Little Oasis Merrylands West, New South Wales, Australia
By P&Q, adopted by coastblue on 13-Jan-16. Waypoint GC69MVP

I am regretfully archiving this cache since there's been no response from nor action by the cache owner within the time frame requested in the last reviewer note.

tiddalik
Community Volunteer Reviewer

Hi coastblue,

This cache appears to be in need of owner intervention. I'm temporarily disabling it, only to discourage people from visiting this location until this cache may be addressed.

**Please note that caches disabled during the current COVID19 crisis you will be given some extra time to react as we recognise that CO's can't just pop out and fix the issue,** geocache maintenance can wait. Once the acute threat of pandemic is over, I will remind you about your cache needing attention.

Should you feel it safe for you to maintain and address this cache now, AND your regional Health and Governmental authorities allow it, please feel free to do so. However, I would like to assure you I will not be archiving any caches which the cache owner does not currently feel safe to maintain.

I'll pass by in about another 45 days and hopefully this will all be over.

Ministro - Matt

Might need to check on this ones

Looked for 30mins with no luck!

coastblue I didn’t find your cache Little Oasis on 2/5/21, 11:43 am. Almost 12 months since last find. Not sure if still there, checked all likely places but unable to come up with it.

Couldn't find this one. Will be back again soon. Any additional clues welcome

What a beautiful little spot in the middle of suburbia... Plenty of muggles about enjoying the weekend, we blended in pretending to enjoy the view
Finally spotted out the corner of my eye, the natural camo working well
Tftc

Been looking for this one a lot over the last 4 years after work today decided to stop here and walked to GZ and from the tight angle spotted it

With cache in hand we signed the log and replaced as found. Both the cache and log are in good condition. Thanks for bringing me to the area and thanks for placing the cache P&Q fir hiding and for coastblue for looking after it

The following TBs visited for the distance - phlphotos 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 & 2018 NSW geocoin, phlphotos travelling 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017 & 2018 NSW Geocoin, phlphotos Mary Hyde's compass, phlphotos Spindoc Bob Memorial Geocoin, phlphotos, phlphotos Area 51 Tag, phlphotos backpacker canister cover, phlphotos Cache In Trash Out Geocoin, phlphotos Cache In Trash Out Tag, phlphotos CITO Micro Geocoin, phlphotos Col Miner geocoin, phlphotos Four Elements Geocoin, phlphotos Optical Illusion Geocoin, phlphotos Trackable Building Brick, phlphotos Travel Bug Dog Tag, phlphotos Oz GeoMuster 2018 geocoin, phlphotos Oz GeoMuster 2018 geocoin, & dirty Black Juke

Dnf

Field log. TFTC. The 4Rods.

Came to the Merrylands/Fairfield area for some geocaching before the long weekend ends. What a great park! We enjoyed walking along the waterways in the shade. At GZ it took a minute or two to spot the very well-hidden but also very findable container. Thanks for bringing us here. SL TFTC Cheers... Gaztek

Located at 5:35pm. #1023.

A fellow Geocacher remarked to me at a recent CITO event that I, like him, preferred to cache unseen. Well, this cache is a testament to that. I have a crippling fear of being observed by muggles caching. There's no good reason (in their minds, so I believe) that I should be 'loitering' in a park or near a playground. Knock on wood that I haven't had the police called on me yet.

My five previous DNFs on this cache were from a range of different times during the day but each time there were children and/or parents nearby and I had to abandon my search post haste (most of the time I hadn't even started to search and just walked away).

Today, with the temperature pushing mid-40 degrees, I decided I may have a chance...and I was right...the gardens were completely devoid of visitors, not one single person could I see. I walked straight up to GZ and instantly made the find. I even took my time to sign the log and replace the cache as found and arrange the camo accordingly. Phew, now that sure was easy :'-D

Cheers for the placement Coastblue.

Большое Спасибо! תודה! L’chaim! TFTC!

- Alephroom.

Cache check. All is well. It is actually in plain sight with light natural camo on top. Not too difficult at all.

Gave up after 20. Reading previous records you might have underestimated the difficulty.

9:41am.

So consistently thwarted with this cache. After attending PPE’s CITO event, I decided to try my hand again at this cache. Early enough in the morning that only a few tennis players were in the Gardens. I arrive to GZ...and two council cleaners turn up to start collecting rubbish...which is a very good thing...but it had to be that exact moment I attempted this cache. Not sure when there will ever be a good time to find this as there’s always someone nearby making me look a creep :,-(

Cheers anyway.

