Mayes Cottage Kingston, Queensland, Australia
By Crew 153 on 08-Dec-06. Waypoint GCZQ0H

Quickly located after an interesting morning touring Mayes Cottage. The log was signed and the cache replaced as found. TFTC

Found after a tour of the cottage and surrounds. The host was lovely and very passionate about the history of Mayes Cottage.

GCLOGAN Day 1Found the cache with TBU1BIKESU Tftc Crew 153

We arrived today for the big GCLOGAN event - couple of events in the next coming days. We came in this area for a location of a Wherigo, so we used the occasion to sign this log as well.Tftc Crew 153

Such a beautiful place. We love geocaching cause it brings us to places wed never discover on our own. This is definitely one of them.A beautiful step back into history.Geocache easily found about 10m out. We then had a look around the cottage and grounds.Staff here were so friendly and welcoming, and knew all about the geocache.No problems here. A fav for this amazing piece of history. TFTC!

What a great little adventure found it

Lovely spot only open thursday to Saturday

[***FTF***]Attending the breakfast event this morning, I scored 4 FTFs. Thank you. An adventurous day of tree climbs, tree fishing and hidden caches.Caching with RoddyC and imbunda.TFTCache Crew 153

Inaccessible even by foot, gates closed

No luck. But checking out cottage now

Found it eventually. We looked then had tpur of cottage then looked again and found it

Found it, decent exploration stash. Place is also open on Saturdays 10 til 4. With offtherailzzz. Thanks for the cache

SL and returned to spot safely.. TFTC

Great spot! So much history and worth a visit not just for caching

Did a tour of the cottage, thanks to the beautiful host. Then she helped me locate find #282 at 3.43pm. Lovely place to visit.

I was able to find it though my GPS it was about 10 metres out. I also took the trackable that was in it as well and hope to pass that along. I had fun with this one as I got the tour while I was here. I did not remember that I was wearing the Geocaching shirt that someone bought for me and the lady who was giving the me the tour mentioned it and knew what I was really there for. After the tour and finding the cache, I returned to the house and spoke to the tour people and apparently there have been people through that were quite aggressive in their details about what Geocaching is which is worrying. But she was happy to hear that there is a game out there that has people visiting spots like this.

It has been brought to my attention that there is a NM attribute on this cache. It appears that this may have been on the cache since 2013 so I am clearing this attribute off the cache as there has been multiple maintenance visits done on it since then.

Found with Brissy Cat and elina_maree.

Found by GeoM93 and Brissy Cat after taking a tour with the helpful staff / volunteers.

A pupil free day today so out caching with GeoM and elina_maree today. On the way to picking elina_maree up from the mechanic in Kingston, GeoM was checking out the caches in the area and he was keen to come to this one. We noted that it was open today and so after finding a few other caches we dropped in to have a look.

We all had a great time here, learning a lot of history from the guides and looking at all the old objects. GeoM got to turn the honey press and played with the old style telephone. Then he ate his lunch outside and ran around the grounds finding hidden animal pictures. This place is really well set up for kids. We wandered down the back and easily found the hidden cache. GeoM decided he wanted to leave our travel bug here so we popped him in.

Thanks Crew153 for bringing us to this wonderful little historical site!

Second time back at this place this time it was open and in full swing. What an interesting place thank you so much for placing and bringing us here.

Had a really nice time with the wonderful crew at the cottage and roved the garden and the cache was found with misssusan79.

In the area today and the cottage was open. We had a lovely chat to the volunteers and a look inside too.

Found it! People at the site are lovely, and its good to finally find a decent sized cache.

Love it interesting cottage

Managed to make a stop at this oldie today and turn it yellow.

Cheers

I didn’t read much about this cache before coming here, I just noticed a certain attribute I was interested in so it made the list.

Lucky that it was during daylight hours and I could enter without trouble. It was quiet here so I was able to make a quick find. I thought I got in and out without being noticed but a volunteer spotted me leaving. She asked if I was geocaching and was happy that I found it, sounds like it’s in good hands.

