Gunson Oakden Hills, South Australia, Australia
By Liz and Bruce on 19-Apr-03. Waypoint GCG1GZ

Im in SA for a work trip and decided to grab a couple while out and about. Travelling between Adelaide, Woomera, port Augusta and Roxby Downs. Plenty to see. 20 years old. We got questioned on the drive in. The line gate is locked so no issues with that. Ill be back next year for the Great Leap Forward event. Looking forward to that. Many thanks to Liz and Bruce for placing and maintaining Gunson. I found it, I signed it, and put it back as found.

Team Crackers, Micaparamedic, Papi4506 and I are heading back to Melbourne slowly. We are enjoying going to new places (for us anyway) and finding some caches as we go.So pleased that this cache was at ground level as the previous cache was somewhat of an uphill hike. The cache was a nice quick find and a nice quiet place to have some lunch. So pleased that we came out here as I love trying to find older caches. Pleased to have a smiley here.Great place for a cache, thank you.

We'd read some previous logs regarding this cache, with people having difficulty accessing it [B)], so had the time today to see if we could find a way to GZ . Turns out the container has been moved, so it was a straight forward drive in, find and sign, then drive out [^].TNLNSL.Just need some time to collect the one across the road now .Thanks Liz and Bruce.

Working our way home from a tour at Maralinga with a group of cachers, mainly from South Australia. Now there is only Geoturtle37, Team Crackers, Micaparamedic and myself.We are having a great time, visiting new, remote locations and finding caches as we go.We were pleased that this was basically a drive by as there were some stiff legs from the previous find. We were disappointed to find that the road no longer goes all the way round so after finding the cache, having some lunch and checking out some rock samples, we headed back out to road and kept heading south.Thanks for placing this cache and bringing us here.

Great to see a mine again but I wonder what they were mining maybe copper or maybe uraniam i will never know unless I look at google but a great and intresting cache
TFTC

Up early to do a day trip to Woomera with iluvtrekking. Bit of a detour in from the highway but it’s an oldie and worth the trip Thanks for the hide.

Found with ricklink as part of our 2022 South Australian Adventure.
Such an old cache cannot be ignored. Thanks Liz & Bruce.

Found

Drove out here and made a quick find. Almost back at the freeway and blow a tire, side wall. A 193 km detour just to get a new tire. Expensive cache but nothing you can do when there is a defect in the tire you are driving on, and it easily could have happened at a worse time.

Mogni and myself went to the Northern Territory for a 10 day holiday. We drove 5478 km's in those 10 days. The plan was to go up the Sturt highway and then go via Ayers Rock, King's Canyon and then through to Alice Springs stopping at the gorges/chasm/gaps along the way. As you can expect nothing goes to plan. Day 1 Adelaide to Cooper Pedy, made it just before the Roxby Downs turn off and blow the side wall on the tire of the 4x4, 193 km detour just to get a tire and even then it was the second tire place that had the tire the correct size. We had camels come in to the campsite in Erldunda Roadhouse, they even left hoof prints 1/2 a foot from the tent, at King's Canyon we had dingo's come through the camp ground both nights we where there and at Alice springs we had a mouse move in under the tent in their campground. Some of the aboriginal towns we passed where in lock down because of covid 19 so no going in to get fuel there, that changed some plans. The floods where way worse up in Northern Territory than i realized. Some creeks/rivers i could see the debris over 2 meters from the river bed and down one 4x4 track it washed the road away completely, the hole was 3/4 the length of the 4x4 and over 6 foot deep. The temp was 33 to 36 for 9 of the 10 days and finally cooled down for the drive home. We got 7 different caches types in the N.T. plus every different cache size. It was a good trip but not the one we planned. To many of the roads in the N.T. where damaged and not repaired ( still closed ) so that cancelled plan A but that's just a excuse to come back isn't it. Come back and see what you missed last time when the roads are fixed. We came with 19 regular " geocaching size " containers and a milk crate of small containers by day 7 all the regulars where used as replaced caches and by day 8 the smalls where gone. It was the UV rays a lot more than the floods that killed the caches and almost all the log books where saved, the micro containers seemed to have constantly full log sheets so they where replaced too.

