Blast From The Past (Victoria) Beenak, Victoria, Australia
By Tony and John on 22-Apr-01. Waypoint GC78E

I was in the area and decided to check on this cache, not knowing it was archived, found it still there, what a disgrace, next time I am in the area I will remove it.

For some reason this cache was still on our GPS so we found it. Even though it's disabled and rotten, it's still there as rubbish. If we had known, we would've removed it!

Checked the cache on the weekend. It is in very poor condition. All contents waterlogged. I do not have the time to repair and maintain the cache so it's time it was retired. Thanks to all who have enjoyed finding this cache though it was difficult for many.
Tony.

Interesting place which I've been meaning to visit for ages.
Have to say the hints didn't seem to make a lot of sense in terms of the terrain, which is odd as is doesn't look as if things have changed recently.
Didn't spend much time though in view of recent logs.

My 300 th cache. What's a 'lochen'?
Thanks.

Horse lover muggles everywhere about two hundred, will try another day. Thanks Tony and John, very pretty area.

Wasted an hour here on my birthday! Rang 4 other people for help but still couldn't find it. When are you going to update the coordinates? Perhaps a hint as well?

Found this one in pouring rain. Its great to get good rain at last. Had to sign log very quickly as it started to pour. We did not get to have a good look at the old buildings so we will come back soon

always love having a look around here

TNLN SL




TFTC

interesting place to visit TN LN

[This entry was edited by budgie09 on Monday, February 02, 2009 at 2:10:02 AM.]

[This entry was edited by budgie09 on Monday, February 02, 2009 at 2:10:51 AM.]

Found by Bob at 1200

Wow, this one's a bit popular lately! After picking up my new Jeep on Friday, I needed to log up a few kms on it, so I thought a bit of a tour of the eastern hills was in order - and I could nab a couple of caches along the way . I'd visited this one on a previous occasion, but I couldn't have picked a worse day to try it as there'd been 40-50mm of rain overnight and it was still raining heavily and I had no luck at all (actually, judging from where I found the cache today and if my memory is correct, then I think the cache was under water on my last attempt!). Today, I parked 50m or so from GZ and, anticipating a possibly lengthy search, strolled over to the GZ area without taking my pack (or pen) and, as with the last couple of finders, my luck was really in and I spotted it almost immediately (after which, I had to go back to get my pen). I was surprised to see that Echo & Spice had visited only yesterday and figure the recent finds may have "freshened" up the covering a tad - which makes it just that little bit easier to spot . After this (pleasant) anti-climax, I wandered over and had another look at the old charcoal kiln and was pleased to see that the area has had a lot of regrowth since one of the old pictures was taken.

TNLN

Thanks Tony and John - a really nice spot for a cache!

Visited at 18:02
With the GPSr constantly putting us about 10m out today (maybe because of the heavy cloud cover?) we didn't think we would find this one. Echo put his stuff down on a tree stump and went to read the previous logs. The log before ours proved very helpful and we soon had the cache (and very wet log) in hand.
There seemed an amazing amount of campers here today, some of who were very friendly (and close to the cache).
On our way out there were two kookaburras sitting on the fence and Spice was wrapped to see them, she doesn't get into the bush much... The nearby campers told us that the birds had just taken off with their lunch straight off the bbq.
TNLNSL TFTC, find #405 for Echo & Spice.

I had read all the tales of long searches and the like for this one. I walked into my gz, put the gps down on a handy stump, and prepared for a steady, methodical search. I walked about 4 metres to a large tree at the edge of a very small cleared area and looked around it - nothing. I stepped back two paces and to my absolute delight stepped onto the cache! My best find for the day! I then took nine large steps straight back out to the 4wd track. I just love getting these really old caches and this one had been on my list for quite a while.

Found @1030Hrs. Whilst out on a caching day with Hi Pressure.

TNLNSL
TFTC

Found at 1615 hours, after searching for nearly an hour,GPSr was showing 13 metres from GZ, I thought can't find it, as I was about to give up, that was a funny sound as I step on top of the cache. Well there you go it was pure luck that I found it, this is what I call a sneaky hide, ten points for the hide.
TNLN SL
TFTC & The history here.