Tttc Crew 153

Nice place.
TFTC

Thanks for the cache! We visited this one after school last week. The cottage is amazing and the volunteers are so friendly and knowledgeable

Wow
Love the old cottages and very well look after
Thank you for bring me here
Found it

Out for the day with nikid1 & seems we are getting a great history lesson on our caching adventures today. I love old houses & will have to come back another day when I have more time & can look around inside. There were a number of people enjoying the sunshine but no one paid any attention to us. We had to expand our search a bit further but soon found the cache.
Thanks for bringing us to this great old place & the cache Crew 153

Out for a day of caching with KerriMG
What an interesting piece of hidden history in the burbs.
At GZ it was a quick find.

TFTC Crew 153

Today i was out with SelvaGirls to do some caching.We headed to the south side.This was a nice quiet find. TFTC

Whenever I have been in the area, this spot has been closed. Knowing that it was open on Fridays and that we would be in the area today, I added it to the list of "must do" for today. As I parked the geomobile, we were approached by a volunteer who asked us which event we were attending today. We told her that we weren't attending an event and that we were here to find the geocache. Her face lit up! She was so excited that we were here for the cache and she told us that she knew where it was, so if we had any problems, to let her know. I followed the compass to where it said was GZ and searched. No luck, but I heard a voice say that we were "cold". I guess our phones were a bit off today. There was another likely spot nearby, so we moved to investigate. As we moved, we heard "warmer". At the new location, the cache was quickly spotted and our names added to the log. Now for a look around this historic site before we continue on our way. TFTC

Was great

A wonderful explore with history.

Coordinates changed from:
S 27° 39.133 E 153° 6.981

Coordinates changed to:
S 27° 39.135 E 153° 6.991

Distance from original: 55.3 feet or 16.9 meters.

Thanks to Davidwazza for the relocated coordinates. And thanks for the Volunteers for keeping the cache alive.

Out of a Thursday, and remembered that Mayes Cottage is open on a Thursday, so I suggested that we should pop in and grad this one. So we did. It wasn't the same volunteers that we met here years ago before caching, but they did know of the cache and gave us excellent advice. So of course we found it.

Log signed and cache replaced as found October 07, 2021. TFTC, Crew 153.

Footnote: I found this note while clearing out the History section of c:geo on 19.10.2021. Apologies for the late note. Happy to the updated coordinates.

Caching today with RoddyC snickersallan and GS1947 to find some oldies.

Although we had been here previously (BC) we decided to target the cache as the opening hours suited our schedule. The volunteers knew straight away what we were there for and added that it had been moved.

It was a quick find while inspecting the old buildings and surrounds.

TFTCache Crew 153

Time to start working on some challenges and today was dedicated to finding some older caches prior to attending the Logan catchup event with geo friends hatzofff, RoddyC & grannysmith1947.
Really enjoyed coming to see Mayes Cottage in particular and the added bonus of finding an old cache which was found quickly by hatzofff.
On our tour around the home and grounds it bought back so many fond memories of all our childhoods, so pleased we had the opportunity to visit here today. Thanks CO for maintaining this old cache.

TFTC Crew 153

This afternoon, I travelled south to the Logan area, and later, to attend the Beenleigh catch up event. My first stop was Mayes Cottage, as I knew with its restricted hours of opening, I could use my parental leave opportunity to make a visit. I then headed south-west and made a few walks in the Chambers Flat area, and as I lost daylight, I then made my way towards Beenleigh, passing through Logan Village.

I remember seeing this geocache during my travels around Logan several months ago, and it was one that could only be found during certain hours. I had remembered that Mayes Cottage was open on Fridays and so had planned to visit the following day, but knowing I would be heading south today and it was also open on Thursdays, I made this my first stop for the day.

Upon parking, I was greeted by a few volunteers, and after collecting a self-guide, I made my way around the rooms and read some of the history. What a marvelous place, and the respect shown to this place by the volunteers was great. I made my way outside, and as others had mentioned, the main Moreton Bay Fig tree had been roped out for safety reasons, but after reading those logs and noting that the cache had been placed nearby, I soon found the cache in a logical hiding place at the base of a tree at S 27° 39.135' E 153° 06.991'. The cache container and logbook were in good shape. An enjoyable visit, and a Favourite Point from me. Thanks Crew 153 for the cache placement and ongoing maintenance. It was also nice to have found this oldie 12/2006 hidden cache, which is one of Queensland's 500 oldest yet active geocaches.

TFTC smile 10110 out and about with miss millie geo dog Hatzofff RoddyC Snickersallan great friends, great day ,good weather
Thank you, Crew 153, for placing this cache for our enjoyment.

