AAPT-Tell it like it is Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
By the farmers 5 on 31-Aug-06. Waypoint GCY1Y6

I sent a note to the Melbourne City Council asking if this lane is now private property and they confirmed that it is...

Please be advised Lush Lane is privately owned and the City of melbourne has no jurisdiction over the lane.

Should you require further assistance, please contact us quoting your Service Request Reference.

Regards,

Customer Relations Team | Customer Relations Branch

So, alas, it looks like it might be time to archive the cache.

As per the latest notes to clarify details, we have decided to put this baby to bed. A constant problem of work going on and doors open one day and closed others just makes it impossible to keep it going.
Its a shame ,as you can see from the pictures enclosed, the laneway looked great with the phones and ringtones ,but the Council only did a temporary artwork set-up,plus it looks private as well now.
So folks, we hope you enjoyed it whilst it lasted .

A very (very) cursory search of some Melbourne City Council documentation leads me to think that this lane way is actually now private property. I suspect that the land is actually now owned by the owner of one of the buildings backing onto this street, and that the boarding is just there to limit public liability by the owner. It seems that this is a recent change, and therefore it's possible that the lane way might never open again and it could even become part of the next building when this site is developed.

Obviously this could easily be wrong, so I think the next step is for someone (cache owner?) to contact the Melbourne city council and get some solid information on the future of this lane way.

Maybe I should do that?

OK then. I will.

Looks like another night where the gate keeper remembered to lock the gate.......! Push, pulled jiggled but no luck. Have to try again another time. Maybe we need a secret knock

Will disable until we get a more permanent access to the cache.

Just noting that this cache is now disabled. We couldn't get in when we were there on Saturday afternoon. Looks like we weren't alone and we did try a lot of wiggling and pushing too. Even stuck the mirror under the wall and have a good idea where GZ is! But we'll have to find this one on our next visit to Melbourne from Sydney. Meanwhile we thought that overhead pool was pretty interesting. Thanks anyway. Cheers.........Gaztek

The door is definitely locked. Thereby preventing access to gz. Visiting from New Zealand

I've been here three times in the last 6 days- once on Sunday afternoon, Wednesday afternoon and again today at lunch and haven't been able to access the site at any time. I have looked at earlier logs which suggest the door is not really locked but it sure seems locked to me. And yes, I have pushed and pulled on the door!

This entry was edited by Buggalugs on Wednesday, 14 July 2010 at 05:19:39.

This entry was edited by Buggalugs on Friday, 16 July 2010 at 04:29:54.

#50... yeah! Found @ 19:08. Easy find... as you are hidden from everyone. Nice container. Signed the most random piece of paper.

Easy find. Nice container! TFTC.

Door is constantly open and all cachers are welcome to stroll in.Good luck and enjoy.

Found this evening on the way home from work. It's definably accessible, and all ok.
After meeting garnercx at the Wintergrillen event at the weekend - and understanding from him that this was all good, I thought that I would give it a go.
Amazing cultural experiment going on here - in western society, we see a door, and we assume that, for some reason we shouldn't push it open and walk through. We have seen that in so many of the previous logs. Someone has said "this is mine and you can't pass", and we generally respect that.. Well in this case, they may have tried to say that, but the door is well and truely open. This is a public laneway. Go for it, you have a right to be there.
If the owner is reading this, you can take the cache off hold. It's all ok and accessible. Although, now, there is an extra twist !!
I concur that there are lots of bits of paper making up the log, that could do with replacing,
Loved the container. TFTC

OK, so there's a trick to this cache...

This is one of the last inner Melbourne caches I haven't got, and it's been off-line for longer that I've been caching. I got an alert about a new log entry on the 25th of June but I realise now it was actually from 2008. (Maybe it was a log edit).

Anyway, I decided (incorrectly) based on the now unrelated log entry that this might be achievable after all. After dinner tonight we found ourselves at Hairy Canary a few blocks away, so I decided to have a go on the way to our next venue, which was Cookie.

It turns out that you can just push the door in the boarded up wall and go right in. It's not locked and there is no construction work going on behind the temporary wall and the cache is in fine order. It was a pretty straight forward find, even in the dark, but with the wall - there is no muggle activity at all, so it isn't a problem. I even had time to read all the previous logs by iPhone light. By the way, the cache container is getting a bit full of bits of paper and could do with a service and a fresh log. My entry was made at around 23:30.

