Please Come Clean! - Sydney Park CITO Alexandria, New South Wales, Australia
By Geocaching NSW on 26-Apr-15. Waypoint GC3CA8V

Time to say farewell to this well attended event. Thanks to everyone who came along and helped to make our environment somewhat cleaner. The Association has had some very favourable feedback from City of Sydney Council so well done to all.

Attended.

Streak day #151 - This weekend ended up being an incredibly full one for me. With Dawn Service, a small cache hike and a half day birthday party yesterday then 2 ice hockey games, a birthday breakfast, a CITO event and lots more caching today. I'm not a morning person so having to get up at 5am both days this weekend has been a bit torturous. I was running late to this event because of my first hockey game of the day which was 7am at Liverpool followed by a well earned birthday breakfast for our goalie. I finally managed to make it to this event around 11am. I grabbed a bag and wandered back to where I had parked to started collecting rubbish around there. There wasn't too much, but I did find part of a bicycle frame. After depositing the frame with the main pile I followed the path to where most of the collected rubbish seems to have come from to finish off my bag. Next to the drain that ran through the park there was a large pile of rubbish that had built up over the years. I didn't get to help much due to when I arrived, but the other cachers had managed to haul several dozen bags worth of rubbish out of this area. An impressive effort. It was nice to meet a few more people from the caching world. Off to do some caching around the park.

Oh my, what a mess! There were rats and needles and piles and piles of rubbish. We came, we cleaned and we left a stack for next time. Great to meet some local cachers and catch up with some old caching friends. TFTC

Mr Ozjeeper arrived to find a large crowd of cachers eager to get the CITO Event underway. A stroll along the edge of the oval revealed only a small amount of rubbish to be collected from the Public areas. Noticing a gathering of Cachers in one particular spot I walked over to join them and I was amazed at the amount or rubbish piled in just one area on the bank of the drain. Being constantly aware of the plentiful supply of needles and rats intermittently emarging from their nest to run amongst us, a concentratedgroup-effort resulted in a substantial amount of rubbish being removed from the Park (and a "sharps container" being filled) - Well Done to all thos who participated.

Thanks to all those who attended - it was good to catch up with an enthusiastic bunch of CITO Cachers. Owning most of the caches in the Park, I then led a group of Cache-Hunters on a trip around the Park to grab some "finds" - and I got to log Nana Nel's new SPAIDS.

In particular, I teamed up with AZLovers who had come all the way from the USA on a caching holiday. So after leaving Sydney Park we went for a drive to grab some caches in the vicinity and topped off a Great Day having dinner with Mrs Ozjeeper and a non-Geocaching after dark tour around the City and the Bridge.

After a sleep at Heatherbrae on the way down from Port Macquarie, and then getting a couple of bags rubbish while doing the Ryde Quarry Earthcache I still arrived at GZ by 0910. Just a muggle contemplating the piles of hailstones still around from the previous evenings storm. Impressive!
Filled up another bag of recyclables before Richary arrived.
Great to meet cachers from overseas, and others not met before. Fun catching up with friends from near and far of course.
Then it was off to find rubbish around the park. I must COMMEND the local Council, as the trafficable areas were very clean considering the storm. Although one more bag of recyclables, and a half bag general rubbish were found on my rounds of the SE side. The found that I was missing out 'on the fun' of disturbing the 'rats nest' of rubbish on the NE side. WHAT A PILE OF RUBBISH Lugged x 10 HEAVY bags bag to the heap, and still gathered another x 4 monsters. Noted that a wallet with cards was found, to be returned to the Police. Several containers suitable for caches were discovered, but found good homes.
* Here's a thought/question for the GCNSW committee: I know the briefing was explicit in where we were limited to CITOing, BUT, considering the effort spent of cleaning up next to that limit I'm wondering if it is deemed plausible to rate the Terrain for the CITO Event at least as a T2 ?!? *
Another well planned Event, even to the timing after the STORM Thanks Geocaching NSW
Through for mileage: 12-12-12 Multi Event - Auckland, New Zealand; 2014 Geocaching NSW geocoin; 3.1415 Pi & Ice Cream Slice; 3Brothers-NSW; Auckland NZ '13; Blackmagic Spessart Kangaroo; Brausefass Lifesaver Geocoin; Bridge2Bridge Travel Ingot; Cache Critters - Baa, Neigh, & Oink Geocoins; CII-35Z; CITO - Upper Swan, and Beyond; Cleaning Games; Discover Me & Animals: GCookie; FTF Official Geocacher Badge-holder - GCookie; G Cookie Earth Cache 10 Year Celebration Coin; GCookie FIZZY coin; Grahame Cookie t-shirt; Hello Cocky TB; IconicBridges2012; Kengu; NZ Mega 13; NZ Mega Auckland 2013 Signature Trackable; Oz Mega 2014 GCookie; Qld Mega 2015 GCookie coin; Rhinoceros Geocoin 2; Surfmonkette; thank you- moliva; and Transaustralia.

