Westgate Memorial Stony Creek, Victoria, Australia
By Partic on 13-Jan-05. Waypoint GCMG3K

The Westgate Bridge Collapse occurred 38 years ago today.

A rather poignant time to archive the cache. Thank you to all who have visited over the past few years.

Following a visit last night to find the cache gone, I've also found the condition of the memorial park has changed since my last visit, so have decided to archive this cache mainly due to my relocation East making maintenance a little more difficult.

If a local would like to replace the cache with a new one in the nearby locality, that would be appreciated.

Just in case it's actually there, I won't disable the listing, but I will drop past soon to check the status of the cache.

Strolled around to this cache after finding c@w's latest GCA hide nearby. We spent some time searching, following the hint advice, but no luck. Just noticed the last attempt was also a DNF, so we're now worried this one's gone. We'll be watching to see! Thanks for bringing us here anyway, some great history at this location.

Looked for ages but no find. Splendid location. Thanks. ZZ7

Found today at 3:40pm. Nice spot down here. I can remember when it was 60 cents to cross the bridge when it first opened. ( so someone told me ) Took : frog & "5 happy campers" TB - Left : keyring. Thanks Partic.

Pretty cool atmosphere under the huge Westgate Bridge! The container is camouflaged very well. Nice one.
Took: Danish Race Geocoin
Left: 5 Happy Campers Geocoin
TFTC!

I love the westgate bridge, so naturally I just HAD TO do this one, found it with after a little search in the night. Sad to see so many worker die. TNLN

Found this rigga late at night after approx 5 minutes.
lots of fun under my favorite bridge. thanks.
took nothing left nothing

What an amazing bridge. I used to build them, too, but only tiddlers compared with this!! Thanks for the cache.

Found this one fairly easily. Like others have said I thought this may have been a bigger memorial site than what it is.

The sound of the vehicles above was quite loud even for a Saturday arvo. I wonder what monday peak hour is like.

Dropped off the Cache Rewards Geocoin to speed it on its way.

TNLN.

Found today while waiting for Scienceworks to open. Neat hide.
Took - geocoin
Left - wristband (roadsafe)
TFTC Partic

Visited at 16:06
Got to the park no problems while in the city on business.
Was expecting a bigger park though.
Nice little cache, in with the "Uncle Jon 2007" geocoin.
TFTCSL find #195 for Echo & Spice

2008-04-01 08:55 An easy find when I arrived at the GZ. Looked down and there it was. Interesting to hear the rattle of the bridge as the traffic passed over the bridge. I spared a thought for the workers that died constructing this bridge. No swaps today
Regards Crisp Image

Finally I am on the right side of the river to look for this one. It was a quick and easy find.

I have driven over the top of this site thousands of times, but I have never been down here. I like the way memorial the memorial shows what the job roles of the workers was. It highlights that they were just people who were doing a regular job.

Didn't take long to find the cache, hidden in the likely spot.

TFTC.

This was to be our first find of the day & also our first cache of the New year .
Found in the company of The swaggies
TNLN SL TFTC
Cheers
LIVERPOOLRED
(Y.N.W.A.)

With Swaggie2 still feeling not 100% and deciding to stay in bed I headed off for the day with Liverpoolred to Willi's town for some caching. This one was the the first of the day and Red2 made the easy find.
TNLN SL @ 1030hrs.
Thanks Partic for the cache.

Yay found it .. nice camo

Yay found it on second visit. thanks Partick for your extra hints. had been moved a little. closing to running out of paper space to log in container.

Good Camo cheers
G!

Couldnt find it, any other clues?? could you be more specific with crypted clue?

look forward to finding.

Didn't know this memorial was here - thanks for the education. Nice cammo, but pity about the rubbish lying about. Thanks again Partic.

Found at 1905. Great location to get a feel of the Westgate's sheer size and expansion, as well as what it must of been like either standing on or standing under for those who were killed.

TNLN. TFTC.

Found with Cached on a long weekend run to Victoria – TFTC!

I have never been here before. Certainly gives you an idea of the scale of the bridge.

Thanks

Cached & Wackys

Found this one quite quickly.(Helps when gale force winds are keeping the muggles away!)
Took car, left "zipper" lanyard. TFTC.

I was 11 when this happened and still remember seeing a picture of the event.

