Weird tree St Andrews, Victoria, Australia
By Paul_the_Hippy on 02-Mar-11. Waypoint GC2PDQF

Quick find, nicely looked after. Stamped log and replaced. Thanks to CO

TFTC Paul,Our personal challenge this trip is to visit and cache in the Victorian LGA's we still have outstanding (29). This is our last LGA to find.Now to SA next.Visited trackables.

We have seen a few of these weird trees in Victoria.Some are simply hideous. Faux leaves shedding multi cubic metres of micro plastics onto the ground and eventually into our waterways.This particular version seems somewhat more sustainable. >We want excellent mobile phone service, but none of the unsightly infrastructure!"Found with +Wife and EveTheStaffy this afternoon on a pleasant day trip through the forest.Thanks mate. Cache in good order.

Great little area

TFTC. A nice easy stop as I was passing by.

A quick park and grab on my way caching around St Andrews today. Not quite what I expected but I stamped the log and continued on my caching adventure. TFTC

Very interesting phone tower indeed thanks for showing us this. I'm so full from the yummy food at the market today.

I was far too focused on the nearby trees to understand the cache title. Then I read the description and looked further. Wow. Nice job! TFTC

Quick park and grab, although I havent noticed anything weird around the area.

Tftc

Living with the beetles!

Nice quick find after a short stroll. Good to be out catching after the weather has suddenly improved! Tftc

Found tbe cache but couldn't see this weird tree I had come to observe until I stepped right back. Oh, there it is, lol..

Heading to a Friday evening performance in Lilydale and needed to stop off to keep my daily streak going. TFTC!

Easy find

And what a tree! I can only assume it is art because nobody is going to get fooled by that one. With geoson finding the last cache the race was on between the geobrats to be the one to find this one. Geogaughter was the victor. Geoson enjoyed looking at all the wallaby poo and wondering who lived in each hole. My skirt kept getting caught on the branches - not the best geocaching attire. Thanks for bringing us here - my skirt was very keen to stay.

Mark of LaidlayM&M kindly agreed to chauffeur me around the suburbs to assist in my challenge to find 20 in each LGA. Included was this traditional.
I never realised how beautiful the roads around this area are, thanks for bringing me here via this cache.
And I do agree, it is a weird tree.

Now we have to find the others!

Nice!

The aim of today was to target 4 old caches in the Eastern side of Melbourne to help me with my Ausmer Grid as after completing my D/T grid recently that is the next grid to fill out.
So got up nice and early (On a Sunday who does that) to be able find those and any other ones in the area.
So after finding the 4 oldies that I was chasing I had a bit of time to find a couple of others before heading home.
I have been here to see the weird tree years ago and the cache was missing back then.
There is another different type of tree on the Calder Hwy as well.
Fast forward to today and I’m back in the area and thought I might as well change the blue dot on my map to a smiley.
Soon found a very familiar container that I have seen before.

Thanks Paul_the_Hippy TFTC.

Out for a drive, we stopped for this quick find. Thanks Paul_the_Hippy.

Found during an early morning circuit around the backroads of St Andrews while staying nearby. Thanks for the cache Paul_the_Hippy!

Nice little bushland area. TFTC

Quick find while on the way home from the mega- now to check out the weird tree - TFTC

Out and about with team T.A.C.K.T! for the whittlesea mega :3

What w wierd tree!!

People like the stassies should know better then to put a needs maintenance on one like this. Yes there was some water put the writ in rain paper. Just needed to be wiped. Just glad I was in the area for mega otherwise this cache could have been archived.
So I guess thanks for letting me know and a new cache including swap and clue on the notebook has been out in place.

This geocacher reported that there is a problem with this cache.

Nillumbik LGA was the focus of our activities later this afternoon. This is one of the caches that we sought.

Accurate coordinates and the hint led to a quick find. However the cache and contents were in very poor condition. The logbook was very wet and unsignable. The inside of the container was also very wet. We supplied a temporary logbook in a sealable plastic bag but this cache is in need of complete maintenance. Thanks Paul_The_Hippy for the cache.

Easy find on the way home. Thanks for another cache PtH.

Found on our way home from school with Caster Kids

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.

See.... Sometimes everybody's needs can be accommodated for. [^]

Thanks Paul for the cache and the local knowledge pointing out the "weird tree" that catnap777 and I discovered on dusk as we collected "So Close" caches into the night. In fading light (and fading eyesight) it really did look like a huge skeletal tree.
Had we arrived any later, cat' and I would have been saying....."What weird tree?".

Found with icw. Whoever dreams up these strange ideas must think we are pretty thick and can't tell the difference between a tree and a telecommunications tower in a weird plastic wrapper. Tftc.

Yep there’s another down on Phillip Island at Rhyll, tftc.

The Pub was really busy today and even early arvo the wait was an hour for lunch orders. Perfect conditions to sneak out for a quick mission to the weird tree,
Paul_the_Hippy

A png on the way to the Smith's Gully mtb trails

Found it after a little looking TFTC!