What a well organized event. Met a lot of very nice geocachers and cleaned up a lot of trash. After the event we spent the day with ozjeeper geocaching about the city. Traded several TBs. TFTE.....

How amazing is Sydney's weather - rain, hail and a little sunshine.
Driving to the event, we could see a lot of damage from yesterday's storm.
Hail still on the roof of houses, and quite thick in places on the ground.
A novelty for us, being from WA.

The event was well organised, and it was good to see so many cachers willing to lend a hand
and the amount of rubbish collected was amazing.

We had planned an afternoon of caching in the area after the CITO, but the rain changed that.
So, back to a warm caravan and a DVD.

Thanks for organising the event, GCNSW.

Happy 2015 International CITO Weekend! I attended the Please Come Clean! - Sydney Park CITO Event Cache with the geo-pup Squizzy. After having to run some errands in the morning and battling the wet weather traffic on the way to the event, we arrived at Sydney Park at around 11:00 AM and met up with the group of keen Cache In Trash Out'ers who had already done an amazing job of filling up bags and bags full of rubbish. I rolled up my sleeves and helped lug the heavy bags back to the drop off point for the next hour or so. Once the group had finished their duties, we stood around to chat for a little while before a few of us (including AlphaDeltaIndigo, pk1965 and miss_sparklz) deciding to head off to attempt the six caches around Sydney Park.

We found and logged the following caches:
1) GC3CA8V Please Come Clean! - Sydney Park Event Cache;
2) GCY0Z2 It's Not Cricket Multi Cache at 11:51 AM;
3) GC5CCMC Turtle Water Traditional Cache at 12:07 PM;
4) GC14FX4 Sydney Park Wetlands Multi Cache at 12:14 PM;
5) GC5JC3Z Amy Walks On Water Traditional Cache at 12:20 PM;
6) GC5PNJQ Spaids 11 Traditional Cache at 12:33 PM; and
7) GCVQ9T Brick Wall Multi Cache at 12:47 PM.

Thanks For The Event Cache Geocaching NSW.

Got to GZ a little early, to meet any early starters of which there were a couple. In the end GZ ended up being closer to the carpark under one of the shelters, but this was a good spot to start as there was certainly plenty of rubbish in the area and towards Sydney Park Road to cleanup, and we ended up with quite a number of bags and a few other interesting find like a very rotten wooden chair frame, and a bicycle frame complete with lock, but everything else had been stripped off it. Great to see some new faces, and especially welcome to our long distance visitors from Arizona and Mandurah WA.

A little bit chilly, and a surprising amount of hail drifts still around from yesterday afternoon's freak storm that hit the area, with the amount of leaves and twigs down in the carpark area testament to how heavy it must have been coming down. Thanks everyone for attending. I will upload some photos to show the group towards the end and the surprising amount of rubbish collected.

This entry was edited by richary on Sunday, 26 April 2015 at 12:36:20 UTC.

Thanks to Geocaching NSW for another great experience.
We arrived right on time and were given the instructions as to where we were to clean up.
After about an hour we got to the end of the allocated area. At this point Kid Ron Satan had already moved over the fence and was filling his bag. It was obvious there was a lot of rubbish between the fence and drain. You just cant leave it there because it is outside the area designated. Over we went on mass and I personally filled 5 bags including 1 Needle without moving from where I placed myself. Paul the Hippy was about 1M from me must have picked up over 30 needles.
We believe it was rubbish that had come down the drain and trapped itself in this location.
A good job done and there was probably still more work required.
Visited a group of trackables and picked one up from the visitors from America to move on.

Edited the log to visit the trackable I have just grabbed from AZLovers.

Geodaughter and I headed south with our sack towards Amy Walks on Water. We picked off little items to begin with but then struck gold alongside the mail sorting centre. The biggest item we found was a Fedex bag as big as the sack itself. Geodoggie had the most fun, she loves the water and there was plenty of that.

TFTEC Geocaching NSW

A very impressive turnout, especially in such poor weather, and a massive pile of refuse removed from the park. Thanks for organising GCNSW.

CITO was great! Meeting other Geocachers was really great! Finding 10 caches today was also great!

This was a special event as it was our 2000th cache. Thanks to Geocaching NSW for organising a very successful Cito event. A good group of cachers found an area beside the canal which was layers deep in rubbish. There was enough rubbish to fill may bags. Thankfully the stronger cachers removed them when full as they were very heavy. The only wildlife not happy were the rats that were disturbed by all the activity. It was a very big clean up and all would have left with a sense of satisfaction. It was also good to connect with some cachers we knew and meet some whose caching names we knew but hadn't met previously. It was also great to meet some visitors from overseas and swap stories. Thanks for an interesting and effective morning.

CITO! Great day, Great cause!

