Nigeru Cowra, New South Wales, Australia
By Biggles Bear on 18-Oct-02. Waypoint GC9E4D

Whilst in town doing checks n maintenance, went to check on this 1 after some experienced cachers posted dnf's. Found some remnants of a cache on the way back to the car after walking over and not finding it either. I did think it was weird they couldn't find it. was fresh out of mint tins so Maybe The next person could pop one here as a replacement.

Time for this one to be archived. It has had a good run but we can't get there to do maintenance.

Search everywhere but no cache there assume it is gone... as would like to keep it due to old cache - Hidden: 18/10/2002. Email to the owner. Thanks.

Out and about but failed to unearth his one.

We got the co-ords and seemed to be at GZ, but being in thongs, long grass and in SNAKE season we retreated after a quick search, will be back again to refine our search, thanks for the cache.

#9 TFTC
It was fun and beautiful
Getting better at finding the maultis

#9 TFTC
It was fun,easy and beautiful
Good for family's

Tftc. One of the clips is broken.

Had the urge for a quick road trip and to see whether the blossom were out at the Japanese Gardens (some were). Had my eye on 3 caches and this was the first. Fantastic Waypoint 1 and I had a real jump when the tower started talking. Took my time then plugged in my calcs that took me closish to where I thought GZ but something was wrong. As the drizzle set in, I went back to WP1 and clarified my numbers - ahh, close but no cigar - back of again but I still seemed to be 10m out but I spotted the decent container. Very good Multi and fav point deserved.

Quick multi. Interesting area, cache found quickly.Tftc

Great views. TFTC Biggles Bear. Thanks also for getting us to stop and read the details.

Thanks for taking us here. A bit of a surprise when we entered the new coordinates but let's go! Lovely views as we approached GZ where we needed long arms. TFTC

We almost did another nearby cache first, but as luck would have it, we changed our minds and did this one - a lucky choice, as anyone who has done it in the reverse order would know. What a spectacular view, especially when the countryside is looking so green and lush!
TFTC Biggles Bear

An amazing view. And a great cache. TFTC

What an amazing view. Thanks

This took us two visits. On the first one we obtained what looked like a good set of coordinates and, drove to GZ only to find it was in somebody's back yard. So back again to see what we had missed - should have read ALL of the information stupid. By now the light was failing so off to the new GZ and armed with a torch the well hidden container was found. Also collected more of those sticky things all over my trousers - Mrs.R wisely stayed with the car thuis time. TFTC.

Thanx for bringing me here awesome piece of Aussie history. Best done after visiting the Tourist Info Centre and short 9 minute holographic display seen.

So much grass has grown up around the boulders that I cannot find a crevice.

Hi I hope I have the correct coordinates, I put my hand in a few crevices but found nothing.

Looked until sunset
10 minutes after I arrived a group from the symposium of civilian internment came and had a look around the campsite. There is a archaeologist who is a local and is working on rebuilding 2 Italian fountains. They are fencing off the area and rebuilding it in the next 6 months. I have included a couple of photos but please don't go down near the camp until it is finished. They would appreciate that.

Second photo

Thanks to the The Spindoctors for replacing the cache container on our behalf.

I know a bit about the history of this location as my grandfather was based here for a short period as a private. He was glad that he wasn't there when the breakout happened. Fast forward to today and I was at GZ searching for the cache. Having seen the logs about the cache being damaged, I came armed with a replacement. Sure enough, the cache was cracked and filled with about a hundred millipedes. Yuck! So I tipped out the contents and removed the swaps from the bugs, placed the old log with a new one in a new container and rebid the cache, ready for future finders.

Too many working muggles around to bother even stopping here. Went to nearby Japanese Gardens instead.

TFTC. Found it on our 2nd attempt. Nice view of the old Cowra rubbish tip.

#2,049

A minor milestone, this is my 100th multi . Nice that it was on a fairly old & interesting cache.

I came out to WP1 on my last trip through Cowra a few years ago, about 2 months before I started caching. Today we found the information we needed easily, and had a quick look around before heading to GZ.

The hiding spot doesn't seem to match the hint, so I guess the cache has moved a bit over the years. And it is really in need of maintenance, with the lid completely cracked now and the cache full of water. We drained the water, but the container needs replacing.

A well designed multi, taking us to an interesting part of our history, thanks .

