Solar City Mitchell Park, Victoria, Australia
By sully1 on 05-Jun-12. Waypoint GC3MYQV

Due to a recent log, I'm archiving this cache. It seems council are currently not maintaining the lawn area in the public viewing & information area.

After walking through the broken fence and long grass (my eyes were on the lookout for you know what!) this one was easily found. About 10m out but still a good spot. TFTC sully1

Out and about with Dutch Frangipani to do some more of the Ballarat and Creswick Caches. We both had our caching eyes wide open today as we found nearly all the caches.

Don't know I would give this a Terrain rating of 1 as wheelchairs would not be able to get thru the long grass. Fortunately there was a hole in the fence as the gate was locked. Co-ords about 10metres out but it was an easy find.

Thanks for highlighting the area Sully1. Great to see facilities such as these using solar panels

Nice and easy cache. Fascinating solar farm project did not know existed in the district. Could surely be expanded as it takes relatively no space and set out so neatly. TFTC sully1.

Thanks for showing me this interesting site Sully. I made sure I was on the right side or was that left side of the 'bridge' and made a quick find in the third place I checked.
Good to find this location, perfect for a cache.

Found with PapaGrouch. TFTC

TFTC found with SciFiRulz

An interesting afternoon of caching to say the least. Started by grabbing a few caches and ended up doing CPR. Wasn't quite what I had planned for the day!

I knew there was a solar array set-up out here, but didn't know where. I got out here around 2:45 on a hot day and saw that GZ had grass higher than my waist. I gingerly crept my way though, examining carefully to ensure that no joe blakes would appear.

The cache was soon found, but I think I will come back to examine the information boards. I'll wait until the grass is mown or winter, whichever comes first.

All that said, a very interesting place indeed and thanks for bringing me here.

TFTC

Picked up this one on a caching run with Beckster 22 this morning. After initially approaching from the wrong side and then performing a 'balancing act' crossing, we quickly made the find. Thanks for bringing us here.

Easy find thanks sully

Found by geoGirl. GeoDad was with geogirl enjoying this area with the solar panels. GeoDad took a few pics of this fascinating site.

Thanks to sully1 for bringing us here.

Petit tour en voiture en cette fin d'après-midi, sympa ce coin
Merci pour la cache sully1

What an amazing array of solar panels. Why aren't more places doing this to generate clean energy? Thanks for making me stop here TFTC sully1

Found today on my lunch break just as a bus group of school boys arrived; frantically trying to put lid on container but couldn't get it back in place before the school boys gatthered around the exact spot the cache was placed. Will replace tomorrow morning; hope this doesn't inconvenience anyone.
Replaced last night (20/8/13) after work. TFTC.

This entry was edited by Kazandbren on Tuesday, 20 August 2013 at 22:26:25 UTC.

what a great spot. But like always not much power being made

Cloudy day not much solar power!!

The lights must be pretty dim in the solar city if the readings are anything to go by on this cloudy, chilly day in Ballarat. We are visiting our friends Markndee for the weekend and have had a successful find at the local Rawleigh's distributor before discovering there is a cache nearby. #1601 SL at 11.30am TFTC sully1. Now the boys are going to play in AutoBarn.

Found this at 11:30am, with Harrowang. The sun was shining the wind was biting but the solar cells weren't producing! We were pleased to come and look at this place having read about it in various newspaper & magazine articles. It just happens to be near the Rawleigh distributer which is why we were out here on a "Man & Beast"search! So thanks for the chance.

Lovely weather today, no output though... TFTC

Found with the assistance of the very keen McLookers

A quick pick up before school this morning. Did not know these were here. Thanks for the information.

New container placed today. Bigger and even more easier to spot than the original, but a lot more robust. Bearing in mind, that I wanted to bring people here to see the Solar Farm, the cache itself is not designed to be difficult.

Putting this on hold until I can get a new container and replace it.

Cache needs some maintenance please. Interesting location. Never knew solar panels were there and we live close by! Has been shut down temporarily due to maintenance.

We were another visitor who encountered the 0 readings for solar production.

Number 4 for the day on a quick tour out this side of Ballarat.

Please check on this one as the container is broken, with the lid in 2 pieces. Unfortunately didn't have any tape to make running repairs, but made sure it was placed back out of the elements.

