Lamplough School 1239 Avoca, Victoria, Australia
By GemmaSistema on 19-Dec-18. Waypoint GC81GQD

New fence in place. Is this private property? We entered via the gate to search but could not find on the old fence line. The adjoining property owner...junk yard...came out into the road and stood staring at us until we got back in the car and left. So I think this needs to have a CO review. Very interesting history and school house worthy of a cache hide...but maybe outside of the new fence to keep the property owner happy.

Sounds like this one is gone and we don’t want to upset the neighbors. Time to archive.

New fence but cache in place. CIGC TNLN TFTC

Great little drive on Australia Day. New fence has been put up, great little find

First cache of the year

Easy park and grab to see out the year. Tftc

Still catching up with my logging after six days in St Arnaud and then three days in Apollo Bay.
Gee it's a hard life buy I am finally getting close to having all found caches logged.
With the caravan behind it is not easy to turn around so continued down the road and then returned to the highway.
Thanks Gemma for placing this cache for us to find.

We have just read the previous log, not sure we would call this junk 'arty'. NO worries, the people who own the property own it and it is their business what they keep on their property. Isn't that what owning property is all about. SL TFTC

What a stop over! So much lovely junk for the arty sculptor! . Enroute to Melbs after 3 BIG days at the MEGA in St Arnaud.! TFTC

Our Sunday geocaching was in two parts. Firstly a run around the town and the nearby fire tracks punctuated by the GIFF event and finished off with a few more on the highway towards Ballarat before making a freeway run for home. Another great day and some wonderful caches. Thanks from D & HA B-A.

Wow!! What a spot!! Quick find for team TACKT
TFTC!

On way back from mega and stopped at this country treasure with team taxkt

Found with team TACKT on the way home from the mega

Poor old school has seen better days. TFTC

Found by The Empire
On my way to the St Arnaud Mega Event! The car yard next door looked as nasty as the old school. Thanks for the cache GemmaSistema.
- M

Grabbed this one on the way into Mega this year. Parked and grabbed this one. Had an interesting discussion about a certain type of ‘toys’ with a local...
#theroadtomega
TFTC

On our way to the Mega and this was our first of the day. Thanks Gemma for bringing us to this area and placing this cache for us to find

Found this with sorceysal on the way to the Mega on Thursday.
TFTC GemmaSistema

A quick find in an interesting spot on my way though.
TNLNSL
Thanks

Today I headed to St Arnaud for the coming Mega event. After Ballarat, I selected caches along the way to stretch my legs. The old building has certainly seen better days. It's a shame that it has gone to ruin. Found the cache nice and quickly.



My thanks for the cache, GemmaSistema.

Caching from Ballarat to Avoca today and the lovely weather made for a great morning of finds. Thanks so much to all the COs for placing and maintaining these caches for us to enjoy finding.

Leaving Ballarat today and moving towards St Arnaud for the Event this weekend. Did quite a number of caches on the way. Thank you to all CO's for the placement of these caches in their respective locations. TFTC

Sad to see the building in such a sorry state of disrepair.
TFTC

Heading slowly northwards towards St Arnaud cache by cache Another short detour to see the sad remains of what must have been a bustling place TFTC GemmaSistema

Almost brought a tear to my eye. What once was is no longer - just debrie lying around ...and I guess memories shut up in the school.

Such a sad looking area around here now, which belies the community that once thrived. TFTC

After a big weekend caching in the St Arnaud area we're making our way towards Ballarat caching as we go. The weather's perfect, we don't have to go to work and there are heaps of caches to choose from, life's good. A quick find when we reached GZ. TFTC

Lovely stop thanks for the easy cashe

Sitting at my computer during these Covid lockdowns, I am trying to catch up on a few logs that I haven't sent in yet.

Over the years, geocaching has taken me on many adventures, including interesting destinations all over my home continent of Australia and many overseas as well. It has also introduced me to a diverse group of like-minded caching tragics, many of whom I now call close friends.

Today, I was lucky enough to be out and about searching for caches, something I do on almost a daily basis. This was one cache that was targeted and found.

Sorry for the late log, something I am notorious for. Thank you for adding to the adventure that is geocaching.

Thanks GemmaSistema (F=6439 H=161) for the cache.

There’s certainly an interesting collection of stuff at this location fairly quick to find the cache signed the log thanks for bringing me here

11/09/2019 12:34
Like other cachers we were quite surprised that the building is still recognizable. We were amazed that what appeared to be a cemetery on our map turned out to be a graveyard of quite a differnt kind.

Thanks 'GemmaSistema' for adding this cache to the gameboard.
25092

Found this cache on the way to a St Arnaud event today. We were expecting a school site or maybe even a plaque, as that is all that remains of many of the long forgotten closed schools nowadays. It was a surprise to see the old building still standing, although judging by its condition, it may not be like that for much longer. You could feel its old charm though. TFTC GemmaSistema.

This one is a little unusual in that it is still there! Most of them have gone. Ununsual is also unusual as it has three u's.

With a few days off BettyBoo3747 and I headed to St Arnaud to collect a few challenges and puzzles before the Mega.
Night shift last night mean I didn't get up until noon, so it was a late start.
Collected a few on our way up today.

Certainly a lot more left of this school than most of the ones we only see a plaque for!
We did wonder what brought the population to this area.
Thanks, Robmc.

#16099. Robmc and I are heading to St Arnaud to do some Challenges and Puzzle caches as a prelude to the Mega. It was a late start today so we only collected a few on our travels. We also collected several waypoints for a Whereigo we are working on, so that was a huge bonus.