- Alephroom.

Found. But just lying on the ground in the scrub. Have replaced best I could. Thanks

Found it eventually. OCW Brewmaker. TFTC Coastblue

Was about to DNF on a second attempt at this when EH uncovered the sneaky hide. TFTC

No luck with this one today, too many muggles around to have a good look. We shall return!

No luck today sadly.

3:45pm.

Back again and there was a father with his toddler daughter at GZ. Not a great start so had to look a surreptitious mentsh. After five minutes they left and I began my search. Didn’t get far because three small children ran down the walkway whilst their parents stayed on the other side of the stream. I was gornisht and, not wanting to look a meshugener, departed immediately.

I shall return again. Cheers.

- Alephroom.

4:33pm.

Thwarted again. Even though the gardens were packed with muggles today, GZ was completely free and thus gave me a chance to have a good search. Three minutes in, a large group of muggles appeared suddenly and settled close to GZ and my search was over. I’ll be back...again.

Cheers.

- Alephroom.

After a DNF last time, I came back today for another go. Searched in the same places again. And again. Then I just happened to look in the right direction from the right angle and it almost jumped out at me.

Maintenance check. Still in play. Good luck!

Beautiful view

Wow thats way out of my leagye lol good camoflouge lol

A second DNF for the day. In my defence, I did not get to have a really thorough look for this one. After 5 mins of searching the kids were getting impatient and there was a regular stream of muggles going past. From the previous logs this one might need a longer search.

Thanks for the placement P&Q/Coastblue....we will be back to avenge this DNF another day!

Geodad got to pick the afternoon’s activity for Father’s Day and chose to head out geocaching. Geoteen was reluctantly dragged along for some family bonding time.
Three sets of eyes and a good half hour of looking didn’t turn this one up. Maybe the difficulty rating should be upped?

I'm sure it must have been staring me in the face but I just couldn't see it. Anyway I had to abandon the search when some muggles came along.

Still there. Just well camouflaged.

No dice once again here. There were two muggles nearby who soon left but I felt too exposed to give as thorough a search as I had hoped. I shall return. L’chaim!

Seems to be missing. I have replaced. Please make sure to cover with natural camo.

Coordinates changed from:
S 33° 49.915 E 150° 57.681

Coordinates changed to:
S 33° 49.915 E 150° 57.679

Distance from original: 10.0 feet or 3.1 meters.

Update coordinates.

Little Oasis was transferred from P&Q to user coastblue

Arrived at the park around 8:50am and spent a good fifteen minutes searching. No dice today. I shall return. L’chaim!

Pen wouldn't work on that waterproof paper pic for evidence!
TFTH
That bird is my witness he was looking!
Bloody muggle lol

5 minutes to find it, as others said, easy if you know what to look for.

Quite easily seen when you know what you are looking for.
However the camouflage keeps it hidden from the unknowing average muggles who would walk right pass..

Apu Nahasapeemapetilon my travel bug companion also visited.

TFTC

Didn't find this one after a long search. Will try again. Nice sport

Easy find. Tftc!

I walked past it many times in 10 mins. Tried 2 PAFs, then found it just before 2nd PAF answered the call. It's so easy once you have spotted it. Tftc

Found on a nice mini hike with some muggle friends. This mini park is really nice place. Cache is well placed. Even looking at it directly it's not immediately noticeable.

Back to avenge my previous DNF attempt. Tonnes of muggles everywhere. Major stealth required today. Spied the cache and grabbed it in between the passing muggle traffic. Signed the log and stealthily replace. TFTC!

A short walk around the park. We never would be there before, it's pretty quite.
Very quick find !
TFTC

Nice Queens birthday long weekend, extra day of caching.

Had a great day locating these 3 caches, and interacting with the wild animals housed within.

Follow me On : Twitter, Periscope & Instagram to join the fun!

Out caching with contactpete after a morning of Crossfit.
Had a look around for a few minutes then decided to go a bit further along the walkway and I spied it on the ground. After signing the log we placed it back to where we deemed it a good place according to the description and other logs stated.

Did not find

After a day pounding the pavements it was nice to finish up with the caches in the beautiful park.

Little Oasis was second and it took about ten minutes. I convinced myself I was looking for something else so walked right past this I've three times !