Not being locals, we had been given a bum steer by our GPS which had wanted to get us into this area the wrong way up a one way road to look for a couple of traditionals close by. Then we realised that the starting position for this cache gave us a logical way into the park. So we drove around to find the memorial for the Cowra prisoner of war camp, with views to some of the ruins. We got a little surprise when the commentary started automatically at the guard tower, before wandering down to the first waypoint.

The coordinates were easy to calculate and we were soon driving through the remains of the camp. This was a most convenient cache, because those other two caches weren't that far away, and this was an easy find. Unfortunately, the container lid has been cracked over time, and there was some water in the cache. We drained it, but the lid was fused on. The only way to get the log book out was to slip it through the crack in the lid.

This was a pretty area with some great history. Thanks for taking us there.

Found the plaque easy enough. Enjoyed looking around. Did the calculations which took us close where we searching other caches just prior to coming here. We searched and searched but come up with nothing. Thanks for the hunt.

I grew up at nearby Grenfell, so the Cowra breakout was well known by me. Still sobering to re-learn the statistics of how many died.

As a 'checksum' I'd suggest working out the co-ords before you get the '360' cache

Interesting piece of sad local history. Nice easy find, but we were both a bit surprised at how close GZ is to another cache in the area.

Found en route from Grenfell to Cowra with Doppelfrog during the great world-wide tour of Dubbo. We got to GZ and couldn't quite get a GPS lock on the right spot however the obvious sign was the one with the correct sort of data for all the questions. We calculated and then noticed just where GZ actually was and assumed there must be some mistake at first. So we re-read and re-calculated it all, re-checked one more time but still came up with the same answer. Thinking we must be wrong we went anyway and was shortly rewarded with another cache. Whew!

No luck! On a recent visit to Cowra I thought I would try my first multi. I ended up dragging the Geokids all over the country side. I took a photo of the plaque, so I will give it another go on my next trip to town.

What a dark day in our history, with so many young men dying so needlessly Got the info, worked out the co-ords, I thought, but took me to a place that was obviously incorrect, so back to the drawing board, found my mistake, and then more long wet grass to replenish the sogginess in my socks before another well deserved smiley. TFTC Biggles Bear

We visited the Japanese Gardens & Cultural Centre, Cowra Camp and the Japanese Cemetery/Cowra War Cemetery yesterday but we walking the wrong way to complete the multi. So we diverted up here before driving onto Bathurst. All of these sites were very interesting and moving. We also watched the story of the Breakout in the Tourist Information and that was very well done too.

Completed this task late in the day. We collected the required information easily enough but started to get worried we had it wrong when we rocked up near GZ. The sun was setting and it was getting dark as we walked to the unlikely spot. We needn't have worried and this place at sunset was amazing. Well worth a visit. TFTC.

Lid broken. Cache contents wet & dirty.

In Cowra for a house sitting assignment. We went for a late afternoon stroll and collected the required information but a glass of wine and a spectacular sunset beckoned which meant we couldn't complete this cache. This morning we visited the japanese gardens and took short walk to GZ. The views are amazing but the cache is in serious need of some TLC. I was unable to sign but have attached a photo. TFTC

A very interesting piece of history! The coordinates for the final have been calculated quite easily. However we have been wondering a bit about it´s distance. When heading to GZ we knew we were right. This is a nice place to hide a cache! Thanks for the nice multi!

A lot of history in the first location.
May be snakes at GZ, Look after the geo-kids.
Container damaged.
TFTC

12:11:00 PM:
hmm I must of calculated some figures wrong somewhere even though I checked twice perhaps there is some ambigious questions I need to recheck next time I pass.. so I ended up in someones front yard in town.

Thank you for bringing us here and sharing the history of this location. I had no idea that the camp was so big! And now I know why there are Japanese Gardens in Cowra, that had puzzled me for a long time. Solved the cache easily enough and found it fairly quickly. but found the cache was really wet and contents were very soggy. The log book was too wet to sign, managed to out in the date and GGC as the paper was too wet for the pen to work for long. We emptied out the contents to dry them out but couldn't stay too long as we had to drive back to Canberra and get home before dark so didn't manage to dry out log at all. Took out the batteries that someone had left as they had corroded. As mentioned in previous log, the lid is cracked so perhaps the container could be replaced and a new log book added? TFTC

Found with O319. Made every mistake possible in finding this one. At least it made it memorable. TFTC

Managed to make this one way harder than it should have been... Future finders should read in info from the data at the listed coordinates... Anyway we then messed up the maths and looked under the wrong boulder, after realising the mistake we make a quick find.

