Bunker on Howard Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia
By earthly65 and robbieracer66 on 27-Jul-14. Waypoint GC59Q9C

After visiting this GZ today we have, very reluctantly, decided it might be best to archive this cache...despite our attempts to work with itinerate users of this bunker, providing sharps container and cleaning up, we feel it has become unsafe for geocachers who could possibly be confronted by others making use of bunker for their nefarious "operations"....earthly65

Took LonelyRA and MossAU to find the cache, having previously found it. Cache is not in its normal spot, and there is also a lot of trash/belongings in the bunker.

CO needs to replace

One of three DNFs for the day. Maybe next time I'm around.

Still a bit of water so we couldn't find it

Visiting family in Coffs with goingplaces2 and wanting to add some yellow smileys to the map. Enjoyed the hunt, signed logs and had a good day. This cache was one of the finds. Found it on the ground in amongst the rubbish, but replacedit where it should be and where it blends in well. TFTC.

No luck for us here today

Had a good look around but no find for us tonight.

Nice lil easy find. Tftc

Found with Hammertime and NSW Lone Rovers, TFTC A sneaky hide

We re tempted but its flooded do not trust our feet down there with the last comments with drugs going on there

Spent a while searching, some people have moved in, and used a corner as their toilet, so quite the stench and fly infestation. Lots of drug paraphernalia around. Going to leave this one for a while

Co ords were a little off but it was easier than I expected after several attempts over the last year on this cache.

Nice bit of history, Bit smelly inside today. Thanks for being me here.

TFTC took my son with me to do this one, it was pretty grubby inside! Although the moths were pretty awesome especially under the flash

Replaced logsheet, tnln, sl

Found with VultureTeam, place is pretty dirty. TNLN. SL

Thanks for bringing us here, Love these history type cache's but always shame about the louts who destroy them. After reading some logs we were pleasantly surprised by a quick find TFTC

A really interesting spot [^]
And during the morning you are unlikely to meet any of the d!p$h!ts who spray paint the bunker or do drugs here

No amount of soaking up the history,
or stench could find me this cache today

Enjoying going out with Twista747 this afternoon and looking for a few caches. Found the bunker easily and went down the hill very carefully as the gravel was quite slippery. Hmmm. The walls were absolutely covered with graffiti and it was difficult to know where to start looking. Fortune favoured us this time as the cache was located quickly and we were very surprised and pleased. It blended well with its surroundings. Added initials of both teams to the log and replaced all as found. Thanks to earthly65 and robbieracer66 for possibly a more challenging hunt that was soon accomplished.

Again with Goingplaces 2 Interesting location. Finding out more about Coffs Harbour History TFTC

Ok we couldn't resist this one as we headed back to Toormina with the interesting write up we needed to have a sticky nose for ourselves. We kept in mind what sort of condition we would find the bunker but otherwise found it intriguing to explore as we made the search for the micro. Wasn't long before we spotted the bold hide and added our name to the log. Thanks earthly65 for showing us this incentive of history.
PS all safe tonight....zero homeless occupants and zero syringes.

??

Thanks for the cache, could be spooky at night

Thanks

Good but creepy and dirty place for a cache. Found it after a couple of minutes.

Thanks for hiding

TFTC,I have been wanting to do this one for a while but previous logs had put me off. Having completed the other cache just down the road I stopped and nervously entered the bunker. It was empty, very dirty and sort of creepy but thankfully empty. After about 10 minutes of searching I had the cache in hand, if only I had picked this side to start rather than finish I think I would have found it in a minute flat. Sturdy footwear needed for this one due to syringes and who knows what else amongst the rubbish on the floor.

Tftf but i agree its not a safe place

I would recommend staying away from this cache at present. It looks like homeless people have been sleeping in there. There was a large improvised sharps container on the floor and there was rubbish everywhere. I messaged the owner of the cache, this cache may need to be deactivated. I dont think its safe at present.

Had to pick up a friend from the airport, but had about an hour to spare. So, went looking for a few nearby caches. This was one that I found. Clever camo

Had to PAF to find this. Micro is tricky to find it blends in so well.