Tftc

Tftc! I love these gardens

After spending a good 10 minutes looking for this one I gave up for a bit & looked at the lake for a couple of minutes then decided to head off to find another cache for the day. well the break did the trick I spotted the cache as I was walking past, how could I have not see this before.
TFTC

[#geocache4michael](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN1qEyWXYxg)

Out for a walk with geomum and Mr-geo-11-month-old. I loved this place as child. Geomum would bring us often and then as a teen, I came here for a couple of school excursions given that I went to Cerdon College just around the corner. It has changed since the last time I was here and I was saddened to hear that animals were being killed by people so new fencing had to be put up to fully lock up the enclosures.

Had to DNF this one. Sat for a bit to read some previous logs as I had looked around and couldn't find anything. Thought I had found it so stuck my hand through some spider webs to retrieve a sistema container only to reveal it's contents was a single biscuit. Needless, to say I threw it out and mentally cursed the family that dropped it out of their bag for making me stick my hand into spider webs and being laughed at by my mum! A muggle couple then swooped in and got cosy on a chair. My hunt was over. I will be back.

Gel pen sometimes doesn't want to work in the rain, or on the rain proof paper but I managed to find after temporary cache blindness and a break in the rain shower. Tftc

Fast find love thisplace cantbelieve we haventbeen here

Yes I agree with the previous cachers. Huge case of cache blindness. Searched for over half hour and no need to get off the bridge after all. TFTC!

Second of three finds in the park and the one that took the longest, even after a family of muggles moved off soon after I finally figured how to get to GZ. Had to keep referring back to the terrain rating to prevent searching suspect elevations but even when I eventually spotted what was now very obvious, I’d still have upped it a half star. Water was a bit murky but still looked very inviting on a hot day. How I envied the ducks in their little oasis.

OK I admit it, I found this quite difficult. Fortunately I had the area to myself and was able to search every possible spot. There was a family of Wood Ducks with 13 ducklings nearby and some juvenile Dusky Moorhens on the rocks opposite so plenty to distract me during my frustrating search.
I was just about to give up when I finally noticed it, right there in plain view!

Cache # 1673

Came down to Sydney from Newcastle to visit. We come to this nice little bit of nature in the big smoke. Tricky litle one. TFTC

We wandered down to this one after finding Pinaroo. I haven't been to this park for a while. I don't think the fountains in the lake or even the waterfall were working last time, but they were gushing this morning. There was barely anyone about, unlike weekends. So I was able to make a quick find next to the walkway. This was another cache that sat boldly in the open, making me wonder how they survive so long. Thanks

Found a week ago at wraacie's event but forgot to log

Quick find with JordsAu. Found at the event . Cheers for the cache!

Cache # 361
3 of 4

Log to follow

### TFTC ###

**In the park or a nearby event, had to grab these ones. What a wonderful park.**
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[Click Here for Twitter](https://twitter.com/Seemyshell)
[Click Here for Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUM4o-5_UmcmJjqHa027baw)
[Click Here for Periscope](https://www.periscope.tv/Seemyshell/)

This one took a couple of goes. On the second try, while the kids were riding their bikes through a puddle, I took the time to read some logs and description. It was when I saw that terrain rating, I knew it had to be an easy reach...and there it was.

I was not sure how the weather would be today (after yesterday's miserable conditions) with a forecast of rain in the morning. When I woke up I looked outside the window and, while it was blowing a gale, the sun was shining and things were looking up. Considering this good fortune, I decided to venture out west to an event over in Merrylands and take the opportunity to find some caches in the area while I was there. Morry9 messaged saying he was keen to join me, so he drove over and we headed off together. We headed towards Merrylands and arrived in the area early, so we had plenty of time to attempt a few caches before the event, and found 'Childhood Memories #3', 'Water Towers #08 - Greystanes', 'Childhood Memories #2', 'Prickles' and 'Please Release Me'. All were fairly straightforward finds.

We arrived at the '1st Anniversary of Caching' Event Cache right on time. I enjoyed chatting with the regulars and meeting some new cachers. During the event, we ducked over to find ‘Little Oasis’, ‘Pinaroo’ and ‘The Bird Avery’, which were all located in the Central Gardens. Congratulations to wraacie (and also to Gaming Caving) on reaching your first year anniversary of geocaching!