Confirmed cache in place but did not open it as muggles where in area.

(:()

spent 45mins looking for this cache with no luck. There were a few campers around. Undergrowth is a little thicker than the pictures joined to this cache. will haveto have a othe look around on a other day.

We were dissapointed that we could not find this one, and we were having a bit of trouble with all the undergrowth and the spiders webs. The ever present ranger was keeping an eye on us as well, so we quit looking for the cache and went and looked at the Kirth Kiln exhibits. This is just a fantastic place, with plenty of toilets, tracks abound and plenty of old history around. Would be a good place for a Geo get together as well. Will come back for sure.
Thanks for the info Tony & John.

Found @ 10:30 with Clarks Mob on our New Year's Day jaunt. Searched for about 45 minutes for this one before I found it. The last time I was here I got rained out so I was determined to find it this time. Nearly stumbled onto the location several time but there was a BIG ugly looking spider with its web across the path and I didn't want to disturb it. Finally after looking just about everywhere else I decided the web had to go and I walked through it and within seconds the cache was mine. Was the spider guarding the path or was it just a coincidence, I wonder
This is the oldest cache I have done so far. TNLNSL TFTC

Found @ 10:30am on our new years cache run with Scooters Mob.
After at least 45 minutes of getting eaten alive by march flies we finally found it.
TNLN TFTC SL

I think I was being a bit optimistic going for this one today - I was expecting it to be difficult, but trying for it on a day when there'd been 40-50mm of rain overnight and it was still pouring very heavily was asking a bit much. I was already pretty soaked from a previous cache, but I spent 30mins or so wandering around here getting wetter while trying to get a fix with any of the 3 coords in the logs. No joy (no idea which side of the track even!), so I'll have to try some other time.

Thanks anyway, it's a nice spot.

well after alot of searching could not find this one the gps aways took me to the same spot but could not find anything abit of a shame cause i wont be back for a long time to find this its a bit far from sydney maybe next year after the motogp thanks anyway its in a nice area and looks like a great place to explore more wlth the 4wd...

I can't believe we didn't find a 1,1!
It was night, and our last cache, but...
We will be back (maybe during the day).
Thanks, Robmc.

Was surprised to find myself here after reading about this park years ago in one of my 4X4 magazines. Couldn't find the offending artical but will be pleased to come back in daylight and see this area properly.
Thanks.

Awesome another one of the "grand father" caches found. In very good condition, dry safe and sound. Just love those large caches. Thanks has a ball finding this one, experience with other old caches certainly helped. TNLN

This was our fourth attempt at this cache, the first three had been at the weekends when there had been lots of muggles around. Combined with weak gpsr reception we had not been successful in our searchs. This morning we had the place to ourselves and the gps gods on our side as we walked directly to the slighty exposed cache
TNLNSL
Thanks Tony and John for the cache and for bringing us to this great historical area

Attempted this with NEXT! This was the one cache I wanted to find today and it would have been the oldest cache I have done to this point, but it wasn't to be.
We arrived at the parking area about 50 meters from GZ and the drizzle turned into rain. Granted much it is needed rain but in the end we were getting soaked so after only 15 minutes searching we had to call it off.
I will try again another day but I think I will make a phone call to get a hint from one of the previous finders as the GPS pointed to several locations as I was attempting to triangulate the position.

This is a great location for a family outing and today there appeared a horse gymkhana running but all the horsy type were huddling under whatever cover they could find as the rain pelted down.

Enjoyed the challenge. Good hiding spot, but hints were clear. Some RSA muggles looked a bit puzzled about my interest in the gun. TFTC

Found at 1:20PM..


A nice day out for a drive and to show mum some of the wondeful 4x4 tracks further east. After an exhaustive search for who knows how long I found it.. It had a bit of water in it but cache seems fine.


Thanks for the cache from M.B and L.B

TNLN

After a very good search with Daringdadwoz for at least 30mins with GPSr all over the place decided to leave this one for another day. Searched all the likely looking spots without success.