Oh dear oh dear. We could hardly even see the old school for the 20,000 old vehicles and piles of rubbish littering the paddocks. Not sure that this building is a renovator's dream unfortunately. Sad to see such decay.

Thanks GemmaSistema

Suscoe was heading to St Arnaud this morning.
We stopped in here during some heavy mist.
Quite spooky really with all the old machinery and the old school.
Thanks to GemmaSistema for this hide.

So interesting to this enthusiast of old schools - I didn’t realise that this was still here, but in a sad state. TFTC

The second find for the day....but using the Star Wars numbering system it is Episode V, The Muggles Strikes Back....

Cue the black screen.....

On that screen, in small blue letters appears the following

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....

From the distance the orchestra, with violins and cellos being bowed, trumpets being blown and flutes being fluted (I am sure I read that as a technical term once in a music magazine.....the one that had a centrefold of a bloke holding his piccolo).....

The crescendo of music vibrates through the listener

da da da da da...DA DA da da da DA DA da da da DA DA da da da da (think Star Wars....you'll be right)

On that screen the following words, in yellow, appear in capital letters GEOCACHING WARS and they fade off to the horizon.

The music is echoing off everything with a resounding da da da da da...DA DA da da da DA DA da da da DA DA da da da da when suddenly on the screen, the following three paragraphs of text in yellow appears from the bottom of the screen fading off into a dot somewhere on the horizon above....

Episode V

"It is a dark time for the Rebellion. Although the Muggles had been decoyed, Imperial Muggles have driven the Geocacher forces from their hidden bases and pursued them across the galaxy.

Evading the dreaded Imperial Mugglefleet, a group of freedom fighters led by Gemma Sistema has established a new secret base on the remote car ridden world of Lamplough.

The evil lord Darth Vader, obsessed with finding young Sistema, has dispatched thousands of remote Muggles into the far reaches of the world…."

---------

I am pleased to report though that again we live to fight another day! Not noticed as I sneakily signed the log, evading muggles and wanton enemy laser fire.

I wonder what happens in Episode VI?

Easy find tftc

Quick find heading past for work.
Thanks Gamma!

TFTC. We were on our way back to Maryborough from a few days at Ararat. Took a detour to GZ. With the Motorhome and car in tow we parked on the bitumen and walked to GZ. Asa it happened the showers started as we walked back to the vehicle. The school certainly need some TLC.

I woke up this morning unwell and called in sick to work. I'd been so good all year and filled every blank calendar I'd had left in 2019 so far. Today was going to be the end of my streak so after dropping the kids at school I went back to bed resigned to the fact that it was going to be at least another 12 months before my calendar would be filled. Ah well.
Late morning I decided I should probably see a Dr, not a fun job in Maryborough as they are all booked out months in advance and you wait a good 1.5hours at times.
Instead I tried my luck at the Avoca Dr clinic and was pleased to get an appointment and even more pleased that I had left this cache un-found.
After only a 10 minute wait at the Dr (think I will be coming back here in future!) I made the detour to grab this one which thankfully was a super quick find, then it was straight back home to bed! TFTC

Found by Mary and David at 0925. What a surprise here! You could almost review the local wheeled transport history by scanning the rusty graveyard in the adjacent paddock. Often, the Education Department would remove school buildings to be reused elsewhere. Can just imagine this building as it once was with large families keeping the enrolment up. Our thanks to GemmaSistema.

Found this one today while passing by the area and made a quick detour from the main road and then managed a quick find with this hide. Cool old building and by the looks of the neighbouring property the vehicles look right at home here as well. Thanks GemmaSistema for the cache and for highlighting this area.

We were very surprised to see that the school was still standing. Such a shame it is in such disrepair, although we did expect to find a memorial stone only. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

1:37 pm #6871
A brief detour on the way to Ballarat brought us to this lovely old fixer-upperer.
Cheers GemmaSistema

What a GEM .........
Found with CarKisser on out awesome Australia day weekend.
Parked near by soon had cache in hand. Took nothing left nothing.
TFTC....

A long weekend road trip with J Sando Wandong to Heidelberg to St Arnaud and on our way to Ballarat this one popped up on the map. Ooooh look a GemmaSistemma hide!! Imagine my disappointment to discover it wasn’t a SISTEMMA! Lol. TFTC

Found this morning as we headed towards St Arnaud on this hot summers day. Its good to see one of the old ones still standing but with the state of disrepair of the building, who knows for how long! Thanks GemmaSistema for showing us here today.

A quick find while heading o Ararat for the night.
School has seen better days shame to see it crumbling.
Signed log and replaced. TFTC.

Found on our way back to Melbourne after Christmas TFTC

Find No. 2449. Found at 9.52am.

On our way to the 'Hello 2019' Event in Beaufort today we made a short detour to grab this one. Wow what a dilapidated old building the school is now. Usually they have been pulled down and replaced with a memorial rock or sign but this one is still standing - well sort of.

TFTC GemmaSistema

TFTC. Third to find Wow closest we’ve ever got to FTC happy New Year’s Eve

Find # 7604

Found while heading home after a big weekend in Melbourne n Wonthaggi.

I bypassed these ones on the way down on Friday with plans I'd be coming back home this way.

A quick detour n grab just before a procession of 4X4s came down the dirt road.
Also it was good to see the old building still standing... just.

TFTC GemmaSistema

Having Christmas lunch and we noted this FTF only about 8 km away and had to wait to say our good byes before obtaining this lovely Christmas present.
TFTC and Merry Christmas

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