Found today on the way home from work. This must be one of my earliest childhood news memories. I was 4 years old but vaguely remember it falling. I grew up in nearby Tottenham. Clever hide. In hunter, out ladybug peg SL TFTC

Found at 4pm on 29/7/07 by pocketrocket&friends.
Intrepid geomum and I had never stoppedat the memorial before. Had a look at the memorial to find my grandfather's friend name on the honour list.
Found cache easily and due to many cars in the car park logged my find only.
TFTC!

Our GPS and the bridge did not like each other.
We were 37 metres away and then in a few steps we were 100 metres and so it went.




[This entry was edited by The Silver Snitch on Tuesday, July 24, 2007 at 5:16:00 PM.]

what a tragic event ... difficult find as GPSr was jumping all over the place ... but found in the end.

tftc

Out on a bike ride with 17th Essendon Scouts, this location was a sober reminder of the price paid for some of the things we take for granted. I thought we might struggle to find this cache, but HP just picked a spot and came up with it … just like that. It might have been beginner's luck, but it was pretty impressive. Took guitar pick/plectrum and left a one-hour parking sign (a small one!).

Second find on a bike hike to Williamstown. Somehow HP just magicked this one out of nowhere. Took guitar pick/plectrum and left a one-hour parking sign.

Found @14:40
Found after a short search, when the watchful eyes of the fishermen on the pier opposite weren't on us.
T: N
L: N
SL
TFTC
19/05/07

Amy accompanied me for this cache as I explained the significance of the history here. Unfortunately the old Westgate has been linked with many more deaths over the years.

Thanks Partic,

R + A - B

[Took a mate out for his 1st find. Had lots of truble getting an accurate reading due to the massive overhead bridge.] Sneaky spot to pop it... snapped back in place very nicely... my 1st magnetic cache!

This was a nice quick one on the way back into the city. I did have to wait to put it back as two cars rolled in and then rolled back out 30 seconds later.

Thanks Partic, another great cache. I must be running out of your caches shortly...

TNLNSL

Found this afternoon, GAFF1. Nicely hidden, with good camo. A very interesting view of the bridge was seen. I cross it twice a day, but I am thinking I will stick to the lanes on the inside of the bridge from now on. The added outside lane looks decidedly dodgy (you can tell I'm not an engineer!).

Thanks for bringing me to this memorable place Partic. It really strikes you how terrible the events of 1970 must have been.

Found @ 1:05pm.

Found on a caching cycling tour of the city with ggkof. 10th of 17 for the day.

ggkof had done this one before, so he left me to do all the searching. After searching high and low, I finally spotted the well camouflaged cache. (But I looked there!!!!!!) TFTC. TNLN.

We found the GPS was swinging wildy under the bridge, and we didn't have much time, so we had to move on from this one.

Our first Partic cache for the day on our way to Partics wedding. Mrs Gribbly thought she had it in the bag but I eventually made the find - probably because my arms are longer. TNLN TFTC Kook!

Count #0007 on a Sunday afternoon.
Nice place to visit and see.
TN SL, Left: mini kinglee.net wooden peg.

TFTC

Bluecat pays its respect in the memorial and left his favourite fish behind! The bluecat meows!

Found at 8:05pm. Took in the views of the bridge overhead and wandered around memorial. I was only little when this accident happened but my mother tells me vivid memories of the day she heard the news of this tragedy. Found and re-hid stash with no problems as the area was very quiet this evening. TNLN SL. Thanks Partic for the cache.

Found with NEXT! & Scooters mob. @ 6:40pm.
SL TFTC

Found @ 18:40 with Next! and Clarks Mob 20th of 21 in our caching expedition to the other side. Interesting to look up the history of this on the web! TNLNSL TFTC

18:43 was found with Scooters Mob & Clarks Mob. Kept a watchful eye out for falling bolts! Cache found easy but needed good muscles for retrieval. TNLNSL TFTC

A very sobering bookend to Dak's cache at Monash.

Found @ 18:35. The Geowife and I decided to cycle around the Williamstown area and look at the market and stop and relax with a coffee at a coffeee shop. Collected this one on the way back home and dropped of TB Little Neds Big adventures as he wanted to see some big things. Also showed him the Titanic.

Took: Batteries Left: Dice and TB

Makes the whole story seem more real when you see the names of the men who died that day. A fitting memorial. Thanks for bringing us here. TNLN.