Till next time.

Grabbed the colorado geocoin to move it along.

This, along with two other caches, has been on our "why the heck can't we find it! list" for over 12 months.

Today however we managed to find the plastic and record our success.

Wasn't all that hard really.

TNLN

TFTC

Found with the help of Geof and the kids of the Youth Group. I doubt I would have ever found this alone.

Took Car, left Fire Checker & GeoCoin.

Was in the area so took a look again. It's still there. Tiped some water out and repacked it.

We were driving past this location today and we gave this one another go but still came up empty handed although we did give up early as the rain was getting heavy.

We will be back.

[This entry was edited by Team_Diesel on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 at 12:55:40 PM.]

Shortly after the midnight hour the lords of darkness began yet another haunting.

Found at 5.05pm GAFF4. We returned to find this cache after a few recent finds and found that we were looking at a spot 15 to 20 metres away from where we were being directed to last time. We still spent a bit of time looking, as we were experiencing very bad epe. Eventually we spotted an ever so subtle set of clues and were finally relieved to have found it. Although the lid was on tightly, there was some water in the container and some of the contents were damp. Took: Horse and Travel Bug - Bug TB, Left: Car. Thanks Tony and John

Found this one today after catching up with The Farmers 5.

Took air freshner, left Mondos


Thanks Tony and John

This was our second attempt at this one.THis time with help of chefs on the run it was located very close to last spot we looked and it was well hidden -took smiley face -put in horse thanks

Had tried this one some twelve months ago with no luck, but we spent some time checking out this awesome place so close to haome.
Well with 650 caches now under our belt I figured that I was geting the hang of this sport. GPS got me within 3m of the cache and in total from the time I left the car to returning five minutes tops. Thanks for showing us this top spot.

Add us to the list of DNF. We spent around 35 minutes looking all over GZ. The vegetation is quite thick in some spots and difficult to get into it. We had reasonable GPS readings with 6 metre EPE and hitting zero distance so we thought we stood a good chance of finding it. But after a long search we packed it in. Will keep an eye on this one. Thanks Tony and John - at least we explored an area that we have never been to before.

This was our second attempt at this cache. Last year we tried for about 3/4 hour with no luck and had to give up when 3 car loads of trail bikes parked close by.
Today we had renewed hope with the recent finds but after another 3/4 hour searching we rang the ever helpful coffee clan help line and even with his help we were unable to find it. We had an EPE in excess of 30m the entire time we were there which did not help matters. either
They say third time lucky so we will see.
Thanks Tony and John

[This entry was edited by Team Crackers on Sunday, July 24, 2005 at 3:38:06 AM.]

We spent about an hour looking - the gps was all over the place and we decided the left of the track was the right side but even then we were not sure. Things came to an abrupt halt we I felt something on my leg - horror or horrors it was a leech. Then we started inspecting ourselves and Bruce must have been looking more closely at the foliage than me because he had about 15 leeches on him luckily only about 5 got up his trouser legs and one had attached. Lucky we had matches with us. Thanks Tony and John it was an interesting area but we had no luck.

Having seen the recent finds by Kiwideb and dak we decided to give this one another try.

Without the hoy and cold clues from Muzza and Alansan we again came up empty handed.

Lucky this cache is not too far from home and we can detour past and try again another time.

My 2nd cache for the day. My GPS was leading me to the correct area. Poor DAK was on the other side of the track.
With Muzza and Alansan looking on it was a bit stressful looking for this cache. We played the hot cold thing. Cache was found at 1050. Sadly DAK Emu and I were standing nearly on the cache but couldn't see it.
Thanks for this great cache guys. Lots of campers near by.

Second of twelve Yarra Valley caches with kiwideb, Muzza, and Alan-san. This one wasn't on the list for the day, but Muzza was kind enough to detour for kiwideb and me. My GPSr was very definitely pointing to the other side of the track, so if it weren't for Muzza and Alan-san, I'd probably still be looking for it. We floundered around for five minutes or so, coming within centimetres of the cache without seeing it at least twice. Muzza took pity on us and gave us a big hint. The cache was ours at 1050. I still don't know why my GPSr was so inaccurate, however, it was to be a recurring theme for the day. I found out that my Garmin Foretrex 101 is a lovely little unit for urban caching, but is seriously deficient when there is any kind of tree cover.