Enjoyed the self guided tour and the knowledge of the volunteer guide.
After completing the main building we had a long chat to the lovely lady before making our way to the mango tree for this cache.
Thank you for hiding this geocache Crew 153
Find number 23376
R

Easy find

Found (:

Ttfc found with smithy_0926

Finally ... after almost 6 years we actually made the return trip here when the place was OPEN!.
The place is amazing, steeped in history & a great spot to relax for a while yet it's right in the middle of suburban chaos!
Quickly found.
Made our mark & replaced as found.

TFTC Crew 153

Out with TeamTyrrell today and on the bikes to tackle the power trail of the gold coast spit, plus a few target caches along the way. With just time between school drop off and pick up we needed to be quick and with purpose today.

With just a couple of hours left for our day escape I mentioned that I had one in Kingston I would like to get. We said let’s try it and see if they are open, with a phone call we had a booking and a guided tour of the area.

We arrived and our tour guide was waiting to meet us. She took us to the cache and explained that it had to be moved as the old fig tree is in a bad shape and the area has been roped off for safety reasons. The cache has been moved to the tree 10 metres east of the old tree. So happy to get this old and hard to obtain cache.

Thanks for placing this one here and educating on the history of the area.

Out with Chamad today to grab a few cache's on the Gold Coast. We brought the Geobikes and decided to have a crack at the power trail and a few others at the end of the spit.

A quick phone call to the volunteers on site confirmed that the premises were open and awaiting our arrival. We were escorted to the new GZ and soon had our names in the log.
TFTC

Hard to believe I’m only the second person to find this cache in 2020...

I can’t even compete with a woodyrothwell log for entertainment... I was able to guide myself through the cottage and grounds... making the find quite easy and pleasant... it’s impossible for me to truely comprehend what life was like then....

Thanks Crew153 for bringing me here today...

We parked out on the street because we didn’t know just how much freedom we would have to search. We could hear some volunteers in the building having a cup of tea and talking about the latest episode of My Kitchen Rules.

We tried to make our way to GZ when a voice came out of the cottage; “We are just having a cuppa and will be with you in a minute”.

We responded; “That’s OK, we will just look around the grounds while we wait”.

Then from out of the cottage; “I’m coming now to help you find that geocache”.

Our cover was blown and the lovely Sue came out to help us sign the log. GZ was fenced off yesterday so she jumped the fence and grabbed the cache for us. She even politely moved it to the tree just outside the fence after making sure the “toy” was still in it.

We then went into the house for a tour which we should not have thought about blowing off because it was amazing. It was exciting to see someone so passionate about this piece of history and we even joined the dots to discover we had visited the Mayes burial site earlier in the day.

Definitely worth a favourite point and the highlights of the tour were the bed the Mayes slept in for 60 years. When you see it you will be dumbfounded to even begin how they got their mojo on in the cot. I would have thrown my back out just sleeping on it without trying to perform the Golden Fist from the Kama Sutra.

The other amazing thing was the shed they had four kids in before they built the cottage. How did they have more kids when the current ones were sleeping in the same bed as them. Challenge accepted! tftc

Cottage was closed. See on picture the opening times.

A somewhat hot day, but desperate for a walk, and after a lovely hike around the forest of Mt Cotton I thought to pick some almost Q500 caches in the area ... including here. Decided on approach this would be my last as the day was getting on ... and good call because the place was open to visitors.

That's a good thing right? Well - I was all but pounced on by the local volunteers. Been a quiet day I suspect. All but dragged me into the house and I got a very personalized guided tour - complete with the history and some updates as the grandkid Mayes's had been through only recently this year. So all the stories are refreshed and updated and many new ones. The main guide lady was really passionate (I love someone passionate about their job when they are clearly good at it). The cottage has "seen some things" - and having seen grandma's grave (and others) only ten minutes prior it was timely.

After seeing all the cottage has to offer we visited the original slab hut (remains) and the cow sheds. And she pointed out the lovely Fig tree that has been damaged in recent storms. It is currently a little bit dangerous on one side as a major branch is in danger of falling. I did manage to finish the tour at this point and promising to stay away from the dangerous fig tree branch I 'checked out the cow sheds'. From which I could sneak around and made a really easy find (thankfully) at GZ and sneak back to the sheds with noone the wiser.

Lucky to get the royal tour (even if he took me half an hour to 'get to the business'), but very interesting and I would recommend at least the version I got.