Found

Found easily but I couldn’t find “clue” to nearby multi. Dropped off a TB

A sedate cache. The tree was not as exotic as I thought it might be. No offense to the designers! Left a token. Thanks, Paul.

Find #1036
I have spent time at local market over the years and can appreciate how busy it can get. Decided as I was in the area mid week, it’s a better time to collect this cache! Funny cache guardian.

It should be noted that this is my fifth or sixth cache today and I have only NOW realised that my new beaut stamp has the wrong date on it! The silly thing is, I changed it to the wrong date before I started! I obviously need glasses doh! Two stamps for price of one in this log Thanks for the cache.

Removed remains of previous records now all fine.

TFTC:) quick find on the way home

This poor cache is in need of lots of love. I gave it a new bit of paper to sign but bring your own pen. TFTC

After finding Willis headed towards the strange tree. Great little spot and left a little friend or what is left of him for everyone to appreciate.

Needs new log book sorry didnt have one.

Found the cache - amazing surprise to see the lengths people go to!!!

Dropped in during the fading light after the visit to Kinglake with the family. Good day and I had to stop and get a cache near this unique mobile phone tower! I wonder if the 5G conspiracy theorists will think it's made of wood and set fire to it...Thanks for the cache.

Found wet log, didn’t sign.

Out tonight to fill in a date on the calendar - I choose this one as it is a nice evening for a drive. The last time I tried to find this one there were lots of workmen here so I went on my way. Found tonight but the log books were very wet. I dried one page out a bit and put it back in a new ziplock bag and left the rest of the wetter logs in the bottom of the cache. TFTC Paul_the_Hippy

Gotcha! As we work our way through Paul’s fire series it was time to grab this cache Strange cache guardian didn’t bother us overly.

TFTC and the great series, dad remembers the fires well but our boy is a little young.

That’s a weird looking tree

Find number 7641 at 4:44:11 pm
On the way home from working on-site in Sunbury via a nice round about circuit.
Was going to post a foto of the tree but thought better, let them enjoy the surprise
Quick find.
**Thanks for placing this cache Paul_the_Hippy**

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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*

So time to add a moveable stump to the collection of geocache types found today, except well this stump did not move and cache was basically in the open. signed log and found a moveable stump lookalike and rehide the cache. TFTC from the inspcetorrexteam.

Quick find on the way home after a trail race at the Rob Roy hill climb. The log was unfortunately too wet and disintegrated to sign. Very neat little spot though, with a rather odd-looking 'tree' indeed. TFTC, now I've got the second clue for the museum heist. Yay.

Found on 10 April 2019 at 3:07:34 pm. Find #2728. A little detour off the road and a quick find....
Was a bag of mushy paper so we just scratched our names on one of them.... great area for a drive.
Thanks for the adventure.

Bag full of bits if paper......needs some love!

Thanks for the hide

Thanks for hiding

TFTC. Signed and returned.

Found with Smrff078 after a quick search search. TFTC.

Found with Melbmatt50 on a Beautiful day !! SL, TFTC

Staying with family and taking the opportunity to grab this, as I had a DNF on it last time. Unlike last time, there were no muggles of suspicious neighbors, so I could make the quick wander into GZ, visit a TB and sign the log.

I am currently writing detailed logs because of a challenge provided by Project-GC. "The Author" Badge challenges geocachers to average one hundred words or more in each log. As of the start of 2018 my average was only 47 words per log, which seems a long way from the 100 target. Given that I have found so many GC caches, I have to write many logs with well over 100 words for a long period of time to get my average to the target. Apologies to anyone who finds the logs tedious but it is the only way that I can strive to attain this challenge. After over 7000 plus caches (which includes all cache finds up and including yesterday), the average log length is just over 50 words. I am now entertaining the possibility that I might be able to achieve my task before the end of next year. It's surprising how much is has increase since doing this.

What a very weird tree indeed.
Thanks Paul_the_Hippy for placing the cache for us to find.
7173

Out for Space Endeavour Series today, Stopped here on my way home. Thanks to Paul_the_Hippy for bringing us here and the cache.

Decided to take a drive to the Yarra Valley on a nice Sunday afternoon. Picked this cache up on the way. TFTC

Out and about with 08151605 to get a few smilies. Hadn't been out here before so it was great to cache in a new area. With intermittent showers and rain, it was a gloomy and grey day.

Certainly is a weird tree. Haven't seen one like this before. Thanks for showing us this weird structure.

TFTC Cheers

Yes! I remember passing this so called weird tree many times! A quick stop over after finding No one for tennis nearby. This was a straight forward cache, there was however a bird skull right next to GZ, interesting! The pen had lots of trouble on the log which was damp, an ink pen got the job done. Thanks for this one Paul, your caches are very distinct!

I've spied this weird tree many times on rides in this area. This time I was going bin the car and stopped for a quick find. TFTC

Found after a trip to the market

I didn't spot the weird tree until I approached GZ. RiddleyWalker and I made the find pretty quickly. Good spot. TFTC!