So there it is. If you really want to log this find, just go on in and do so, but I'd advise doing it late at night and not on the weekend.

As to why the wall is there - it might be worth investigating - it appears to have no purpose other than to turn a public street into a private lane way.

By the way - nice container, nice camo, nice theme, nice hide.... Nice cache!

Cheers.

Has anyone been past this one lately to see if it is able to be accessed?

I ride past it every night on my way home from work (I work about 100m away from here).
They are still renovating this building (171 Collins)...so until they remove the hoarding there's little we can do...but I'm keeping an eye on it and will let Farmers 5 know the minute it resurfaces (or find out the workers have removed it). Thing is...I've never actually seen anybody working in there!!! Maybe I should ring the construction company number and find out the time frame for completion.

Hmm.. Went to try this one again this evening, but still no access into the lane.

Barriers are still up for awhile ,so previous info will be disreguarded until bacPAQer gives a visual on the actual site.Hopefully the work wont take too long.

Work area barriers removed.Cache is available now.

Hiya Farmers...I think it best this cache be disabled for a while...see photos for clear reason.
The cache is no longer accessible.

I will monitor the situation and advise if it's possible to re-activate the cache eventually or whether they plan to tear down the two adjoining buildings and build something new.
The buildings on either side of the laneway are both hoarded up...so I'm guessing it may be a demolition job.

Will temporarily disable whilst construction work is being carried out.
Thanks to bacPAQer for the pics and updates.

Found with graemeap. TFTC. Clever!

Not to be defeated, and with some encouragement from a fellow Geocacher (you know who you are - thank you!!) I found it at 14:40 today (after a DNF yesterday)

Ha!

I'll contact Melbourne council for cleanup to make the area a little more accessible.

[This entry was edited by bearsleys on Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 5:43:51 AM.]

The remaining place for a log entry was obviously a scrap piece of paper that someone has added because the paper supplied is full. I didn't have any notepad sheets with me so the next person or the owner might want to consider adding one.

The location is very dirty with broken glass about. Not for the faint hearted at night and this one certainly IS NOT family friendly. My iPhone application could only place this one within 64 meters (with all the buildings etc restricting transmission coverage and thus accuracy). However the alley is easy enough to find and the picture lets you know you're st the right location.

I thought I searched pretty well - but without luck (even tried the decrypted hint) and in good daylight. The sucessful logs make me want to find this one but the disgusting location means that I won't be going back to look. I guess this one will always remain a failure.

awsome find very unique cache place could do with a clean

Didn't find this one this evening - too dark to have a good look.

Been to nicer alleys than this one! Logged on an early morning and no mugglers in sight! The container is super! Thanks for the cache and greetings from Sweden!

Interesting container to say the least. If it wasn't for the original display I doubt whether ANYONE would have put a cache here. Worth it for the container though.

#637. Yes, a real CITO opportunity. Came in the dark and found the cache and then noticed pieces of log paper lying nearby. Retrieved them all (we think) and put them back. Needed to take care to ensure the container was closed properly. The old log papers are really overdue to be replaced by a fresh sheet. TNLNSL. TFTC.

Well this was a very different container.... I have honestly never seen one like it... Well done... 10 points for the idea.

The lane was scary looking and very dirty. But hey what an opportunity for a CITO cache.

The pool was unreal...

This was a real fun cache with me doing the finding and Mrs Madstars directing me via telephone. She was on the internet informing me of the caches I must do and helping me with the clues.

Great Fun... Thank You Farmers 5 for a Great Cache.


MADSTARS
Nelson Bay 2315

good site, shame they did not keep the lane like the photo.

This alley is awesomely creepy after dark!
I'm glad there were three of us and we had a flashlight. We were definitely jumping at shadows!

Needed the hint to know where to look, but found the cache after being stumped for a bit. Clever container! Haven't seen that one before...

Thanks for a fun experience.

Found @ 1315.

Found after a short search. Nice cache container. This area is filthy though.

Really dodgy alleyway today. Had been police roped off recently which was obvious by the tape on ground. Loads of trash and broken glass. Clever hide but log full. Added a small piece of paper. Needs maintenance. Left secure. TFTCSL

Found it easily. TNLN.

This place is absolutely filthy. Broken glass is all over the place. This is NOT a family friendly cache by any means. I didn't want to touch anything. The last thing I need is a trip to the hospital for a tetanus shot. I left the area with pieces of glass and a nail in the sole of my shoe. This cache should be archived.