TFTC

On our way from Melb to Qld doing a caching trip while on the way this was a stop over and some awesome caches in the area.
On our second search for this one over the last couple days had a good look with a torch and soon had the cache in hand. Great little piece of history.
TFTC

9:55 AM #1403
On day 7 of our 3-week road trip from Melb to Surfers.
Attempted this one two days ago when we rode past. Came back today for another try. Bingo! Thanks for placing this cache!

Macro!! Blends in well

Fricken micro!!

TFTC. Had to PAF for this one but got it in the end. Thanks Bill and Di.

What a great cache, very dirty place but. After a quick phone a friend we had the little sucker in our hand . TFTC

Wow, this was tricky to find... In the end, had to PAF, and then had the cache in hand... TFTC

Great little cache My second visit to the site over a year [:o] Finally found the cheeky devil
TFTC

Find No: 5004. Visiting from Newcastle, staying in Woolgoolga for my little mate Matilda's 9th birthday, rainy afternoon calling for some caching, perfect place to be out of the rain, replaced log, thanks for the cache earthly65!!

Found while out on a day targeting higher d/t caches and just getting some exercise on my bike. Found this fairly quickly however it does blend in very well. It's a shame this place is so trashed as it is a good piece of Australian war history. Thanks earthly65

#664

Found the bunker with little effort, looked like the local kids have gotten back in for more tagging and a few other elicit endeavours couldn't find the cache only a small box that coulld have been once upon a time

Found with goldielover while visiting this great town. Once around before I spotted it.
TFTC

Found with stairman1. The last bunker for the weekend. It is quite eerie being on here. No one has taken up residence except for the moths. Thanks for bringing us here.

0850 GAFF1 Tried a couple of different types of Terrain settings before the GPSr settled down on a particular spot. Not too many pedestrians or cyclists to worry about. Fairly clean inside, but I didn't have my usual collection of rubbish bags in the car to help CITO it. The cache blended in quite well. I did find a 'Tupperware' container that I thought might have been it (didn't have anything but the coordinates) but it was very empty, so retrieved it for a further cache.
Will add a bookmark for the Challenging Cache elective #4, of which this will be #332, of the 400 required.
Took a couple of photos; not sure if there is Waymarking category for this.
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; Bridge2Bridge Travel Ingot; Cache Critters - Baa, Neigh, & Oink Geocoins; CII-35Z; CITO - Upper Swan, and Beyond; Discover Me & Animals: GCookie; Flash Mob XII GCookie Geocoin; G Cookie Earth Cache 10 Year Celebration Coin; GCookie FIZZY coin; Grahame Cookie t-shirt; Hello Cocky TB; IconicBridges2012; NZ Mega 13; NZ Mega Auckland 2013 Signature Trackable; Oz Mega 2014 GCookie; Qld Mega 2015 GCookie coin; Spindoc Bob & Friends Coin; Suzie@2431; and Transaustralia.
TFTC earthly65

A few joggers and other cyclists, but it seems they know not to worry about people checking the structure out. Persisted until finding the blighter. All good, but only room for a couple more names.
Thanks earthly65

Found it on second or third round. Did see a lonely bat having a nap in one of the corners of the roof. The log needs to be changed as it is full

What an interesting place,done one round of the place and soon found nit on the second time around.TFTC.

what a search
geowife felt creepy in here
but soon CIH with her eagle eye on the dark
bring your torch , it'll help a lot

TFTC e65 & r66

Hmmm a very small cache in a dark wet space, was not sure how this would play out. It's been raining all day and on arrival at the bunker was not surprised to see some water over the floor. Lucky for me it was about a centimeter below the seams of my work boots so in I went with small torch. found on the third lap around. Certainly an interesting location, thanks for placing.

Dirty place but found it, smart hide thanks 17th cach

Raining again over night do I'll have to miss out AGAIN on this one and I'll have to remember to bring my gum boots to coffs as it seems to rain every time I stay here. Oh well I'll be back

We set up camp at Coffs Harbour & this morning we wamted to takle the Beach walk.
We were exhausted after the walk so after lunch & rest we fitted a few more in.
This was our 2nd look for this one. Council has done some work since we were here last. The bunker was flooded whick is not unexpected after having so much rain.
Able to locate the wee thing in a place we didn't know existed.
Favourite point given.
Thanks for placing this cache earthly65

Lots of mozzies. Tricky hide

Very nice. Didn't even know this existed. TFTC

Bit wet in here today. Fresh graffiti on walls. Plenty of mozzies. Thankyou earthly65

5:30am I had a peek in today but it's flooded so I'll come back once I'm back in coffs hopefully in dryer times.