This is very funny - all these panels and looks like they can only produce enough power to light up the panel but haven't produced any output at all??!!

Nice quick find. SL TFTC

I found it but it was very brittle and it broke while I was opening it. Sorry Sully1 I happen to have some blue tack with me as a temporary fix but it needs some urgent attention.

Fourth cache attempt for the morning, third successful. Satnav initially had the coordinates out by 20m, but lucky I went to read the information boards first which gave my satnav a chance to settle down. Had it in hand seconds later. Meter is still reading all zeros!
TFTC SL

We live fairly close to this and had no idea it existed! Thanks for bringing us here.

LOVED LOVED LOVED this spot... mrs scoobster has a thing for solar panels.. next time you're in adelaide.. ask her to show you the ones on her house!

Quick find whilst on holidays interstate visiting friends.
Great to pick up some local caches.
tftc

This was one of over 110 caches I found during a huge day and night of caching with my fellow cachers Trailrunning, Rebel Acts and Blacklegend (The Demolition Crew). As we all had the day free we carefully planned in advance the run and decided to call it Ballarat Smackdown II. The plan was ambitious and resulted in almost 22 hours of continual caching.

The day started in the early hours of the morning in the far eastern suburbs of Melbourne, then moving through the northern suburbs then onto and along the Western Freeway to Enfield State Forest then north up to Ballarat itself. We cached through Melton, Pykes Reservoir and Bacchus Marsh and many of the country roads north and south of the Western Freeway as we made our way west.

We had a fantastic day finding all the different types of caches and there were some quite inventive, very tricky and well constructed hides that we found. I thank all the cache owners for the time and effort they have spent in placing all the caches we found today.

Another legendary cache run by The Demolition Crew (myself, TrailRunning, Quasar3671 and Rebel Acts). We have dubbed it Ballarat Smackdown II. This was a huge run taking us all the way from near Cardinia, via the northern suburbs of Melbourne, to Bacchus Marsh and Melton and finally Ballarat. A massive loop, and over 100 caches for the run. The company was as always fantastic, a lot of laughs, good dinner, and great caches. Many thanks to all the CO's for the hides, without them we wouldn't have been able to find anything.

Pretty interesting set up here. TR made the grab, personally I love the cache subject. TFTC.

This was, cache # 112 of 117 finds for the day in the company of The Demolition Crew. My thanks to sully1 for the cache.

This cache was found by me today in the company of The Demolition Crew.

While I strive to make my logs personal to every cache, I have far too many logs to do, that I apologise in this instance for using a generic log. I thank you for the placement of this cache as it was one of many that made up a great day for me and the crew..

The Day's Blurb...

The annual holidays is always a great time to relax and take it easy, but not today. The Demolition Crew had decided that after such a long break from caching together that we would start the year off with a bang! So the planning minds were put into operation, and Ballarat Smackdown II was conceived.

The smackdown started along way from Ballarat, in fact in the hills around Cardinia Reservoir and from there is was a push across the northern suburbs of Melbourne through Melton & Bacchus Marsh. It being such a hot day, the waters of Pykes Creek Reservoir cooled and refreshed us, and we were soon off to start on the Ballarat caches.

Since our first Smackdown in the area, many new caches have popped up, so it was a fruitful run which ended well into the early morning. A couple of caches were replaced as a way of saying thanks to those who took the time to place them, and I think in the end my tally was well over 100 for the run.

It was a completely awesome day, and I thank you for placing the cache. We will return to the Ballarat area soon as there are still a number of caches we left undiscovered.

Right sort of day for Solar, still lots of 00000 here.

TFTC

Easy find. Interesting solar plant.

Easy find Christmas afternoon but an interesting place. Been to Ballarat heaps of times and never knew there was a solar farm. TFTC or I may never have found this place.

The dispay is still showing ZERO unfortunately. The solar farm is working beautifully at all times, just a small problem with a huge world wide Company, who shall remain nameless here, in keeping up their end of the maintenance - the Display Board.!!!!

Popped over here on a warm Saturday afternoon whilst visiting a club and one of the many local sheds. Nice quick find. The display showing the current power generation was showing zero. It was overcast, but certainly not dark. Hopefully just a meter problem, and not the whole array down.

Thanks for bringing me here.

Thanks a quick find and a history lesson

I did a little reading while here. Good info.