Sir_spectre and I went on a long overdue holiday to the Northern Territory. We had some great experiences and saw some amazing natural wonders. Not all went to plan - covid closures, flood effected roads, renovations, hot weather, some car troubles and not forgetting the huge jump in fuel costs
Any caches that needed repairs were fixed and numeous logs were replaced or added too.
Thanks to Liz and Bruce from mogni

Drove out to Woomera today and collected caches along the way. I was born at Woomera Base Hospital (now gone) and my pop is laid to rest out there in the red dirt Had a fun day out and took heaps of pics for my research project and went down memory lane.

Found the turnoff on the drive back to town and scooted down to GZ. Didn’t need to do any maintenance here Took a pic of the lagoon.

TFTC Liz and Bruce

Off for a northern tour with Purrfect Di and Jack...
somehow we ended up at your cache ! ! !

An excellent "miner" diversion off to the side of the big boring road...
found ourselves near the mining folk. One drove past. but didn't really seem bothered by us being out here.
A few months between finds but all is good here.

Thank you Liz and Bruce for another neat yellow smiley on our SA geomap



"A cache a day keeps the doctor away" - all part of my health care plan



----------------------------------------------------

2020 won. it's not over yet!
- - search at a social distance wherever you can - -

Keep away from the nasty bugs ( except travel bugs of course )
- keep a distance from people as much as you can, they spread the nasty bugs! [:o)]
- go out and find or place some new caches in our regional areas where it's safer away from bugs!!

Day 30 of my trip north from Adelaide in search of warmer weather and a few caches.

I travelled up the Strzelecki Track then weaved my way around central and western Queensland as far north as Mount Isa. It was getting too warm for me to go any further north, so I crossed into the Northern Territory to Tennant Creek and began to head south. Eventually I ended up at Lamberts Centre and, after having to adjust my plans due to track closures as a result of deep bulldust, I headed to Mount Dare and down the Oodnadatta Track.

I was hoping to go home via the northern Flinders Ranges. However the Oodnadatta Track was closed south of William Creek due to flood damage, so I had to detour to Coober Pedy and down the Stuart Highway.

The Borefield Track from Roxby Downs to Marree was also closed, but scheduled to be reassessed in the afternoon, so I camped just north of Pimba last night in the hope that it would be re-opened and I could resume my travels as planned.

Unfortunately that was not to be, so I had to continue down the Highway towards Port Augusta. But it did provide an unexpected opportunity to detour into the Gunson mine to find this cache.

The gravel road in was mostly in excellent condition and the cache was quickly found a few hundred metres short of the mine gates. It was a nice quick find and the cache and contents were in good condition.

Thanks Liz and Bruce for the cache.

Today I was finally able to log this oh so elusive cache. Same time different year had the road open this time. That now removes that little green dot from the map. TFTC

Found while we toured a circuit of the Flinders Ranges, Marree, Roxby Downs, Woomera and Port Augusta for the week, mostly touring the backroads and visiting many scenic and interesting locations. This was one of those caches that I've passed by often enough and, until now, never had the time to detour off the beaten track to retrieve. It was the mission of the day to remedy all that! Thanks for the cache Liz and Bruce!

Cache has been moved and is in place.

Coordinates changed from:
S 31° 26.039 E 137° 10.323

Coordinates changed to:
S 31° 26.007 E 137° 10.274

Distance from original: 320.5 feet or 97.7 meters.

New location needed because of road closure.

Replaced as per request from CO. Found and signed.

Came to look for this one on a Wayne’s World adventure. Laighside Legends and I thought it would be easy as we had a previous hopping frog finder with us. But no joy.

About 4.5Km from the cache and the road is no longer accessible. It appears that the mine must have expanded a bit in recent times so you cannot get to the cache any more.

Can the COs please advise if this cache is still accessible, or archive if it isn’t?