IN: Suction cup smiley face
OUT: Mondo figure

On our way home from some fishing (and one cache) today, we noticed this cache was near our path.

We had only the main information with none of the logs so only looked at the main coordinates given.

Having re-read all the logs we now have three sets of coordinates and some pictures to work with.

Many people camping in this area during the Christmas - New Year break and, as others have noted, the cache is very close to the camp.

We will return after New Year and try again.

Stay tuned.

Well it's fourth time lucky. After a little email to the Rabbito Help Desk I finaly found it but it still took 10 min to find. The cache was very wet and the next 30 - 40 min was spent drying the cache with the car heater. The log book is OK but every thing else was rather wet. Luck most of the stuff was OK being wet.

Took Leaking batterys
Left Golf Ball

Disco Stu & Patch Pup Visited too

I put sticks in the bottom to hold every thing up of the floor as I'm sure it will leak some more.

It's realy amaizing that only 1 Muggle has found it as the Hidding spot seems very odd (I never thought it would be right there).

It's good to see that the park has improved and more work is under way

Thanks Tonymid & Co I did enjoy the place and found some interesting Cito stuff too.

Spent about ½ hour looking. After checking the logs today looks like the search will have to be widened a bit. I hope it's still there as the place is looking very mugglised - there are still people out there "bash burn and burying" and driveing in the camping area.

23/7 Had another go. Found fire extinguisher, mug and padlock but still no cache - it's well hidden (I hope). Funny how 5 people are watching this cache! Tried all the listed coords + more.

Nice place still

[This entry was edited by Geoƒ on Saturday, July 24, 2004 at 4:11:15 AM.]

Found at 4:50pm.

We had never heard of this spot before attempting this cache and what a great historical place it is. It looks like a fair bit of money has been spent to bring this place back to life a few years ago but they probably need some signage or advertising to get more people out for a look. (Or better yet, introduce more people to Geocaching and they will come out of their own accord ).

As we had completed your Arthurs Seat cache a few weeks ago, we looked for a similar hide to that one and fairly close to GZ we found a spot which looked like a cache exactly the same size as that one had been removed and we thought the worst. We continued to search anyway and although it eluded us for a fair while, our sister in law Margaret from SA (on her first cache hunt), eventually came up with the find. This seemed to be around 20m to 25m from the posted co-ords but on the other hand, there have been heaps of finds so it may just have been our signal on the day.

The cache was fairly waterlogged and needed a bit of an empty and clean up but most of the goods inside remained safe inside the zip bags.

Thanks for bringing us here Tony and John, from D,H,S,H & A B-A with our guests for the day, M,M & K.

Took nothing. Left a mondo figurine.

Rated: for Overall Experience

After a not by choice drive to Mansfield in 40deg heat, what better way to enjoy the late afternoon by finding a Geocache on the way home. Mr Coffee found it before Mrs Latte could say Hurry along you two cappucinno's. my method in finding this cache was based on the 2 provided coordinates and our previous search, however I feel S37.54.030 - E145.34.538 with 2 minutes averaging was close enough. Thanks heaps Tony and John for "blast from the Past" I really love exploring this area, and I am happy to add this to my find list. I have taken the bounce ball and left a Waeco fridge Co pen, Mini torch and soap for the next traveller. If you do this cache take the time to stop at the info boards and read about this historical site.
Regards
Mr.Coffee
Ian.G (Berwick VIC)

Hi all at the end of a great day, this cache eluded us.
Many, many campers in this area and after checking both Coordinates believe it may be no longer. One camper was setup within 3 metres from S37.54.031.-E145.34.555 with a lot of trampling around.
If anyone finds it later please let me know at
[email protected]
Regards
Mr.Coffee (Berwick VIC)

Our second of nine for the afternoon. Found after a 15 minute search, but more through luck than cunning. We made no exchange. I’ve added our co-ordinates for the cache, because it is a hard one to find and on the day the published ones were ~19 metres away from the cache. These ones might not be any better, but at least there are two to try now.