However the cache container has a cracked lid and was half FULL OF WATER, will need a new container. We drained it and replaced witht he lid down, but 10 years of being out in the open have taken its toll. TFTC

found it with the cupcake ninjas and slightly addicted

tftc. found with slightly addicted and the dark knight07

Glad to finally log this one have been meaning to do it for awhile...thank you

Awesum cache found with wbfoto thanku

well this was the second option for a multi today on the list of caches that I was attempting today however it proved to be elusive. Would have enjoyed the find as the history behind the area was so unknown to me and is likewise for most of the country.

Thanks for the history Biggles Bear

Quick find for our 300th! On high alert for snakes as we saw a massive one last time we were here. Great views. TFTC

This entry was edited by Clemdoog on Tuesday, 20 December 2011 at 01:57:02 UTC.

Nice historical cache. I knew most of the history but it was interesting to fill in the details. A short drive took me to the interesting GZ.
Good sized small!
Thanks, Robmc.

Found and logged at 10:15, Just spending a couple of hours in town on my way home after a week in Bathurst
Thanks for the history lesson
Thanks Biggles Bear

Our last find for the day...Mr Bushies2 went there by himself as it was getting quite cold so I stayed in the wagon with our dog...took him a while before he found it. Thanks Biggles Bear for bringing us to the site where the break out occurred and history about it and cache.

1722 Found by baby&Mrs gopher at 1140.This cache took us longer then it should. As we didn't get all the information the first time,but going on all the tracks at the first location it looks like we are not alone.After retracing our steps a bit the information was corrected and we were there.Just as well to as we did a check on where to go next and we were there as well.SL visited CacheMover coin Tnx Biggles Bear

This entry was edited by baby&Mrs gopher on Sunday, 28 August 2011 at 06:35:25 UTC.

Got to the waypoint today and the local bushfire brigade were getting ready to leave to do some training. At gz I make a quick find in a area that im sure I have been before TFTC Biggles Bear

Found on a caching run with ACBC 66 and fitzy_1965.

On a weekend trip to Cowra and Forbes with fitzy_1965 and Awesome L.
Found out what we needed to know and then - Oh man, long grass again? , lucky for us there was a bit of a geotrail, wonder who left that?
TFTC!

3558 + 115 = 3673. A weekend run up through Cowra, Forbes and Parkes with ACBC66 and AwesomeL...

Very interesting area full of history. Thanks for bringing us here. Gathered the info and did the calcs. Then it was off to a familiar location ! Thanks Biggles Bear !!

TNLN - TFTC !!

Cheers....

Thanks, found it with De Ja Vu on a scorching day in Cowra.
TFTC

Found with Geo_Lightly. Who, other than fellow geo cachers, would we searching around the long grass in thongs on such a hot day! Wonderful view and great history lesson. TFTC

Tftc tnln

Found while visiting Cowra after 'The Great Race'. Very different here compared to two years ago, much greener. TFTC

next time we visit we will take the time to explore the site but we still need to get to wollongong tftc

Bit of Cowra history we hadn't seen before thanks for a great cache.

my 3rd attempt at finding this one with no luck. my maths must be ok as it puts me very close to another cache as logged previously by others. this time I widened my search and looked in every likely spot I could find around the area with no luck. will put this one on my watch list and see if others find it before trying again.

Found this cache pretty close to another one as it turned out. Loved working out the co-ordinates down at the old POW camp, a great bit of Cowra history. TFTC

Nice cache, located very close to a newish traditional that I had just come from. Thanks for the best cache in town.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Found in company with Team AJKW, geo Grand daughter very happy with the find but needed a bit of help extracting it as her arms were not long enough! Disturbed 4 locals who bounded away and watched us from a distance.

Thanks for bring us here, a great multi. Not sure if the cache is where it should be or if my maths was out a touch but found it anyway. TeamAJKW

After a frustrating day of film canisters and pill bottles yesterday it was great to start the day with the best cache I did in Cowra. WP1 was interesting and GZ reminded me of the granite of home. A good find that wasn't too easy or hard and a lovely view from GZ. Thanks for the great cache!