Found by Bob at 1230

I decided to take a day off work and head over to Willi for some caches today and this was on my list. I remember going up on the Westgate a number of times before it was joined up - it was a great spot for photography, but I only vaguely remember the collapse. The site for the memorial is an excellent one (I hadn't been there before) - the sound of trucks rumbling across so far overhead and the perspective it gives really brings home the immensity of the thing and what an aweful tragedy it must have been .

The cache was a quick and easy find thanks to excellent coords .

TNLN

Thanks Partic

Found on the 36th anniversary of the bridge collapse. Lots of wreaths at the memorial, which just reinforced how many families lost loved ones on that day.

Took green ghoulie, left butterfly hair clip.

No luck for me on this one, tried in a few different places. Contrary to the clue, the GPS kept putting me in the garden, so I wasn't sure which bit of structure to look at. The nearest places all came up with nothing, from very few possible hiding spots. After 20 minutes I decided to move on elsewhere.

Found the well coloured cache today in its tricky hide.This place always brings back memories of only one thing and its a sober reminder of that eventful day.Nice hide and many thanks to Partic for the cache challenge.TNLN.

Our 44th find of 101 for the day in the company of Dak's Emu Mob.

A great cache under this FANTASTIC Bridge !!!

We really loved this spot and until now had no appreciation of this amazing engineering feat nor for those that tragically lost their lives.

Thanks to Partic for the cache.

Found after a bit of a search. Brought back memories of the news broadcasts - even in Brisbane.

Visited on a trip to Melbourne from our country base on this lovely sunny Sunday afternoon. Very interesting site, and one of our little penguins found cache after a bit of a search. Took screwdriver, left rescue truck, SL.
Photo of visit attached Thanks Penguin Clan

Good cache at an interesting site. Couldn't help but look up imagine the disaster.

Found 2.30pm
7th of 7 for the day, this one has us searching high and low for a long while before being spotted by the GeoMrs. Very cunnig little hide.

Took Hello Kitty Clip
Left Smiles

TFTC Partic

Found this with my dog Max in tow. I think he was less than impressed at being tied up while I found the cache and did my swaps.

Third cache on my long, soggy trip up the river

Took: Plastic Dino
Left: Green Ghoulie

[This entry was edited by Soggy Bottom Boys on Friday, July 07, 2006 at 6:18:17 AM.]

Found by all four of the Pickupfamily at 1615hrs as a small detour from "Will By Bike" by car. This is an interesting place to come; the "ba-doom" thumps of the trucks overhead adding to the atmosphere.

Found the cache easily once we went the right way to GZ. TNLNSL. Thanks for the cache Partic.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Found this one hoping it was in the park on the other side of the river. I remember walking up the bridge after the collapse when I was a little kid. They must have been trying to restore public confidence in it and held open days etc. We parked at the bottom of the bridge and walked right up to the edge of the uncompleted bridge and looked down..you could even go on tours INSIDE the bridge. My wife's family had a friend who worked on that bridge when it collapsed - but he was off on a sick day that day and had a nervous breakdown afterwards and was never the same again. I even remember a schoolyard joke was "What's big and grey and squashes lunchboxes?"...poor taste I know...but hey we were aussie kids.

There were quite a few people milling around when we rocked up, but the GZ was quite empty. An easy grab. T: rubber hand and hair band...L: ladybird peg and mouse ball and a pencil.

Drove off and spotted a speed camera car parked very close to the car park...so we drove past at about 30km/h and stared at him wondering if he'd snap us for driving too slow.

Thanks for the cache!

6-6-06 the devils date – good day to find my first ever cache. I only got my GPS 5 days ago and this cache is only 800m from my work. After walking in circles for a while I found it! My circular walking motion got the attention of some Vic Road guys who kept their evil eye on me, but I don’t think they saw me grab the goods, but they probably got my number plate as I left. I expect a visit any moment now from the authorities. Took a crocodile and left a slightly chewed dinosaur. Thanks for the fun and the beginning of something new.

[This entry was edited by pigmeat on Tuesday, June 06, 2006 at 3:58:12 AM.]

Took only a short while to find in the dark. the ships look so big from here, (nearly as big as they do when 'out on the point')
Took nothing, left hello kitty clip
Thanks Partic

Went in search of this while at work and found it. No one around at the time(2100hrs) I looked for it so all is good.
No log in cache. Took Bug and left nut & bolt. This was my first solo cache. Loved it.

[This entry was edited by snockley on Thursday, May 25, 2006 at 10:12:31 AM.]