Thanks heaps. Great spot

Earlier this week we had done Don's Weird so it seemed appropriate to do this one. The kids liked it. TFTC

Found with Morcs4 on a pre-space adventure. Thanks for the cache.

Great tree

I was in the area to finish a series of caches and thought an extra one or two would be great. TFTC. I think the guardian for this cache has expired.

After space exploring not far away I detoured past here.

Quite a site once approaching on the road.

The cache was a quick find.

TFTC

In the area with GemmaSistema hitting up the nearby geo art we decided to target this one, thanks for the hide. This certainly is a weird tree

A day of geocaching with wozzle68 today saw us complete the nearby geoart then hunt out some other nearby caches. Weird and ugly! Easy cache find though! Many thanks for the cache.

Yep, that is one weird tree! Nice quick find on the way home from doing the Endeavour series today with the geokids.

I liked it

That’s a weird tree

Wednesday last week i recieved a message from TrailStevo suggesting we solve the Space Endeavour puzzles and head out and find them this week. I suggested it sounded like a good idea, but then it dawned on my I didn't know where /what they were. A quick look at the map and there it was, where did that come from?! So friday we set to solving them, and tonight we headed out for a leisurely drive and and some quick finds. Probably took around 1hr 30min to find them all and then we continued to find a few other traditioanals on teh way home. A few drives down some more trails, a few short walks and a wander around the grave yard at night. I think we found over forty for the nights. Thanks to GeocachingMelbourne, Gaga66, Paul the Hippy, Dor, Kangadrew72 for all the caches.

Out and about enjoying some sight seeing and finding some caches too. Thanks so much for highlighting this area that we may not have otherwise discovered. TFTC

What an interesting explanation for the unique design of the tower. Although BendSinister and Jimbo_80 were there with me they had already found this cache. The last trad before looping back up for the rest of the nearby puzzle series.
I suspect the log will need to be replaced shortly as the paper is quite damp and is only protected by the sistema's gasket as opposed to an additional ziplock bag hence the taking in of atmospheric moisture.

After finding all the parts to the rocket with Gunks, had some time left to find others nearby. Made for a successful night. TFTC.

I found this cache today at 5:10pm as number 38 of 38 on my Endeavour of Space Caches Afternoon. After finishing the Space Exploration Series, I had enough time for 3 extra caches around St Andrews. The third was at .....this. Right, that's it. If this thing grew by itself then the terminators are taking over. Thanks from D B-A.

On our planetary pursuit. Find #99 for today.

We spent the morning finishing off mt disappointment and the afternoon completing the rocket geo art series. We are well and truely “official space explorers” now.... but are we done?!?.... no way! being so close to 100 finds for today and with still a little bit of daylight in the sky there’s still caching to be done. Hahaha.

Is it a tree? It it a power pole? Is it a phone tower? Who knows... buts it’s cool!

The final find for the night with nanton34 and completing the space challenge nearby. Upon looking up at the sky the weird tree was spotted. tftc

Last one for the night. another I have passed a few time without ever having the chance to grab it. At night its a little hard to see the tree. TFTC

We found Weird tree while on our Space Endeavour

We were a bit lost at first but then it leapt out at us

Thanks Paul_the_Hippy for placing this cache and being a part of out geocaching adventure

Yes weird tree alright.
Suscoe enjoyed this location today.
Thanks to Paul_the_Hippy for this cache.
Log wet and needs some attention.

I made a quick stop. This weird tree you can see from far away already. Great reason for a cache! Thanks

omegaman1971
3829 Finds
omegaman1971
3828 Finds
After hitting the new nearby powertrail, couldn't miss this one on the way home.
Cheers for the cache

This is a very weird tree! The clue was missing for the series, but wow, what an odd tree! Thanks for bringing me here today Paul_the_Hippy

Certainly is a strange tree. A short stroll and the cache was soon in hand. Thanks for the cache and bringing us here.

3:51 pm #4092
Yep. Very strange tree indeed!!
Thankyou Paul_the_Hippy for placing this cache here for us to find.

Indeed, I didn't see any supremely weird tree until much later. We were deliberating over which tree might be weird enough for the title until jimbo_80 found the cache and it suddenly became a secondary issue. I reckon an additional waypoint might be in order to ensure that no-one overlooks the weirdness. Thanks Paul_the_Hippy!

We saw a few weird trees right here at GZ and soon found the cache. But it wasn't till later driving through that we noticed the weird tree referred to in the cache description. Yes, weird indeed! Thanks

Very conveniently, the Vic mega coincides with Show Weekend again, and popping over for 3 days is definitely worthwhile compared to just two. After spending ages in the supermarket, i decided to have a leisurely drive around and find a few to keep myself entertained. The weather was a bit interesting, and I did encounter a major storm along the way, but not a drop as I was caching! Nice quick find, TFTC!!