Thanks Crew 153 for entertaining me at this location.
*{Overall find #7181}*

Great spot
Left a woollies ooshi gold lion TYFC

Very easy find, no hint required TFTC

Another beautiful place in Logan

TFTC

This place was all locked up today, so may have to come back another time .
Thanks anyway for getting us to come past here Crew 153.

Quickly found after receiving a tour of the place by one of the volunteers...TFTC!

Great cottage with interesting history. Lovely grounds. So worth the visit plus a cache as well. TFTC

Tftc beautiful spot

Kids found it, first official find!

Tftc we where in the are loved mayes cottage.

Lovely place and a nice find.......volunteers were very friendly and knowledgeable, thanks for the hide.

Quite an easy find, and it’s a good thing it is, because I was getting a little frustrated with so many DNF’s, and I was probably going cache blind!

TFTC!

A nice easy find with BrenTheGorgeous. Such an amazing place and lovely muggles. TFTC

Found pretty easily, ants everywhere. Great location,cool historical place,nice people

Last cache of the day. It has taken us a while to even attempt this one as we are usually out and about on weedends when Mayes Cottage is closed.
Three of us entered and while the other two kept the volunteer occupied, I went in for the find
After signing log and replacing cache I rejoined the others and we continued up to Pleasant Place and spent the next 45 minutes on a very interesting guided tour.
I'd recommend visiting Mayes Cottage to anyone with an interest in local history.
This one gets a favourite point from us.
TFTC Crew 153‹

Nice and quick find on international geocaching day. TFTC.

Out and about with Mrs SP on the southside, we stopped in at Mayes Cottage. I would never have known it was here and its history was really interesting. We were greeted by a very enthusiastic volunteer who stuck to us like glue and as we had a limited amount of time before Mrs SP had an appointment, we ended up asking if she knew about geocaching, as some of the other volunteers at Mayes House do. She was really interested and for someone in their 60s she was very IT savvy. The cache itself had a bit of an ant infestation, but everything else was in good condition. I would like to go to Mayes Cottage another day when I have more time to look around, it really is worth a visit. TFTC Crew 153

3525

Thursday. Raynersinoz and Slow Puncture were out this morning on the south side to collect a few caches and this one was nearby another cache we’d just collected. It looked so interesting! And – it was open today! We walked around to near GZ when I noticed we were about to meet one of the volunteers who work here. After getting a really good history lesson, it seemed like she was never going to stop chatting about this lovely cottage and it’s history, so it was Rayners who decided to ask if this lovely volunteer lady had heard about geocaching. She said she hadn’t, so we gave her a short lesson on what geocaching was about. She was most interested! We signed the log and replaced as found. Phew! We spent ages here, but learned a lot about a lovely piece of history and that people power can save a location from demolition!

This was the 5th of 6 caches found on today's trip.

Thanks ***Crew 153***, for showing us this place.

Today I came down to this neck of the woods and met Bristracker as she needed unique cache types starting with J and E, and I needed a letterbox cache for June for some challenge caches we have signed but needed to qualify for.I was also 7 caches off 3000 so we planned to find 7 caches today. Bristracker had already found this cache, but I needed 2 more before going for the planned 3000 cache and this looked like a great option. I am a huge history buff. I found the cache quickly, then we looked around the house and gardens. Such a nice place and very well set up. TFTC

was very history opening and not to hard to fin

What a fantastic place to visit. Recalled lots of memories of yesteryear. The young ones don't realise how lucky or may be not they are to live in this era. Quickly found the cache but expected it to be a little larger than it was. TFTC

Found it easily. Thanks for locating it on this historic site.

Didn't find it what was it

As we approached GZ a couple of volunteers were close to the GZ area. They asked if we were geocaching as one of them had removed container and was about to show the other person who knew about. We all put it back at GZ and covered it. A lovely spot and look forward to coming and looking through the cottage at some other time. Thanks Crew 153.