WHOOPS! I'm logging about 100-200 or so caches like 3 months after the trip that we found them on! Completely forgot to log these but I did not forget the trip! Found this cache along with many others on an adventure around the red centre. Along this adventure we visited and explored many phenomenal and surreal places such as Woomera, Coober Pedy, Uluru and Mutitjulu, Kata Tjuta, Wattarka, Tnorala, Both East and West Macdonnell ranges, Arltunga, Ruby Gap, Palm Valley, Parts of the Finke road, Boggy Hole, Rainbow Valley, Old Ghan Route, Chambers Pillar, Oodnadatta track, Mount Dare, Dalhousie Springs, Painted Desert, Moon plane and I'm sure I've missed a few! Thank you so much for the cache. Found with Ferociousflea and -Beaker- along with our mint 79 series that accomplished alot in this two week time frame.
TFTC

Found with Beaker and Astronaut99 on a Red Centre Roadtrip Adventure... Thanks

Found on the way to the Red Centre with FerociousFlea and Astronaut99. Amazing the places that geocaching takes you!!
TNLNSL
TFTC
TTFN
Beaker

??

Nice hide. Thank you for the fun from Sydney! We enjoyed finding this one (:

Our tour from Sydney to Ayers Rock took roughly two weeks. We can't reproduce which cache we've visited at what time any more. That's why we logged all of them at the same days, so don't be confused about that (:

*´¨) Thanks for the cache
¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´¸.•*(¸.•' Jim&Marissa

Found the imprints of where the cache should be....but alas the bucket is no more.
In our usual pay it forward style have replaced the cache with a medium size type size container, log book and a pencil.
Cheers and thanks for showing us this area.

Found on a nice trip out! Tftc!

I was headed up to Port Augusta for a kayak event but somehow afterwards I forgot to stop driving.
1,700kms later and after 83 smileys including 1 FTF were locus cache'd, 1 event attended and sadly 7 DNFs and a dead roo, I arrived back home with both the camera and the phone full of pictures of this amazing country in which we live .

This cache took me about 3 hours to find!
Ok, so it all started when I had a track on my GPSr that wound around a hillside and led to GZ!
Apparently it really was 'the road less travelled!'
After about an hour of slowly driving along this rough, rutted, rocky, creek bed traversed track I came to sand...soft sand and lots of it!
Being 5kms off the main road, on my own, with no phone reception and not wanting to get stuck I decided to turn around and head back to the main road.
Then I found the correct road into the cache that was easily travelled by 2WD vehicles....aah but what fun I had had on the other track
Got to GZ and looked around, then started to get worried that the cache wasn't in situ. Read a few logs, then realised and made the find!

Sadly, I didn't have time to try and arrange a look through the mine
Maybe next time!

TNLN. SL. TFTC Liz and Bruce

Quick find today, this has been on our to do list for a while now and today time was on our side for the detour, mine is still active but no problems getting to the cache nicely hidden and in good condition TFTC

Had hoped we could look through but hadn't called and the gates looked officially 'no entrance'. I was worried this cache was gone but on looking around found it well hidden in it's new location. Signed the log but took nothing. It was a good drive in and an excellent time of year to visit, I could imagine hot and dry summer days would be exhausting. TFTC

a bit of a drive in, but well worth it.
Took a few minutes to find.
TFTC Liz & Bruce, hope ya going well

It was quite late at night when we called in here. A quick find of the cache and saw that it was in a very sorry state for itself. So the next morning I moved the old container as it still had some swaps in it about 30cm away from it's original, exposed spot, and put it in a small cave thing with the 200ml sistema I brought for the purpose. Had a talk to one of the workers on the site, who explained how they get the copper out of the ground. He also told us about the old accomadation for the workers which has since been destroyed and is now represented by a few concrete bits and some rubbish. TFTC!!! ( photos coming soon!)

On a day trip to port Augusta with team scallywag and the wild gang. TFTC. Container needs replacing. Didn't have one with us to change over sorry.

found with the Rhyan Clan TFTC!

This ones annoyed me for a while as I travelled up and down this road. Tonight I detoured and found this one by torchlight. Would be an interesting spot to explore by day and with access to the site. Not sure if permanently inhabited but well lit at night for security I presume.