Thanks Tony and John!

Found at 4:10pm, after a long search. I needed to use my 'phone a friend' life line for an additional clue, and just like Who Wants To Be A Millionare the call was cut short (I'm with Vodafone).

In looking at the log book I was interested to see that campers had stumbled on the goodies (see the photo of their log entry). The cache was a bit wet so I cleaned it up, removed all the decaying material+rubbish and double bagged everything. Swapped a 100 Rupee note and keychain for a rubber ball with lights in it and a marble.

Before leaving I had an interesting talk to a family of campers, who were there making up time for a missed Duke of Edinburough campout/award(?). They recommended reading the history of the nearby buildings - I'm glad I did.

Found by geofreak and friends in under 15 minutes, leaving plenty of time for a peaceful bbq tea.
The cache contents were quite damp and smelly including the items in plastic bags (most of which weren't sealed), we emptied out about 20mm of water.
Great Location, thanks Tony and John.

Found with Geofreak & friends. Great spot, I've been here before for a BBQ lunch, this time it's tea. A very interesting place, thanks Tony and John.

Found by Mary & David at 1120. We had been looking for around 50 min when we got lucky. Our search had followed a similar pattern to other past visitors to that point. Parked about 50m from the cache and walked down the track to find the waypoint first in the middle of the track then, after several restarts, moving to one side then the other. Eventually it favoured the correct side, but we found the cache almost accidentally. At that point, the GPS still had us 10m - 12m off. The cache was not in a place where we would have expected to find it either. There were a few splashes of colour about on the heath and wattle to brighten an otherwise damp and cloudy day. Contents were a bit light on, and the container was quite damp inside but items in the bags were fine and there was no water in the bottom. We left an air freshener, but took nothing. Our thanks to Tony & John.

Found this one eventually at 2:50 today after about 50 minutes foraging around in the bush looking for it. My GPS placed the co-ordinates right in the middle of the main walking track, despite several resets. After scouting around in ever increasing circles, I reset again and was about to give up when I finally came across it. What a relief!

No swap was made, just a scrawled entry in the log book. The supplied biro seemed to work only when it wanted to, which was only some of the time. The other one did not work at all. (I should bring my own next time I go out). Thanks for the cache.

Found after a 30 minute search by Maya and Ray at 5:20PM on Saturday the 4th of May 2002. This was our second attempt to locate this cache. The first was not long after the cache had been planted, late, on a cold wet afternoon. Fortunately we didn't spend to much time searching on that occasion, as it turned out, we were a long way from the cache. I think the satellites must have been broken that day, we were more than 60 metres from the cache. Even today we started on the wrong side of the track, but after several restarts of the GPS we could see a trend, which ultimately led to the cache. I think the trees may have had a lot to do with our problems on our original attemp, and even today. Maya found the cache whilst I fiddled with technology. Sometimes I think the GPS is a hinderance. There is obviously a point when one should put the GPS away and just search, the trick of course, is to recognise that point. There was a large group of campers at the site this afternoon and they had much of the parking and camping area closed off. Fortunately, they were more interested in their activities and did not pay any attention to us. The cache was damp inside, but not wet. We did not make a swap, just left our record in the log and went on our way. Thanks for planting the cache. Ray and Maya.

[last edit: 5/5/2002 7:54:42 PM PST]

User's web page
Found by David, Jemimah, Josiah and Caleb at 4:30pm. Found the cache OK, GPS was very close to the mark. Lots of people around on bikes and walking, also lots of cars on a car trial. Took the plastic toys and left a plastic key chain

Found 14:15, just! Found this one after a good 45 minutes of searching, and only because I stood right on top of it, as we had given up assuming that the cache had been ratted because of it's proximity to the camp site.

Took Piglet left INR 100 note.