Our first cache find in Melbourne, Australia (visiting from NZ)! Yay! Didn't really know what to expect but as the car was parked in one of the carpark buildings nearby, we decided to check out the nearest cache. However, the GPSr led us to what looked like an abandoned alleyway, with broken glass and blocked up windows lining the stony walls – not a particularly nice place to visit. Good thing there were a few cars parked in the alley obstructing us from passerbys. The unique cache container was a nice surprise. A good hide. Reading the cache description now and seeing the picture of the artwork on the walls, we can see why the original cache was planted here. Such a shame that the council had removed it as it would have been an interesting sight. TFTC.

dipping personal gc

Brilliantly conceived cache container. Makes complete sense.
I probably picked the craziest time to find this one: Friday evening 10PM. GZ in the pitch black, and revelers lurking in the street. It's hard to act casual when you're trying to avoid being noticed whilst entering an abyss. Out came the super LED torch which no doubt lit the place like a Christmas tree. I still managed to kick a few empties around, the sounds of which seemed to be greatly amplified.

TFTC.

Would have loved to see the artwork. As it was it was an interesting static display of an alleyway, full of broken glass, rubbish and a teddy bear. No sign of the mattress mention by other loggers. (For the best!)

TNLNSL TFTC!

#573 at 1242

After having an absolutely WONDERFUL hot chilli chocolate at a little Chocolate cafe and then hitting Minotaur, Dvixen and I wandered up and did this one. It took us a while to zero in on the cache, and we were about ready to give up when I found it. Interesting container. The alleyway was littered with rubbish and had a creepy feel to it.

(We never did see the pool though...)

TNLNSL TFTC!

Just too dark & creepy to look without a flashlight.

Found on Victorian invasion trip with Big Matt and The Rats.

Another cache I'd had a crack at before in Melbourne without success- so many places to look! This time we got the well hidden and disguised cache.

Thanks.

Here with Big Matt and Steeba as part of our Vic invasion weekend. This is not a spot I'd normally frequent but put a cache there and I had to pop in.
Thanks

Forgot to mention I tried to place our TB, but way too big for this little cache...

A quick one day trip from Perth and we did this one just after midnight. The homeless mattresses and broken glass added to the fun of stumbling around in the dark. The last of three caches that cannedtuna and I grabbed whilst in Melbourne. Great container - TFTC!

Did this one at midnight in the dark.. blindly stumbling through the unlit alley, over broken glass and maybe the odd homeless dude. Another cache found with therobots while in Melbourne. Cool container TFTC

What a wonderful cache in an interesting lane. I have to admit I tried this one last week alone without success. But with my geocache husband in tow we were able to locate it this time.
Thanks the farmers 5 for an interesting experience.

Fantastic and relativly easy!

Nice hide in suburbia up a dead end! TFTC

What a very dark alley at 2030 at night, hmmm, at least the GPS took us to pretty much next to it, and with the clue there really weren't to many places to check. I like the cache container, very clever.

TNLNSL
TFTC

Find # 56 @ 10:00. Hardly a muggle in sight made for a quick and relatively easy find. Would have loved to have seen the phone boxes on the wall rather than the rubbish. I picked up a few mt bottles and dropped them in a dumpster when I left. SL TFTC

Got this one surprisingly easy. A very clever intuitive hide. TFTC.
MMRR

Didn't bother searching too long here as I was worried about getting stuck with a needle or cut on a broken bottle or mugged. This was a disgusting location which I wouldn't recommend to any one. And to add injury to insult, I didn't find the cache! Thanks anyway.

Found by Team_Ninja, 6.5.2009,find no 111.
With the GPSr playing up and not connecting I decided to try this one without the GPSr. Problem 1: Which laneway to go up? Problem 2: Where to start looking.

Well with the accurate description of an alley full of rubbish, we picked the right one. I was using the tom tom software on my ipaq without the GPSr and the cache appeared to be right up the end of the alley. Bingo, first place I looked. At first I thought someone had dropped it there! Certainly a tricky and well placed cache, one of the best I have seen so far!!!
TNLNSL TFTC!!! Overall rating: 3/5, i'll definately be recommending this cache!

Yay! 10 months after my first visit to the place I found it! TFTC!

Found @1155
On my way home from the WWFMv5 Event is was determand not to go till i had found this one. infact i walked straight up the lane in question & there it was retreved sighned & replaced within about 5 minuites & with not a Muggle in sight.