Logged from my phone using the Geocache Navigator by Trimble

Loved the information - I always find this sort of stop more interesting than Mr Bunny does.
There was a long search for the cache, but I stayed to boil the billy whilst the search was conducted.
Dogs got too many grass seeds and prickles - Ken kept stopping, with one pathetic paw in the air, and waiting to be deprickled. Of course, he straightaway ran back to the prickle spot, and had to be deprickled again. Jenna, however, tends to just ignore most prickles, and chews them out later.
Ken even gets upset when the grass is long enough to tickle his tummy, and as I'm sure you all know, Corgis are VERY close to the ground.
Great view, nice cuppa, and cache in hand at last.

Nice work, thanks for the military history....

yay found my first multi cache,picked up a golf ball and put it in the cache,took nothing

Found by Mary & David at 1010. We seem to miss this one each time we come through Cowra, but not today. We had a fair idea about the relevant history, but we enjoyed refreshing our memories and filling in some blanks. Some muggles were at the start when we arrived, so we listened to the audio story while we gathered our numbers and did the maths. Then it was off to GZ. How wonderful to have a decent sized container, and not the micros that seem to be proliferating everywhere. Our thanks to P & J for another of your classics, which we should have done much sooner.

What an effort this turned out to be.
very interesting first point and we stayed a while.
We got all the questions right but we C'd when we should have D'd and that put us in a likely location but no cache.
Back to the car and try again. oh that's different.
This second GZ looked just as likely but was even better because the cache was there.
We also found every single grass seed in the area and Mrs GUIO's hayfever started to act up.
TFTC

Had a few inquisitive glances from the bus load of tourists who swarmed around while we gathered the info for this one. In the end it was a pleasant stroll and a quick find.
Thanks Biggles Bear

Found by djcache. GAFF1

Another quality Biggles Bear cache.

We nearly made an error on the maths but while Lynne & the kids explored I realised while double checking my self and picked it up early thankfully. It'd have put us in the right area but wrong spot!

Thanks to P & J for a cache in a worthy location and a great final GZ.

Also, to future finders (might be worth mentioning in the description) if you approach the guard tower from the road a sensor picks up your presence and you get a 10 minute recorded story about what happened here, which you'd miss out on if you drive up to the coords and read the cairn. We only found out when Lynne went up to take a photo.

Thanks heaps for this one. I love wartime historical caches. (Who'd have guessed ) and some of the internees from the event here were transferred to camps where I have other caches on a similar theme.

No swaps, cache in good condition, dry and safe.

DJ

Our first cache.....brilliant. Nice scenery too.
T-goat, L-soldier.
Did not look for Don Quixote so unable to say if there or not.

[This entry was edited by GoldJ on Monday, June 15, 2009 at 11:37:19 PM.]

322 Found on my afternoon pass through Cowra. I had enough time for a multi before heading home. All went well and I got to absorb some local history. TFTC

Enjoyed this multi. Interesting story and good to see that this incident has not been forgotten. Great location for the final cache, we saw a mob of 20 kangaroos nearby..a real plus for us being visitors from Cyprus.

A great multi (with an extra bonus WP added in by the McWinTrex team ) After a short detour based on faulty numbers, I checked our workings and came up with something more plausible. The trusty Adventra took us close by, and the GZ was a magnificent spot. Thanks Biggles Bear, very nice.

OK, the team tag effort fell apart slightly on this one - we were hassled by some muggles at the listed coordinates so took a picture of the info and proceeded to decode everything in the McPhan-mobile. Not quite enough information was given at one point so not quite the right place was identified on attempt one. How tedious. Eventually all was revealed and an off road driving opportunity resulted. Found the cache, a great view, and a lot more local knowledge. Thanks Biggles Bear.

A fantastic little multi that provided an insight into the areas past. The GZ is located in a great spot. TNLN and TFTC.

1948 Some people just don't understand and they definitely denied any knowledge of geocaching and refused to hand over the cache. Humph, maybe these locals aren't as friendly as the ones further north. As I got some petrol, the other two decided that maybe the cache wasn't actually hidden in the front yard of a suburban house but more like somewhere that the Adventra would assist -and so it did! Some top views from here.

TFTC and the story/history.