I had to drop morry9 back because he had something on later in the day but met up with AlphaDeltaIndigo and pk1965 soon thereafter to start the afternoon shift. We started in Epping for another crack at 'Only the Beginning'. A pair of undercover cops, who had been called to check on the bus stop by a concerned neighbour, had interrupted my first attempt at this cache. This time it proved to be a much easier find and it was a good feeling to have finally reached the end. We continued to Carlingford, so AlphaDeltaIndigo and pk1965 could find the old school ‘Sydney Geocache Relocated’ and, on the way out, we stopped by the Murray Farm Scout Hall next door to find 'Hunting on Haines'. Intrigued by the high difficulty and terrain rating, we wanted to check out ‘Catch 22 #Brawn’ next and were able to muscle our way to complete this challenging hide. We then spotted a group of caches in Bidjigal Reserve and spent some time walking around (and negotiating a tricky creek crossing) to find ‘Alexandras Crashpad', 'Ted's Toybox' and 'Shape Confusion'.

While in Bidjigal Reserve, we noticed a few new geocaches had recently been published. Being a fair way away, I was not entirely confident we could reach them in time but we kept an eye on them nevertheless. Once we made it back to the car, we decided to head over to Rhodes where to new caches were hopefully still waiting for us when we arrived. At 'Become a Rhodes Scholar Part 2.', we bumped into RangerD and JoPS87 (nice to meet you both) and we eventually spotted something out of place, to make a joint First To Find. We then walked over to 'Become a Rhodes Scholar Part 1' together for a much easier hunt and claimed our second joint First To Find of the evening.

Thanks For The Caches to the respective Cache Owners.

Found with Seemyshell and a few other locals whilst at the nearby event. What a great location! I always thought this was a golf course in here! What a nice surprise!

Log replaced. Happy caching!

I'm sorry to say that I dropped the log for this cache while attempting to sign it. It's out of reach, so I will replace the log as soon as I can. Probably Friday

Since I did find the cache, and will sign the log, i'll tag this as a find for today, even though I lost the log Will replace though

Another visit to this nice park, on the way to a client. Reading some previous logs I would have expected it to be a bit more difficult to find.

Cache blindness! An affliction that occurs even to the most experienced cacher. Not seeing what is right in front of your eyes in plain sight. Twice I've DNF'd this, twice I looked in that same area, cache blindness!!!
Approaching GZ for the 3rd time, I saw it before I even reached GZ. How could one be so blind. I have no words.
I sure was glad to find this as it fullfills another Geosportz challenge.

Very clever

Quick and easy find. What a beautiful reserve!!!

SL TFTC

Found.TFTC

This was indeed a little oasis and the area had enough green coverage for us to be able to make a discreet find. Not too long was needed to find and retrieve it and the nearby muggles were none the wiser. This cache blended very well with its surroundings and after we had put our name on the log the cache was put back where it had come from. Thank you P&Q for bringing us to this lovely peaceful spot and for placing this cache to showcase a very pretty feature of the park.

Found this time, I had been back on Easter Monday but had no luck. After a little toing and throwing found in plain sight with a good friend after a long hard week all round. Glad for some leisure time. TFTC.

Out with fellow cacher and found this one. A bit tricky.TFTC.

Stopped here before work, What a great park, soon spotted the cache and duties done. Thanks for showing me this place.

Find Number 3494

The Booo's found this cache!

We walked from the other nearby cache and began our search, once we moved our search a little to the east of where our GPSr was taking us we soon had the cache in hand. Then we admired the lovely little urban oasis before making our way back to the carpark.

Thanks P&Q for placing this cache

Tftf....

Found this one once we widened our search after the GPS was sending us about 2 meters away from where the actual cache was.

This is a wonderful area, very apt cache name. Even with muggles around this was an easy grab. Blends well in plain sight. Thanks so much for a great hide in a truly beautiful location P&Q xo

I took some time (10 mins) finding this. So obvious when I did. thfc

No idea. Nothing seemed obvious to me.

Arrived after 6pm and there were actually some cars in the carpark! Needed to use the amenities and then took the long way to GZ although I enjoyed hopping on the stones over the creek. Needed a PAF as I was taking too long due to cache blindness and worried I was going to get locked in. SL #2439 on streak day #1329 TFTC

Once I aimed back about 4m to the east from where my GPSr wanted me I soon had CIH. In plain sight.

I made my over from Bird Avery to this oasis, a very pleasant spot.

There was a muggle-dad taking delayed timer photos of muggle-mum, geo-newborn and himself. Decided to leave them to it. I'll be back another day.

Thanks anyway P&Q

Arrived and spent a few hours for a family picnic. Brought the kids bikes and planned to pick this one off. GeoRyan spied it straight away as I'd just placed the iPhone down at 2m, nice container too.
Glad for the kids that they spotted this one before me, thanks P&Q

A much trickier hide than I expected. Luckily I was in a pretty spot. I used to come here all the time.