Thanks L & B

It would be greatly appreciated if the next geocacher attending this cache could take along a new container. With thanks and kind regards Liz and Bruce

Found easily. Didn't have time to call in. Tftc

Found on the Anja & Setsujoku honeymoon tour!

After getting married on the 19th May it was time to head off for some rest and relaxation, or rather camping and lots of walking!

An interesting cache on a road that you would not normally visit. Cache needs a bit of maintenance though as there is no lid, and the log book has been wet at some stage but has now dried.

Thanks to Liz and Bruce for the cache and another chance to see the outback.

Yep really nice Crystals around, have to ask for access next time. Thanks

Wow - interesting terrain. Lots of copper cristals in the rocks.

A quick find on the way home from the Gawler Ranges.

We left Freddo on the highway so that the eldest tadpole could have a bit of a drive.

TFTC

Quiet hassle free drive to cache.
Quick find.
Cache container needs replacing, the lid is cracked.
Signed away TNLN.

We did not understand that we needed to phone first and when we reached the gates of no return we realised. But, no phone coverage here. We turned around and will return another day.

Travelling with SA Parrothead from Finke to Dalhousie then down the Oodnadatta Track and Borefield Track to the Flinders. Finally a dry day on the track

Parrots had a snooze at the highway while I headed into here. TFTC.

cheers

Found on the way to the Andamooka Opal Festival in the company of Team Bounty and Team Joe (Grumpy). TNLNSL. Cheers and thanks for the cache.

With team Spanner and Joe on our Andamooka trip. TNSL. Thanks for the cache.

Found on the way home from Sunny Side Up event with Skippy and Four Fun, thanks for the cache

Great drive but quiet today
TFTC Liz and Bruce

I came here previously on a school science exertion in 1974. It has not changed much. The concentrate from the mine was shipped to Japan from Porter Guster. Once every three months or so the Chewey Maru would pull up at the wharf and load cargo. Back when the Port was a real port.

Quick easy find. Interesting place to explore if I had more time as I was on my way back to Roxby. TFTC TNLN

Nice Drive to the Cache, Lots of Emu's spotted, and Gonna Lizard, Amazed at the Mine was next to a Salt Pan.
Dropped in Geocoins for a short visit. TFTHSL.

I Thought this mine was abandon, not much work going on in 40 degree heat. Took Repco key ring and Left yellow car freshner.

Late logging this one after our PDA died with all our info on, but our mapping helped us out, just took a while!
Found on our way back home after our Kimberley trek and on a day when we were seeking shelter from the 115km per hour winds that were blowing dust in the area. TNLN then went back down the track and found a turnaround where we could shelter for the night behind bushes without being under trees for a very wild night. Thanks for bringing us down this memory filled lane Liz and Bruce.

I turned this into an interesting experience by forgetting to change from follow road to goto which made for an interesting searching challenge. Once I sorted it out the csche was soon in hand.

Accompanied with sevabo, We enjoyed drove the car along to the cache. No swap. SL. Thanks Liz and Bruce for organising the cache.

Found it and the cache still in good condition. Thanks for bringing us there.

Found on our way to Melbourne. Thanks for the cache!

TFTC - Found on our trip around Australia!

First bush camp on our way to Darwin in the new Kimberley Karavan. Went into the camp first and spoke with Christine who was very excited when I spoke of Geocacheing. Said she had been looking for it for weeks. She took it away for some much needed maintenance.

Must be a hard life working here in the summer months. Very desolate work. At least it was cool today.
Cache container needs maintenance but I see from logs that later on someone repairs it.
Cheers from the Posspet Boys -Desert to rainforest to desert trip 08.

found by temingi TNLN TFTC

What do they mine here?
Cache was in need of a bit of help but we had little with us., so put it in a plastic bag with a rock on top, hope that will survive until the next one comes along.
TNLN TFTC

It would be much appreciated if the next geocacher going to this cache could replace the container which it has been noted is severely damaged. Thankyou.

