul_the_Hippy.

Found 10:50, after a short but pleasant stroll.

TNLN, thanks Paul_the_Hippy.

In memory of Adam who lost his life due to the 2009 fires.

Found this afternoon after findind a few around strathewen and kinglake, made the steep walk up from the carpark, and soon found the cache, nice to visit my TB out in the wild, will leave for somebody else to move along, tnln clue collected tftc.

Found it. An enjoyable walk in for a nice easy find. Clue has been noted. Last one for the day as my turn-around time was now up. Will be back to finish the series soon.

Nice cache. Steep walk but fun. Cheers. Dropped off Smokey trackable, which was kinda fitting

14:26
Though still light on for sleep after a long night caching in Geelong, I was scheduled to pick some stuff up in the northern suburbs for a job that'll keep me too busy for much outdoor fun until after the upcoming Federal Elections, so I definitely had to take advantage of another chance to add a few more smileys.

It was a lovely afternoon for a drive, so I thought I'd see if I couldn't pick up a couple more caches in a series placed by some hippy or another...

The steep track from the parking area to the cache coordinates through the scarred but recovering bushland eerily combined to give the feeling that I had embarked on somewhat of a pilgrimage... and I guess it is one, of sorts.

Technology is marvellous; utter reliance upon any single system for essential services is folly. Almost every technician can tell you horror stories of system failures, and though massive outages are rare, emergencies are obviously times of maximum demand, and the universe has a perverse sense of humour.

Redundancy is key.

The cache was a nice easy find and is in good nick. Once I'd signed and remembered to record the series clue, I paused to admire the view and reflect again on that tragic day.

Thanks again, Paul. The remainder of the series will have to wait for another day.

#2102

After what was a steeper walk than expected found the cache with no trouble at all!
Thanks Paul!

Been a good day of caching... thanks! TNLN, TFTC.

Continuing on my drive up to Kinglake, I stopped off at this next cache of Paul's along this road. I parked at the only available area and headed up the hill...which was a lot steeper than it first looked. At the top of the, it was time to go off-track and find the cache. I found it without much trouble and all is in good order.

Paul, the story behind this cache is quite scary. Sadly, as a community, we have become highly dependent on technology without understanding its limitations. System have a finite capacity and when the demand goes "through the roof" in a crisis, they fail. It is a simple reality that no one wants to acknowledge and so we keep on making the same mistakes.

Paul, thanks for this cache and again, thanks for this series.

No. 2 for the day. Headed up this way today to gather the required information for "So Close". Walked up the steep hill and stumbled a little then heard a hiss. Looked in the bush to see a tail wriggling away. First snake seen in the wild. Thanks for the cache Paul.

[purple]iGude[/purple][font=Comic Sans MS]

This was a short and nice walk >> slowly I made my way from Nutfield to Healesville today and found some fantastic caches along the way - this was one of them.

[green]Dankeschön & Cheers
Philipp[/green]

[url=http://trailwalker.oxfam.org.au/melbourne/teams/team/?team_id=13444][green]Nightcaching Australia[/green] [orange]Trailwalker Team[/orange][/url]
cache no. 2109

Nice easy find on a beautiful day thanks

Definitely walked off breakfast with this cache. Great spot. Thanks

Great walk up a slope with a terrific outlook at the top.