Interesting location and well concealed given the barren nature of the place.

Didn't get a chance to look as my luck today would have it,there was a large group at archery or target practice or whatever it was.TFTC.

How could I drive through Coffs without stopping for another look for this cache. I was pleasantly surprised at how tidy it was this time and Mrs BG and geo boy were really interested in the bunker. This time it was soon found for some reason?
Thanks earthly65 and cheers from Browngang

Well hidden, photo was a great help. TFTC

Very good hide thanks
Found with brad 1987

Stopped in with Batdos while we were cycling around town, getting him a few local caches. Cache is in good condition, although some has opened the sharps container and tipped out in the back corner, didn't touch as didn't have any gloves on us.

I was down in Coffs visiting my daughter (Coucho90) and her partner (Jared86) they had the day off so we formulated a plan and headed off to caches that we all had not found yet!!!

Near GZ I headed down the hill to investigate something which I found was definitely NOT the bunker!!!!!!!

By the time I got back up Jared86 sung out "Here It Is" (meaning the bunker)so I joined them back along the road.

We searched for some time with no success and just when we were about to give up Jared86 spotted the hide by accident and we had another smilie on the map!!!!!

Thanks Earthly & RobbieRacer for this very sneaky hide using all that you had available to make this cache disappear!!!!

This entry was edited by Couchmen on Tuesday, 04 November 2014 at 12:26:59 UTC.

Great hide tftc

Very clever

Bunker used for different purposes today than what they were originally built for. A tricky but good hide. TFTC

Found with sgtkennykrash Took Nothing Left nothing Slgned Log

Gotcha !!! TFTC

After walking the 10km Boambee Beach Dune Walk we needed a cache that involved no exercise and this one seemed perfect. What we didn't take into account was the amount of wandering back and forth and bending up and down it took to find the cache! We loved the bunker and the great co-ordinates but that cache reeked of evil! Well done earthly65, a fav from us.

Wow, Found whilst in Coffs shopping. didn't know this was here drove right past it on the way to another cache. Did on way back.

Fav point for location.

TFTC

Found at 4:35 PM GAFF2. Gosh - you locals make it so hard for us poor visitors [xx(] Here we are trying to explore your lovely city and we are "made" to go down into dungeons with sharps (I checked the container and there is one in there already!) I could see that the whole area had been cleared of Lantana and that the inside had been cleaned out - but that did not make it a whole lot easier to locate a bleeding nano in a bunker!
I was so relieved in finding the little blighter in the end as I had previously disturbed some scaly weird looking animal in a crevice that was surely going to attack me in any moment
Thanks earthly65 - giving it a favourite for the cheekiness of it all

Found it with brad1987 look closely or I'll miss it

Co-FTF. Found with gummybear7 on our 3rd attempt. Great work with the cito have done an awsome job. Bring a log extraction tool. Cleaning oit the bunker definitely made it a little easier to find. Gummybear7 had it in his hands before I could even load the gps. Thanks earthy and robbieracer

Little visitors to the bunker today

With another FTF up for grabs(by the looks of it bully DNF'ed it), I couldn't bypass this cache while in town.
Not a pretty sight once I got down into this bunker, so I turned over a few rocks with my steelcap boots, not game to catch any diseases from the drug implements.
At the end of the day, the cache is probably on top and not inside the bunker. Maybe. Not one for little kids that for sure.
Thanks for the mini tour of the Coffs bunkers earthly65
Cheers from Browngang

Robbieracer66 and I spent the afternoon cleaning out the bunker with help from geodaughter......we removed a lot of rubbish and have provided a sharps bin we got from the hospital in case previous visitors return. Area much more cacher friendly now.

Not sure what we were looking for but was suprised that there was a bunker here lots of rubish in there and didnt wanna take kids in after last comment so i told them the bunker itself was the treasure lol

Published

Having driven over 400kms we saw this one with a potential FTF to be had. We found the bunker easy enough but after an hour of searching through the assorted drug paraphernalia including used syringes in and around the bunker we unfortunately have to claim FDNF on this one. Too well hidden for us today.