Found this cache pretty quick as we had a bit of practice with this type the day before. The cache has been found by some campers who left the normal comments and some junk behind. Would have taken the junk with us but we had more trouble finding garbage’s in Victoria than caches. Spent the night here after having a swim and an explore

Nice one, Tony and John.

User's web page
Found this one quite easily.
People here should take a tennis racket as the Marsh Flies are unbelieveable.
No exchange.
Removed the opened mouldy bottle of tomato sauce from this cache that some smuck left.

User's web page
Great views and location, plus a cleverly concealed cache. Good one, Tony and John!

On this, the second attempt to find this cache (by the Michelon family, Shane, Leonie, Talia, and Ben), we had a little help from Tony in the form of very specific instructions. Alas, you can lead the camel to water, but we didn't drink! We looked in the location that Tony helped us find (only 3meters from our first attempt), but after five minutes we still couldn't find it!

With a determined effort we continued the search, under rocks, near logs. Then the hand of fate led Leonie right to it. In fact, on top of it. The hollow sound of plastic on plastic gave it away! It was very well concealed. We took the car and keyring and left a four pack of batteries, ceramic gnome, and watering can, two toy solders, and a Piglett soft toy (from Pooh Bear).


The cache had a little water in it, but the packets were dry.

Thanks for a fun time, and enjoyable first find!

On this second attempt to find a cahce by the Michelon family (Shane, Leonie, Talia, and Ben), we drove to the spot on a rainy new years day. Very scenic location with a great campsite. Toilets but no showers.

Anyway, we found the location easily enough, but could not find the cache. After a considerable effort of looking by the four of us, we gave up after about an hour.

It might be worth checking if it is still there after the xmas break.

As there have been two failed attempts on what should be an easy cache I will archive this one until I have a chance to check its condition.

This cache has been checked today and found to be fine. The white lid is a bit muddy and wet so is quite difficult to see and there was a little water inside but all contents are sealed in zip-lock bags. I checked the bearings twice by restarting the GPS and found the results the same as originally posted.

Walked up and down the the track and looked both sides but can't find it.

Found by Kevin & Meredith on a sunny afternoons drive.
I actually walked on the cache!!!
There was alot of water in cache so did our best to dry it out. Contents were ok.
Took a CD and left a Citronella candle.
Lots of people around with kids flying through the bushes everywhere. It took some effort not to be seen with cache open

Found at 2.10pm. Another great historic site. We'll have to go back another day as it was too cold and windy to do too much exploring today. We found the cache after a short search and swapped a cd for the 'D' shackle. Greg and Bev

Found this one in the morning of 3/9/2001. Fairly easy, once I got a GPS lock which took a while amidst all the trees here. Nice area. I seem to recall coming here once before in the dim, distant past. If you come and find this cache, don't forget to drop in on Ship Rock Falls, about 4km to the north.

Oh, and a word of warning. If you're heading out to the east, toward Powelltown and Noojee, drive up to Launching Place and out on the bitumen roads there. I took East Beenak Rd and Hunters Rd for what I thought would be pleasant drive through the hills, and ended up almost getting bogged 3 times and bottoming the car out on wheel ruts and potholes! If you have a 4WD though, go for it! There are some nice views.

First attempt was night before near dusk, with no torch. I wasn't able to find it. Decided to come back, 3rd cache of 5 today, and literally walked straight up to the cache today! A very nice spot, and very peaceful with no human noise. No exchange was made. Cheers Gav

After stopping at the home of Puffing Billy(Belgrave) for lunch we proceeded through the lovely sun filled hills and made our way to Gembrook. After taking the long way right around the park we eventually arrived at the carpark. This instantly brought back memories to all the family as we had attended a State Series montain bike event here. We had always wanted to return to the spot but were unable to remember its location. Spent a little time looking on the wrong side of the track until we relised we had not restarted the GPS. After a restart and a slight direction change it did not take long to find it. Cache was in perfect condition even after all the water over the last couple of days. My kids swapped some of there stuff and Anne and i wrote in the log book. Thanks for the great drive and discovering one of those lost picnic grounds you always wanted to return to for us.
The Brierley Family