Suscoe and Sister were out for a day's caching in Ballarat.
It was a delightful day, a little bit cloudy and a gentle breeze.
This was find number thirteen for us today.
A quick find was made, all the data sets said 0 which seemed odd as there was a good bit of sun shining.
An amazing array.
Thanks to sully1 for bringing us here.

I've found the cache on the drive in, this one encouraged me to enter further and look around the whole area. Thanks to a destroyed fence I was able to access this micro.

Thanks Sully1 for the hide.
Having been out here for many Years, nice to see a shiny new addition to the area

Ok, have never been here before. Love going to new places. Thanks for the hide.

Easy find. Not much power being generated since the cloud has rolled back into town. Would of been good to see what it was generating the last few days with all that sun. Thanks.

very windy muddy day...and on top of that freezing!! bur found it..thanks

Found 15:35, after a brief search.

TNLN, CSI=2, thanks sully1.

Found on a very wet an cold Ballarat day

Found this one prior to going to Melbourne for an appointment, also to fill another hole in my caching calendar. Like tackle_head I found the solar activity board to be showing all zeros. Maybe the cloud cover was having an adverse effect. I didn't think that Ballarat would have enough sun for this to be a viable enterprise. Thancks for the cache sully1.

Found this one after work on Friday.
A nice spot but the ground is really muddy at the moment and they look like they are in the middle of some earthworks.
Thanks for showing us this spot sully1. We had seen it before but not this close.

Found with Mum & Dad.
Lots of fun mud around here!
A nice hide I could find too.
Thanks sully1.

Found with The Empire on a caching run to Ballarat and beyond .
This was slightly funny as there is no action to see even when they are in full swing but reading the activity sign it showed on this rainy overcast day that there was no action , so we decided to try and help out and shone our torches on one panel for nearly half an hour and still made no difference , we tried !
see photo -
tftc Sulli1

After placing my cache as part of the Ballarat Cacher's Challenge on the way up here, I managed to drag the CO out for a few caches on a wet Wintry day. Being driven to within 20m was nice, but could've been nicer since the fence has been removed to drive to within a metre and save my aching back. Thanks for bringing me here, literally, to see this Leese.
Not surprisingly, the digital readout was ZERO again today. Like the temperature!

Found by The Empire @ 10:40am with tackle_head
Find number 12 of 31 GC.com caches for the day. 00.000 across the dials! Ballarat has got to be one of coldest places in Victoria, glad to see the solar panels are ready to catch the 10 minutes of pesky sun this rural town gets every decade! Thanks for the cache, sully1.
- M

Easy find to get us back into geocaching on a very soggy day!

Wow.. 1850 odd panels makes my 12 panels at home look insignificant.
Still, it's my small contribution to the environment and helps with the electricity bill too from the solar rebate .

Thanks Sully1

Thanks for showing us this never knew this sola farm was here. Found with 3potscreamer.

Our tenth find for the day! Time for a celebration photo....

Found today with GEO kid
it is getting bad when
your 3 1/2 year old
finds it before you
& you have the GPS
Thanks

Found by Jase and sal with Team Rav.

Found TeamRav

found with stooy

Freezing cold here this arvo with 50+kph winds! But finally some sunshine

Found by Mary & David at 0950. Quite a nostalgic approach driving past all the ex-RAAF huts and remembering the RAAF history here. Many of our RAAF friends started their careers as apprentices here at the RAAF School of Radio. The School later moved to Laverton, and David was CO of the School in the mid-80s. We weren't aware of this solar energy project, and found it all quite impressive. However, on this grey and wintry day, the continuing need for conventional electricity generation was evident as the display showed the installation's output as zero (and there was no wind either). Our thanks to sully1.

No output today, emission savings zero. Tftc Sully 1

Thanks for bringing us to this Government program and educating us on solar energy. TFTC

Published

YAY, 2nd FTF in a night, I looked around for about 10 mins as I was having a few interference issues with my phone, but I persisted and spotted the likely hiding spot after a while

TFTC

Was no use venturing out in the cold trying for a FTF with ST37E out & about, so it was a nice quick find in daylight.! Not much power being harnessed at the moment on a cold Ballarat day. TFTH Sully1!

I'm thinking about leaving ST37E behind when the next chance for a FTF comes up again!
Oh well.

TFTC!