Wallace Smelter Bethanga, Victoria, Australia
By onefatporker on 07-Jul-12. Waypoint GC3Q7FH

Dnf

Even with ladder DNF.

I'm in Albury for the weekend, geocaching with DARKSIDEDAN and C10A. Three of us could not find the cache, not even with a ladder to check all of the nooks and crannies.

Replaced with similar cache container just now, highly likely nesting birds have disturbed the cache and its been removed as rubbish, all good now.

Here's one to find today.Thank you for placing the cache onefatporker.

Found with crank1

Found it, nice spot

TFTC! Great hiding spot, lucky we had tools to use

Found it on the ground

Easy to find, definitely look up

Found it after climbing and using a torch. Birds have built a nest and had been pushed way too far to access. Used tools in the car and quite a bit of work to retrieve it. Put back at a more accessible position.

Spent 15minutes searching , but no Smiley for us

Found it! It was a very very good hiding spot. We couldn’t reach it but we eventually found it and left our message thanks for the adventure.

Not easy to access without a friend
Hope you have long fingers lol

Found in the grass, returned to a higher location....
TFTC
terrortorian

My first find, yeh!

Taking some time after the Wangaratta Mega to travel around and grab some caches with The_Tritonz.
This was our first for the day after a great night in a lovely camp. Some could reach this and others couldn't, lol.
Thanks for placing the cache for us to find.

A night of camping at Bethanga with Papi4506 and Geoturtle37 saw us set off in the morning to seek out the local caches.
Read all the info as best we could as it is fading a bit before making the find. Just a nice reach for Papi.

Thanks onefatporker for the placement.

Came for the Talgarth trig way up in the hills. Hint made for a fairly quick find. Got myself a nice coffee and some fresh iced donuts from the town’s local store.

Ducked out to pick up some bread and a cache as well. For this bunch of shorties it was little harder than expected by made the find. TFTC and bringing us here onefatforker

Great little adventure. My little man also enjoyed learning about the mining history. Just like our home town in the Goldfields. The hint was required because we were contemplating heading over the fence x

Smart hiding place.

A quick find and a great Winters day out in the countryside. TFTC

Quick find however tricky to reach, a bird flew out straight towards me ! Tftc

Rex and I drove up to Albury to see my former colleague, Glenn, and meet his partner Rachael too[^] and their dog, Ella[:X][^]
After leaving the van later than planned, we didn't arrive in Albury until about 3pm after a rushed drive with no caches found at all
I was taken to see the Harris Farm Market where we gathered some drinks and nibbles plus pizzas for lunch[^][^]
Late lunch was eaten at a place that looked familiar (I had possibly been there during the 2012 Albury/Wodonga/Thurgoona mega), a reserve on the edge of the Hume Weir. After that we headed over to Bethanga, stopped at a lookout near there to enjoy the sunset and then later I found one cache at a historical spot where Rex made his own history in Glenn's eyes
Then we decided we were all still hungry and so headed for tea at a pub that Glenn liked
Imagine my surprise when we walked up to the pub and I knew that I had been there before! It was the Kinross Hotel, where the 2012 Mega Flash Mob and Mega pictures were taken![^]
A lot of driving, 1 DNF and 1 cache found for the whole day

This was Rachael's first geocache find![^] Glenn had been out with me once before from Shepparton[^] Now she knows what geocaching is about[^][^] Interesting history and we all learned something new[^][^]

TNLN. SL. TFTC onefatporker

Nice fun find on a beautiful day

Found

An easy find but difficult to get out of its hiding spot. Very interesting historical area. TFTC

We found it finally. TFTC

Our very first geocache, just down the road from us. We found it very hard and the difficulty was only 1!

TFTC

Found with geopooch while walking. Tftc

Found while out exercising. New page added to log.

Make sure you take a tall person with you!

Great spot. New log needed!

????

Quick find, harder collect. Tftc

a couple of days in Wodonga
out having a look around, grabbing a few caches along the way
today out for a drive and looking around the lake
pleasant little community in the hills
all good here
even with a tricky retrieval
signed and replaced
thanks for the cache

Nice quick stop. Found on ground but replaced where we think it should have been.

Good hint

Found at 3.30pm. Another snippet of history. A lovely area to wander around. A bit of a stretch. Thanks, K&M

Gefunden mit DMJP2019

Gefunden mit opi4you

Out for a caching loop to take my mother for a drive on a lovely sunny autumn day. Although I grew up in Corryong I have never been to Bethanga so this history was quite a surprise. Mr Winglen’s long reach was useful! Thanks for the hide.

Tricky but got it

Found

Great spot cheers tftc

??

For those Cache Owners unaware, Catnap777 & OZREG have formed a team under Geocache Guideline:
1.17. Merge accounts.
This allows logging of old finds under the new account with Username of TeamOZCAT.
Please contact if you have any queries.
"The truth is out there, and so are many more caches"
Cheers from Karen and Reg.

Maybe could have been placed in a easier spot for us "older cachers". Tftc

Found it. Cute little bottle!

Easy find- could see it from the car! TFTC!!!

Sneaky

After the last few hot days I have poked around town an found the off cache, but with the temperature well below 30 and the kids at the pool I decided to go for a drive and chose to head around Lake Hume to pick up a few caches. Can't take Geokid #2 on this road - this is another of the many local roads here has puked on during a family outing! It tried to rain on me a couple of times, but was a successful trip with all caches (except one as noted) in good condition.