Very clever little Hide indeed.

TNLNSL
TFTH

'Lest we forget'
Found on our ANZAC Day weekend in town.
Looked for this night before in the wrong lane way - called Flying Pig Squadron to which Ginger was extremely cryptic - but loved the hint! Found quickly once get self sorted out with GPS
TFTH
TNLN

Second time i have had a look for this cache when visiting melbourne and, once again, i didn't find it GPSr accuracy was way out and still not 100% certain that i was looking in the correct laneway (no idea where the phone art used to be). Only had time for a quick look on this visit but can't wait to go back to melbourne and look for this interesting sounding hide again

A messy place as noted in the description, loved the cache container ...

Crooked Mick of the Speewah

A bit of a sketchy place but a fun hide! TFTC

Could not find this one at all.....had us absolutely stumped.

Place was full of muggles and people moving office furniture.

Loved the Pool at the end of the laneway....

Liked the cache container, might try something like that one at home. When we found the cache rather than stand in the alley we took it to the street to sign the log, Meanwhile this guy went up the alley and sat on the steps to eat his lunch or something else......don't know, don't want to know! Which meant we had to take it with us and returned it to it's hiding place 1hr later. SL.
TFTC, Merann.

You're right about the creepy laneway feel, but loved it! And possibly the greatest cache container ever!!! TFTC

Out Night caching with The Lone Random, The Empire and Pocket Rocket and Friends. What an ally to choose at night. TFTC

Found by PR&F in convoy with The Empire, The Lone Random & Kiwi Friend on 6/4/09 @ 9.43pm.
Final find of six for our night caching adventure!
This was indeed an experience whilst caching.
TFTC

Found by The Empire with PR&F, Lone Random & Kiwi Friend
6/4/09 @ 9:42pm
Night caching, gotta love it.
TNLN SL TFTC
- M
The Empire supports paperless caching!

We found it eventually, the right laneway that is. I think it was the third one we tried, with poor sat locks on both GPS's. Once we found the correct one, there was few options that met all the criteria. It only took a few minutes to locate the cache.

Found at 1500 hrs, number 8 for today.

Cheers
Bundy

Found w The Empire, PR&F And Kiwi Friend.
Great night out Caching.
9.42pm

TFTC, The Lone Random

Cool cache, dodgy lane.

Finallly. Are several checks over the last year on trips to Melbourne finally had the courage to go all the way down this lane. Nice cache container

At 1:30h in the night isn't really a funny place.... TFTC

A la 1:00h de la nit no es el lloc mes divertit d'estar, una mica tetric

GPS had an impressive 220 metre error accuracy! No matter. Saw the aerial swimming pool which showed nothing on this occasion.

Remembered where the payphones used to be and located the cache very quickly. No-one about at 5:10 on a Saturday afternoon ... until it came time to replace the cache! A couple of men appeared from a door, chocked it open, and the proceeded to load a ute with mattresses, lamps and other assorted junk. How dare they choose to move house when I needed this laneway to myself!

I had to leave with the cache, feign interest in the various bridal parties being photographed further down Flinders Lane or await the arrival of some "star" at the stage door of the Regent Theatre, until I watched the ute drive past me some 20 mins later.

Quick dash back and replace before someone else showed interest.

TFTC

Much better today. I found it right off the bat. Don't know what my problem was yesterday!! Nicely done. Really enjoyed the container too. Had to avoid the curiosity of a nearby muggle but that wasn't too hard...as I was having a conversation with my GPSr! HA! TFTC #2270 for us.

Drats. My GPSr was not cooperating. So I had a choice of 3 alleys. One had rats, one rubbish and broken glass, and the other parked cars. Still not sure which one it was. Hands ended up quite dirty! You win some you lose some. I may try again tomorrow before I head to the airport. Thanks for the hunt!

18.40pm.my second attempt in two days for this one, the hotel is just around the corner so after my days caching arond melbourne in a hire car i parked it only yards away from here,keeping my fingers crossed that a traffic warden would not come along,you seem to have more here than in london,do they live down holes here aswell ! i walked to the harry potter place but this time had an almost instant find of the well hidden elusive prize, given its location and possible activities up here it makes it an even better hide that is still safe. i really enjoyed this one thanks.thanks for showing me this place.sltn.patandjeff=bones1.