A last find before lunch at Westfield.

TFTC.

#2645 (1 of 2 today) (Streak day 259)

Had things to do at home today with Geoson #3 - at least that's what the Geowife told me...
So headed out early to grab a cache today for the streak, then returned home.

Geoson and I did our slaving duties and then I noticed that a swathe of caches had been published an hour before. And the closest was still unlogged... So went for that as well.
[center]END OF CUT AND PASTE SECTION[/center]
Picked this one as it was one of the closest traditionals to home. Arrived at a familiar park and headed to GZ. Not sure if I was going the right way until I got to my destination - picked the quickest route.

Summed up GZ and decided it was one of 3 types of hide. Of course it was the last of the three that I checked.
All up, took me 5-10 minutes before I spotted the obvious. Hmmm, may be too obvious to some visitors here...

Completed signing duties and replaced.
Then enjoyed the view for a few minutes and back home.

I agree with maruce re wheelchair access here - definitely possible. Mostly flat well made paths not too great a distance from the parking lot.

SLTNLN
TFTC

Streak Day #934 - dave8153 came down the mountain for a visit and between storm jobs we stopped here for a cache. We were ready to give up and move on until that 'last look'when dave8153 yelled over and said he had spotted it. Good one Dave

#3486- I love this park- it certainly is an oasis in the suburbs. My mum used to live not far from here as does my mother in law still, so when the kids were younger we used to pop in here quite often. You know, spend time feeding ducks, having picnics etc.
I had found the other cache just after it came out and today, since Garks and I were heading to Merrylands for lunch with my brother, we dropped in. Now I've always walked in front of the waterfalls, never behind, so I didn't even know this walkway existed- not sure how recently ( or not) it's been built. Nevertheless, after all the storms of the past few days, the lake and falls were wonderful today in the blue sky and sunshine and an easy find was made. Thanks

Found it with snoopy1976. were just about to give up on this one when I spotted it. TFTC

31/1/16. 10:33 AM. Cache #3469. Streak day #588.
5th of 5 this morning - Peakhurst, Lidcombe, Parramatta & Merrylands West.

This one was third on my route this morning, coming here at around 9AM after finding "Add A Salp". But taking into account the terrain rating and looking here and there, I couldn't find anything. Sometimes it pays off to take a higher terrain approach to see things from a different angle, even if the retrieve could easily be done at a simpler terrain. So I tried that and got down and dirty - seeing as I had GZ to myself. Still no good using this method. I texted a friend and in the meantime, grabbed two other P&Q caches in Parramatta, "Riverside" and "Fields of Green".

At the latter, my TAF got back to me and I had more of an idea about where to look. After speaking to Mrs KRS, I deducted that I had enough time to get one more cache, so instead of getting the one in Carlingford that I was gong to do, I changed plans and came back here for a second look. With the new information, piece of cake. Signed, replaced, and headed for home. TFTC.
} : )

Week from reading the previous logs, i made that hint harder than it should have been. The area was swarming with swamp hens and geese but they won't tell anyone what I was up to.
Thanks for the cache.

No. 477

Couldn't resist trying to grab this one on the way home. Made the short walk down, and wow, absolutely beautiful. An oasis indeed! Happy to snag this {FTF}. TFTC P&Q!

Even though it was listed as disabled I went for this one as it was close to home. It IS wheel chair accessible (depending on the approach) and I will contact the CO for some addition to the description to confirm this. I think it may actually be more easily found by a wheel chair bound person.
TFTC.

Published

G'day,

You have your terrain set at 1.5 and a wheelchair attribute. Wheelchairs cannot travel on terrain greater than 1.

Please re-evaluate the terrain and set the attribute accordingly.


I've made this listing inactive for the time being, to get it off the review queue.
When you're ready for me to have another look at it, please edit the cache and click the "Submit for Review" button



Regards
i,riblit - "Groundspeak Volunteer Reviewer".


(Before this cache is published, a 'post reviewer note' is the best way to communicate with me. It puts it 'on the record', but comments will be archived before the cache goes on-line. An email is preferable after that.
I won't see any notes you make while it's disabled, so please submit the listing for review if you post a note.)

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Thought for the day

"When you go to hide a geocache, think of the reason you are bringing people to that spot. If the only reason is for the geocache, then find a better spot." - briansnat