I was ultimately able to see this cache from the built area with a little gymnastics. Its a strong box! I actually went under the bridge in a bus the day before it collapsed, and I remember the effect it had on many people in the west in particular, as most of the workers came from there. Thanks Partic for putting this here.

We also needed to leave the built area to find the cache, however once did we found the cache easily.
Left little Australia eight geocoin that was picked up from Adelaide to continue its journey.
Thanks

Easily located after a previously unsuccessful attempt last year. If you really want to spin yourself out, stand next to the main concrete support and look straight up for a while. Left AA batteries and took the turkey figurine. Rehid the cache so it wasn't in plain sight. Thanks again Partic.

Found it on the way back from work. I remember a story that graduating engineering students receive a ring made from the steel that came from the collasped span, to remind them of the responsibility they now have now in construction industry. There is no mention of this on the linked website so maybe it is another urban myth. TFTC TNLN.

Found by baby&Mrs gopher at 1300. Great to learn about the history of Westgate. TNLN

This is a very impressive memorial to a really tragic event. I could not see the cache without going off the built area, and I rehid it - better as I thought. On re-reading the hint today, I realized I have probably moved it to where one has to go off into the bush area- but not into the fenced off garden area. Perhaps the next finder can put it back where it can be reached without treading on any earth.
TNLN. Thanks

A spectacular location under this enormous bridge. Thanks for bringing us to this park.

First Cache!! Took along three six year old boys, so they loved the whole idea, especially the exchange of the treasure.

Took the car, umbrella and snake and left a bouncy ball, a sticky foot and a stretchy alien.

The pencil was missing and I didn't have anything with us, so we didn't log the find in the cache.

Everyone keen to continue cacheing.

Thanks a lot, Rod

The GPS was having a few problems under the bridge but finally settled down. Nice new container.

Took rubber, left umbrella.

Thanks Oenze for performing a very nice replacement of the container. I dropped past after having worked at Footscray this morning.

I took the remains of the cache home yesterday and made a new container, painted in a silver camo and aded a magnet and replaced it today.
Its a 200ml sistema clip top container

[This entry was edited by oenze on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 at 3:35:41 AM.]

Found at 5:30 pm Accompanied by the Mrs.
1st out of 3 finds for the day.
Found the zip lock bag with the swaps in them under the structure but no container, have taken them home and hope to replace it on the way through tomorow when we go out caching. I am sorry that the cache got muggled before the first log was entered after you had replaced it.
Thanks Partic....

I thought I better get the Westgate Memorial back in place before it's 1st Birthday.

The cache container is now a Small container, so swaps are able to be made now, but please be careful when replacing the cache in it's location.

On heading out there this morning to fix the container and log, I found the cache has vanished, possibly during last night's thunderstorm.

New cache will be placed soon.

Have been here before, but then there were too many muggles. This time, the threat of rain meant I had a muggle free hunt.
This cache is in desparate need of repair. The contents are completely soaked, and the log is unusable as it waterlogged.
Took nothing, left nothing, not even my ink on the log!

Cache thirty seven of seventy seven for the day: in what we called The Big Assault eighteen hours of none stop caching.
The hiding place was quite obvious for this cache; unfortunately the log book is soaked and is now no good for anything. What a tragedy this was go to work and don’t come home.
Thanks Partic for another great cache.

This one took a bit of finding .

We did not realise that the bridge was so high. We can only hope that those that perished in the accident did not suffer.

Our GPS had a bit of trouble getting an accurate fix due to the size and location of the bridge.

Eventually located. Contents were extremely damp.

Took nothing, left nothing.

Found at 7:35pm. Pretty scary to look up and think of what happened here 35 years ago. Cache took a bit of finding as the GPSr was a bit inconsistent. At one stage it was trying to point me to the other side of the road! Switching off and on again fixed that problem and got me pretty close to GZ.
TNLNSL - the log page was quite damp and hard to write on.

Found at 11.30am GAFF1. Start of a day exploring Williamstown with the family. Stopped by to read the memorial plaque and then onto the cache. My GPSr was going crazy under the bridge so we just used our best "feeling" as to where the cache was hidden. Soon found it however it was totally water logged. Very hard to write on the paper. Thanks Partic tn/ln. ps we placed the container on its side to prevent water getting in.

1.30pm
Found by Roma and Max.
When the remnants of the accident related to this memorial were sold off, Max purchased a section, for his then employer, which was installed as a private bridge over Axe Creek, on a property just outside Bendigo, where it remains to this day serving it's originally intended purpose.
Thanks Partic, for reminding us of that sad occasion.
Romax.