Headed back to Bethanga along a road I hadn't traveled on before (there were a few of these today). Quickly out to the smelter site and while reading the interesting information spied the cache. Quickly retrieved, signed and returned. I know a few people how live in Bethanga - after readiong the sign not certain I would eat the vegetables they grow.

TFTC onefatporker

The "cache is not on the road" (according to the CO). *You don't say!* But it's "near the road so watch the kids". What , get run over . . . in Bethanga? The pub was quieter then a priest in a nunnery!

*Facetious*, me? Nah. No more facetious then the CO's caching name, now am I?

That aside it was quite interesting to learn about this area. Is there any part of Australia that hasn't been mined for some kind of mineral or precious metal or black gold ("Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea" to rip off the words from the Beverley Hillbillies theme song!)

Found easily, thanks for the history lesson.

TFTC TNLN

It was a great place to have it and was fun having a look around

Up up and away with the sparrows.

Difficult find!! All paper too tattered and torn and soggy to log though!!

This one was harder but will still did it!

Found by Cienna with assistance from Craig, Jonty and Xyleigh while Tash relaxed in the car. Nice hide. Interesting spot. TFTC.

TFTC. Great historical site. Enjoyed looking around on this beautiful day.

Found quickly. Very interesting read at the sign. The smelter was certainly big in its day. TFTC SL TNLN. Log was damp and needs a new one.

Found on a road trip up from Melbourne to attend an event in Wodonga. This was a targeted cache in order to tick off a Victorian LGA. Log is a bit mouldy as the container isn't watertight.

Log needs replacing. Container wet inside.

Belated thanks for placing cache. Nice history.

Found it on the ground just rolling around. Have re hidden. Loved the local history. Cache log was wet and might need replacing. TFTC

A splendid drive on a beautiful winter's day round North East Victoria. A quick find but a little hard to reach for the vertically challenged. TFTC

Paper wet.

Easy find but log sheets are very damp. Anyway I am glad you brought me here as I was unaware of the extensive mining history of Bethanga. Thanks porker but a dryer location may be better.

At no point did it occur to me that I'd have no signal on my phone til it happened right at gz. So I looked in all the obvious places...disappointed I hadn't thought to save it offline. And then i remembered there was a hint...now what was that...aaha! Grabbed the container and signed the soggy log & replaced as found. Tftc in a location I haven't been before.

Nice scenery

Tftc!
Also put a new log sheet in.

Tftc! Seen it before i knew what it was so it was easy for me!

Found by DotG Log is real damp and needs maintenance, managed to log TFTC

TFTC

#1995 Our first visit to Bethanga today as we explore the area. Really enjoyed reading about the local mining history around gz. Mr BGF spied the cache, retrieving it proved a little difficult but we found a method. Log sheet a bit damp but we managed to scribe our name. TFTC onefatporker, great caching name .

After a few minutes of looking "up" as per the clue geokid #3 found opened container laying on the ground with a very wet log..container resealed

Had been here before, but not attempted the cache. Out for a drive and thought we'd try again. TFTC.

Tftc

Tftc. Didn't have a pen tonight

Tftc

Found before breakfast after camping at recreation ground tftc

Travelling around Australia, waiting out the Easter rush at Lake Hume with Smokie5054.

Headed into Tallangatta today after stopping at the Bakery we headed out to complete the Sunday drive series on a Monday kind of Sunday.

Interesting history here, read all the signboards then looked for the cache.

An enjoyable day out with friends, in an area we may not have visited if it weren't for Geocaching.

TFTC onefatporker

Very interesting TFTC we found it with FelixII .

hint it spot on!

Good cache! Good thing I am tall

Out for a morning of caching around the border. A quick find once the hint was read. TFTC.

Nice cache!

A great piece of local history that I never knew existed. Tftc.

Tftc

Easy find but difficult to extract. Had been pushed back just a tad too far. After finding an appropriate tool, a stick, soon had in hand. Thanks 'onefatporker' for the cache and the history lesson that I'm guessing is not overly well known.

My wife and I, along with Crusty K9, have just spent a few days traveling around the Upper Murray area. We had a wonderful time and found some caches along the way. Thanks for helping make our trip an enjoyable experience.
Crusty.

What a great piece of Australian history. Thanks for brining us here. A Favourite point from me for this one.. TFTC onefatporker
Cheers,
Grim Raider!

GrimRaider and I were in town for a family reunion - he descends from one John Smith who used to live here and is buried in the local cemetery. We enjoyed looking around this area and found it hard to imagine how tough the characters must have been to live and work in the days when the smelter was operating. We found the cache without too much trouble and it is in good condition. TNLNSL TFTC

My First cache

My tour of the region took me to the wonderful little village of Bethanga
Funny spot, so tucked away amongst the hills

Out along one of the back streets I found this bit of mining history.
And a quick cache find to boot

TFTC and reason to visit Bethanga again.

What an interesting spot to visit. Found the cache quickly and enjoyed the history lesson. Tftc.

Sneaky hide, took spaceman a while to get it. TFTC onefatporker

Really nice spot. Tricky cache to get at, but finally SL. TFTC