19.00pm.i arrived in melbourne from england yesterday and have spent the day around geelong with oenze and feathertop finding 22 caches so when i got off the train nearby to my hotel i just had to try one more,i had a choice of 4 lanes but did come up here and missed it by inches,so i will return later in the week,patandjeff=bones1.

My 4th for the day and I almost gave up. Was about to leave when I spotted it. Great hide, great container, Ive got lots of ideas for new cache containers now.

TFTC

Nice one. Best cache container ever. Found at about 2:30 pm

Found this one after a search of app. 5 minutes. Funny container but the lid doesn't work anymore and the the logbook is now full. Thanks for showing this place.
Die Furchtlosen [^]

Found, after lots and lots of searching. Great idea for a cache, and well hidden. This was actually the second attempt by the group, however, with some members who were not present on the first one.

We were going to leave a geocoin in this cache, but alas, there wasn't any space in it - it's a micro cache, but we were hoping! Oh well...

The log is also completely full, so could probably use an extra blank page or two.

Great cache, in an "interesting" part of Melbourne.

TFTC.

Beautiful day, wife not thrilled about the location of this one but fortunately found the cache quickly. Log needs attention. Cool swimming pool! Thanks for the "heads up".
Only cache we did in Melbourne, no time...back to the Volendam.

Found it at 11.40 am. Was worried someone would think I was breaking into the two cars parked in the Alley.

Visiting Melbourne on business so a quick look around before dinner at nearby hotel. Shame I wasn't here for the art. Another creative cache, nice one. TFTC, BigglesNZ.

We are not having much luck with micro's in melbourne 0/2 so far
Cheers
Will and Sue

[This entry was edited by Will and Sue on Sunday, February 22, 2009 at 10:39:35 PM.]

Very clever hide, this one. It's a shame the phones have gone - they were a real attraction. I don't understand why they had to remove them.

Thanks for the tip off re the pool too. I never would have noticed otherwise.

Found this one after attending a Melbourne Uni open day, then headed back home to Geelong.
Log Sheet needs replacing, it is full.
TFTC

Found at 2pm. The city was buzzing with Australia Day activities, but not near this grotty little area.

The hide was well-spotted by the reluctant spouse. Shame the phones have gone; they'd have given this place a much-needed lift.

Thanks to the farmers 5 for a most interesting cache.

I admit to reading the hint very quickly on this one as it is in an area I wasn't comfortable being in by myself. I did like the cache container though. TFTC!

BTW - the log is very full.

Definitely not one of the places in the Melbourne guide book...but still it's all part of the fun..Used the hint and found the cache container quickly (unusual design). Good timing to as a group of police officers where congregating at the end of the laneway.

First find for me in 2009 - interesting location and interesting Cache Container as well....DJohnson28

Night Time Caching Run PM Thursday 1JAN / AM Friday 2Jan '09.

Found at : 01:16K

Thanks for the hide.

TNLNSL - vk3jap

Searching with CruiseKat. Quite a dirty, seedy part of the city. Can't say we really enjoyed rummaging around the mess & filth. GPS reception was terrible. We also couldn't find the cache which makes it all the worse. Hey! I'm telling it like it is !!! Pool was interesting to watch though.

#387 - While I would consider many CBD caches more of a night hunt due to muggles, this is one I'm glad I did in daylight. It is a stark reminder of the seedy side of any city - quiet laneways that become homes to the city's homeless and drunks. Fortunately during the day this is quite peaceful. A real shame that the phones are no longer on the wall - that would have been a sight to see. A thought provoking cache - thanks for bringing us through here.

Found with Aussie Puschaks, shame the phones are gone as it would have been a sight to see. A recycle bin would not go astray in the lane for all the empty and smashed bottles though. Interesting location for the pool sighted on the way out, although too cool today for anyone to indulge in a dip !
TFTC

Just Go! TB visited here with IndiemmaJones

Nice cache, my first in Melbourne and my first in Australia!

Felt a bit dodgy skulking around in the alley, but at least there were no muggles! TFTC

[Found this one thanks to the gps. The clue was a little bit bizzare. I'm I thinking too abstractly to think that it meant:]

Diagon alley in Harry Potter. Because the alley was quite diagonal as in, quite steep in comparison.
[(Encrypted. just in case)]


[Anyway, found it, nice camo, unique, fits in well with the cache theme. TFTC]

Found after quick search. Liked the camo. TFTC