Found at 4:30pm. Eleventh of sixteen on our rainy caching day extravaganza. As we arrived at GZ the heavens opened up once more. We waited for a break in the weather but the bridge itself actually provided some shelter, even at that height. The drains from the bridge spewing water were an interesting sight to see and the flow had to be dodged at times. The cache took a bit of locating but eventually gave itself up. Thanks Partic from D & K B-A.

nice easy find this was found by head chef
thanks partic for the cache.

This was the tenth cache found today with Team Crackers. We have often said as we drove over this one that we had wanted to complete it. I have been afraid of this bridge since I was little. Dad used to take much joy in driving in the outside lane in his truck on windy days when the cabin would sway from side to side and in doing so scare the absolute heck out of me. To this day it is still a running joke. My fear was increased when I had to do an assignment on the bridge and found that there were 267 faults in the bridge and this number would only increase with increased use. The cache was quickly found.
Thanks Partic for showing me a side of the bridge I had not yet seen.

This was our tenth find for the day in the company of Cracker Girl. We have been meaning to do this one for quite a while but always seem to run out of time. Today we made time. We have driven past the memorial many times in the past but this is the first time that we have stopped. We headed to GZ and waited for a couple of muggles to clear and the cache was located quickly.
Thanks Partic for finally getting us to stop here.

The bridge really is a rather impressive engineering project, isn't it? Quick find on a Saturday afternoon. Thanks Partic.

Found at 4.40PM 2nd of 5 on a late afternoons caching.

A nice little spot for a cache, found easily but had to keep an eye out for the people fishing nearby. Thanks for a quick easy one from M.B and D.C.

TNLN

Found at 3:51 PM, the 32nd cache on our all day caching adventure.

We had been to this location quite a while back before the new works had commenced.

A chilling reminder of the human cost for a bridge that most now take for granted.

TNLNSL

TFTC Partic

Found at 12.40PM by Ray and Maya on the 5th of June. The event which this cache and park commemorates is emblazoned in my memory as I [Ray] was working at The Government Aircraft Factories, across the river, when the collapse happened. I had a clear view of the bridge span through the building 5 office window and watched as the construction grew each day. We all in the office felt a great loss with the collapse of the span, and for the unfortunate loss of life that resulted. Thank you for bringing us to this location again. TNLN. Thanks from The Nomads.

Found at 10.55am.
A sad but interesting memorial.
A great start to our days cycling around Williamstown.
TNLN
Thanks
K&M

Bike trip from North Melbourne took about 1/2 an hour, most of the way on bike paths. Then it took me 1/2 an hour to find the cache... there were heaps of Muggles around, due to the niceness of the day and the Anzac Day holiday. This is my first successful cache; I suppose some more practice is in order

Out: nothing, In: nothing

Dried out the log (I guess the cache isn't 100% waterproof) and wrote a note.

Second of the day as one + six. A nice easy find with the cars and trucks roaring over head. I did a cache very simerler to this in Auckland recently.

Thanks Partic TNLN

Edit date 28 to 27. I was a day a head of myself all weekend

[This entry was edited by Two+Four on Monday, February 28, 2005 at 8:52:03 PM.]

Found it without too much difficulty. Took a marble, left a green duck.

Found at 15.00. What a nice little spot, but it did take a while to get the correct fix. Took slinky, left marble. Thanks Partic for another interesting cache.

Found this one on the way home from work today. The contents are a little damp but ok. I suspect the recent floods may be the culprit. Its above the actual flood level but there is evdence that an awfull lot of water was flowing through this area recently. Anyway it could have been hard to find but just happened to look in the right direction when standing in the right place.
TNLN but was thinking about the old saying about letting the cat out of the bag when I was stuffing him (soft plastic cat) back in. Think I wrote tomorrows date in the book too.

Found on 08/02/05 @ 0756 AEDST. 11th of 44 for the day with Facitman. After reading the previous logs, I was worried this would take a while. Thankfully it didn't

TNLNSL

Cheers Partic

** Rhinogeo & Facitman - The 40th Forage **

Found at 7:56am

11th out of 44 for the day.

Very quiet location and cache found after a short search.

TNLN, thanks Partic for bringing us here.

** Rhinogeo and Facitman - The 40th Forage **


[This entry was edited by Facitman on Wednesday, February 09, 2005 at 3:55:41 AM.]