I enjoyed cleaning up Sydney park at the CITO 2015 event. It was great to meet other geocachers and find about 10 GCs with them. TFTE Geocaching NSW.

Wow... was not expecting that. Both the number of dedicated clean-up-cachers who braved the post-apocalyptic St Peter's venue and the amount of trash we managed to haul out. The rain mostly kept away though evidence of the freak half metre of hail they got yesterday was still abound. Special mention to The Drovers and the couple from Arizona who came along for the day from far a field.

We set up shop in a little shelter and made our way along the bush strip by the canal. The hail had created a green blanket of pine needles and leaves, but Im sure it'll all grow back soon. After getting up towards Sydney road, having pristine cleaned 90% of the target area we found the motherload. Years of built up rubbish, mostly plastics. It wasnt so much collecting as mining for the filth. I spent most of the morning hauling full bags up the slope to the path where other dedicated mules awaited for the long trudge to the dropoff area.

Ive never seen so much rubbish come out of a CITO event... and last time we filled a trailer! Huge thanks to those who came and made this an extremely successful day. Thanks for all of us at GCNSW and the City of Sydney who partnered with us for the day.

Are geocachers the only people that clean up other people's mess as part of their hobby?

Thanks for organising GCNSW.

TFTC.

#1645

A great event in the rain.. What a pile of rubbish.. A job well done team. TFTE

A lovely morning in the drizzle picking up syringes and other rubbish that has been layed down layer upon layer over the years. It is good to know that there is now less chance that the Dolphins, gropers and other fish what become heroin addicts or diet consist of plastic. Nice event. Thank you. Now for the fun part of finding some caches.

Is this happening after all the rainfall?

Woke up to a perfect morning for a CITO.

#1012
26 April 2015 11:43 am

A very well organized cito! Nice to meet new faces also!
TFTC Geocaching NSW

Thanks NSW geocaching for hosting today's event. With the weather the way it was, small in number but large in what was collected was the rule of the day. It was great to meet and greet new faces. TFTE.

Great event, picking up the layer upon layer of garbage near the canal. So many environmentally friendly cachers. Thanks for organising this and as always great to meet up with old friends and welcome some new ones.

26/4/15. 10:00 AM. Cache #2455. Streak day #308. I arrived towards the beginning when there were already quite a few cachers here and before long our numbers had swelled. After the safety briefing, I headed north towards Sydney Park Road and picked up a little, but over the fence towards the canal was the motherlode of trash.

A few people joined me down this end and before long, most of the group were down here, mucking our way through layers of rubbish. Dodging the odd hypo and skittish rat, we filled many bags - more than I've ever seen at a CITO before. It was great catching up with so many familiar faces and putting a couple of new faces to names. The rain decided to start again towards the end, but it was very rewarding. Got me a souvenir too. Next I headed off to "midmy's playground 10- Alex park". TFT CITO.
} : )

CITO

Attended this CITO this morning, before the rain. It was a great turn out of geocachers. It was unbelievable the amount of rubbish that was on the bank of the drain. Nice to catch with fellow cachers. Thanks to NSW Geocaching for arranging the day, the council should be very happy.

Sorry I can't be there tomorrow. Unfortunately, I have to work. I hope you have a very enjoyable and successful clean-up.

Sorry about the late notice but you can count us in.

Sorry but Im out now Our home was flooded in the storms today so I'll be on clean up duties all day tomorrow

We have a whole bunch of garbage bags supplied by the council, so are good to go, and the weather is looking a little bit better than it was this afternoon. In fact see the photo I am about to upload, the Park looks more like the skifields! Hope to see plenty of people there - Richary.

I can make this - looks like I'll need to bring my snowboard?

Ok, things have worked out and I will be there.

Soccer got cancelled so I can make it. Can I bring my skis?

I will attend with my Geodad EverestHigh if it is not hailing, snowing, or storming!

Hope to be there to help clean up Sydney Park.

Planning to be there.

I am new in Sydney and also in Australia I hope I will be able to come meet new people and geocachers!

Should be able to make this one!

Ill be there

Taree Saturday morning, with a separate event at Port Macquarie Saturday night, so why not head South for a CITO. Who knows, I may even be able to check out a spot for a CITO Challenge while there.

Intending to attend. Hoping someone can bring an extra pair of gloves I could borrow for the cito.

We will be in Sydney for a week or so, and don't mind getting our hands dirty.
Count us in.

I'ts in the diary - looking forward to it!

Looks like this could be a goer. Will try and rustle up the rest of the clan to come along.

I will attend, unless I am away Saturday night.

I should be there and will try to drag Zhaoy along too

We hope to attend from Arizona, USA, if we can get a ride to and from Kent St. We would love to meet other geocaches in the area and swap stories.

I'm not sure if I will be in town, but if i am... I'll be there

I hope to be able to make it!

I will be able to make it.

Good one

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