Heading back home, so took a slight detour to ge this one. Container has well and truely expired!! All contents are not so healthy, but the log book is still OK!! A few big dump trucks visible.

Found by Brum on way to Adelaide,nice detour.Rained last night & water in container,so I covered it with rocks.
Took travel bug 557082 left buffalo bottle opener.

Thanks Liz & Bruce.

[This entry was edited by Brum on Thursday, December 28, 2006 at 12:41:34 PM.]

bush campbells found it, pm 16-12-06


took frog geocoin
left animals t/bug
signed log

tftc

***container needs replacing*** (small icecream size?)

Another L&B cache that I’ve been meaning to get for ages. Have travelled to Woomera numerous times, but never had the opportunity to detour to get this one until now. Easy find in sight of the mining camp. The lid of the container is shot and will provide absolutely NO protection if it rains. I had nothing with me to fix it. Could the next person to find this one bring a replacement container? I took a Pimba fridge magnet and left a Repco keyring and a geocoin. Thanks again, Liz and Bruce

18th for my outback adventure. A bit of a detour, but an easy find. The local are pretty quick to 'check out' what you are doing... The container is on its last legs and will need replacing ASAP.

TNLN
Visiting: World Traveller Gold Geocoin A#06

Albida

Not so much a driveby, more a drive to and return but still a nice easy and quick find.
There big holes in the ground aren't they!
- bottle opener, + mondo figure.
Cheers, TFTH.

After a nice little detour we were able to pick the cache up very quickly.
Thanks yet again to Liz and Bruce,
Regards Mr.Coffee and the "It's only a couple of k's that way" Clan.

An easy find. Took ocky straps; left batteries.

There had been some rain so the road was slightly wet. Not bad enough to cause any problems or do any damage on the road. If you look carefully, large holes in the ground can be seen. The cache site is strewn with lovely samples of malachite and azurite.
We were greeted by Dave who checked us out. Expect to be. Say why you are there ‘cause he knows the cache is there.

Sena found this one, and also picked up some malachite (copper xtals) nearby the cache. I left an ocy strap pair and took a fishing float (not much use around here). Sena took the wombat and a comb and left a pack of playing cards. This was Tony (Big V) and Sena’s first cache. It was fun!! The AWD on the subie got a tiny workout .
Clear skies, Astro.

Found at 1310 on way from Darwin to Adelaide. Still lots of wildflowers in bloom.
TNLNSL

Interesting side trip. The wildflowers are all out at the moment with carpets of white and yellow.
Easy find, took hole punch and left roll of tape.
Jim and Chris

Found at 10.45AM An interesting diversion on our trip north. Nothing exchanged. Thanks for the break. Greg and Bev

Don't know what it is they are getting out of here but it sure requires a lot of effort and earth moving.

Left Wombat
Took Toy man

Found on the way home from Darwin with Wombatus
Unfortunately we did not have time to visit the mines but thoroughly enjoyed the detour and the scenery
Took Keytag
Left Mini Paper Punch
Thanks Liz & Bruce for bringing us to a place we would have not known about

Found by Mary & David at 1035. This is new territory for both of us. Fascinating changes in the vegetation as we travelled. Colours of silver-grey, khaki and every shade of green. A long program today so we deferred a tour of the mines to another day. Took Pocahontas doll, left mirror case. Thanks for this interesting little detour, Liz and Bruce.

Yeah and met the bloke who runs the mine too. He was woundering what I was doing but understands about the cache! He will not spoil it for visitors but just needs to keep the mine safe.

Here is my third for the day!

A place that i originally thought was no longer in operation and have allways wanted to take a peek at. Found the cache quite close to the road with minimal effort and was in the middle of completing the log entry when another vehicle made its aproach. Oh No! i thought, what will I do to prevent the cache from being disturbed or removed. Thankfully I was right by a bush so all i could think of was to stand was to stand and imitate the call of nature. Hope it works!

Took:- Keyring
Left:- Fridge Magnet

Bush

Hi guys, Great location. Found 10.27am Monday 4th August. Took Green Robot and left a Pocahontas doll.