Rated: for Overall Experience

I really enjoyed this one. I had come out to visit the Breakout a few times in the past, but never as a cacher. Lots of muggles at WP1, but easy enough to gather the appropriate numbers. Soon located the cache at GZ.

TFTC!

Left - Piglet!

Found at 1220. This is exactly the reason I love caching. Without knowing anything about the area, this was a surprising history lesson. Pulled up at WP1 and these was a Japanese girl being interviewed by an Australian and an interpreter. While that was going on I got to work on the numbers and quickly made my way to GZ. A fantastic multi cache. Great history, well put together, and a nice final location.

Thanks BB.

Found 8:25am. Very interesting site. Have visited and explored both the old POW camp site and also some of the other ruins around the nearby hills. A movie was also made called “The Cowra Breakoutâ€. I also read a book written by a former Japanese POW of the site giving a insight into their perspective of being taken prisoner.
On the way to GZ I had some assistance from “Skippy†who suggested that I try 30mts behind him!

I have heard about the event on the plaque but didn't know much about the details of it. Got the info and looked around at the other info signs before doing the required math and heading to the final location. Being the first time I have visited this spot it was very interesting walk around.

On reaching GZ the prize was found easy and after the the duties were completed I climbed to a higher elevation for some more nice views of the area.

This is a multi that is well worth spending the short amount of time it takes to do as it shows so much of the local history.

TFTC

Found this not too much difficulty. Great view I must say. Thought it might of been inside the actual camp site, but was horribly mistaken, that is until I decided to hope in the car.

SL TN Left Irish Shamrock Charm TFTC

What a view! Found without too much trouble. The cache container had not been replaced properly by a previous cacher, so we re-hid it carefully. TNLN. TFTH!

Found it, no moving sticks about (thankfully)

Great view from here to the plains and the distant hills
L dice and T Tealbys Path tag

Our first completed multi, on our way from OJ to the nation's capital. Our first time to the historic POW camp. I love history caches. Thanks Biggles Bear. Was a bit disapointed to find that the cache had lost its Japanese theme somewhat.

Jamatane!!!

an old chook visited

Arriving at the first point the next co-ordinates were quickly worked out, however my GPS would not settle down and weroamin beat me to the cache. Signed the log. TFTC.

In company with gerrynewgirl the first waypoint was easy and it was interesting reading the story which lead to the answers for the final location. Arriving at GZ weroamin more or less walked straight to the cache and had to recall gerrynewgirl from a great distance in another direction. Ah, a GPS operated by a woman!!!??? Thanks so much for this cache which we both enjoyed, some more than others. TNLN

Traveling back from Dubbo to Melbourne after doing the fireworks for the Monster Truck show we found this cache at 19.06. Although we hadn't planned on doing any multi's on this trip back we were both keen to do this one to learn a bit more of the history of this area. We were certainly not disappointed at wpt1, although there is quite a discrepancy between the plaque and the photo board , luckily with BB's co-ordinates there was no mistake where you had to collect the information from. When this was done we headed off to gz, having a large heavy trailer on behind, we should have done a little bit more research before driving to gz as we found a way in that was a lot harder than the way out. Again the GPSr led us to a likely location and the cache was discovered shortly after.
Gz had such great views that we sat on a rock and watched the sunset.
Thanks Biggles Bear for our most interesting cache this trip,

This was my favourite cache for the weekend. The starting point was very interesting & I spent some time looking around & taking photos to waymark the spot. The GZ location was also a really nice spot to wander around & the cache was well placed & concealed from casual view - although I did note an interesting muggle note in the log book.

T: pin L: pathtag, pathtag TB, approx 8 or so animals to stock up the cache & a pencil (the pen in the cache was not cooperating for me). TFTC.

PS Not sure why this cache is listed as a micro - it is pretty darned large in my opinion - definitely a regular!

Rated: for Overall Experience

FOUND THE FIRST ONE DONE SOME SUMS AND PUT US RIGHT ON TOP OF THE CACHE LEFT JAPANESE COIN FROM PREVIOUS CACHE AND TOOK GEO COIN NO PCOKKW.

TNLN

A visit to Cowra wouldn't be copmplete without a visit to the posted coords but boy it was cold (it had snowed nearby.) We gathered the numbers and headed off to a likely gz. As is not unusual we mucked up the maths but we learnt early to take photos of plaques so we can check them. Another likely area provided the find. Too cold to wander the nearby attraction. TFTC