Well I was very pleased to be able to have the time to find this one today
This place is only open on Thursdays and Fridays from ten to four, and luckily even though I was working today I could still manage to come for a visit [^]
I found ground zero and the cache shortly after arriving, and was stealth-full enough not to be observed by the volunteers (even though some know about it apparently?) and managed to extract the log book (still all good in double bag) and sign and date it, and then replace as found, all without anyone observing what we were up to!
Only as we were walking back up towards the cottage did one of the volunteers spot us, and then stuck to us like a barnacle on the bottom of a boat, walking along with us giving a talk on the history of the place and all the old gadgets and tools etc. I never let on that I had come to grab a geocache, as I wasn't sure if he was one of the volunteers that knew about it or not [?] So I figured he didn't need to know what I'd been up to anyhow
Certainly an interesting old place, that's for sure. A pity about the short window of opportunity with regard to open times, but the volunteer did mention that they have been considering opening on Saturdays! That would be better, as more tourists (and geocachers) will get to visit
Thanks for the cache Crew 153

Trying to complete the month of May challenge

Quick find. All good with this cache.

TFTC. Hope to See you later CO.

Yay!! Got here in time. What interesting history. Thanks for taking us here! Thanks for the cache!!

Came yesterday with my daughter's school group and spied where I thought it was, but couldn't get away from the kids for long enough. Came back today with my daughter and we found it quickly.

Nice one

Had an interesting tour as well.

I've been eyeing off this cache ever since I started geocaching. Until about a month ago, I only worked on Monday and Tuesday so I was never in the area when Mayes Cottage was open. So, I was finally able to get there today.

I had a wander around and loved the old buildings. It's a great site too and I could imagine what it must have looked like to stand on the verandah and look out across farmland.

Although I have been able to come and do this cache for a month now, I have been putting it off because of every log saying that they were approached by the volunteers. I appreciate the work that they do but I prefer to be left alone unless I have a question. And, sure enough, as I wandered around, a volunteer did come and speak to me. She was very nice and we had a pleasant chat but I wasn't sure how I was going to make my excuses when suddenly my phone rang.

Excusing myself, I took the call from the geowife and continued to wander around the grounds. I made my way down to where the cache was and recognised the fence post from the description. I signed the log and wandered out again all while on the phone.

The cache was a tricky one as it was covered in ants and, I think, some small spiders so I was very careful about how I handled it. But inside the log was double bagged and dry with only a couple of names in it.

TFTC Crew 153 and for bringing me to this great spot

Finally the day has come when I was in the right area, at the right time and actually remembered that this cache was here.

I pulled into the parking and tossed up visiting the cottage, however with a little less time then I would like, decided to wander down towards the cache. One of the volunteers came out and we had a small chat, before I headed on my way down to grab the cache. I got my name in the log and all returned.

TFTC

Came back to do a bit of maintenance on this cache. Sprayed it, replaced logbook and pencil in two baggies and added a few toys (plastic) for the next finder. All good to go.

I even signed the visitors book which I forgot to do yesterday.

While doing a search on caches in my area that I have not done, this one popped up and after reading the logs, thought it time I gave it a visit.

After completing another cache at Slacks Creek, drove on down to Mayes Cottage for a look. Having lived in the area from 1980 to 1994 and a 6 year move interstate and return, I don't think I have ever visited here. Had a lovely tour of the cottage and grounds with volunteer Adele and afterwards, being left on my own to take some photos of the property, I also snuck off to grab this cache.

Found easily but cache full of ants and damp. No log book. I did not have my caching bag with me so could not replace the logbook and the pen does not work. Unfortunately it was closing time so could not go back to my car to get these items. Ripped a piece of paper off the information booklet and wrote the date but cant remember if I wrote our caching name.

Thanks for the local history lesson and glad to visit a grand old house. TFTC

If I have time tomorrow, might go for another visit and do some maintenance on it.

interesting history and few nice huge trees and I was bit disappointed that I couldn't log in as it s soaking TFTC

Awesome place! The volunteers were amazing. This trip has been a very educational experience! Picked up TB! It's been in there since last year! It was in fact at the bottom and not in the bag. The cache was soaked and I didn't have the equipment with me to restock. If it's not maintained by next week, I'll go back up there.

TFTC Crew 153!

IN / TB

I think this TB has been logged into this cache ib error. It should be in a cache in Czech Republic.

Love this one need some paper though TFTC

Found on today's adventures with CaN0713

Diamonjs was already waiting for me in the Car park as I was coming straight from work we signed the log then went on a tour. Needs a new log. TFTC

Have been meaning to do this one for ages, so today Rusty85 met me after work and this was our daily cache, nice easy find, signed log then onto the tour. Wow wish I had come earlier so many memories with the furniture etc. TFTC badly needs a new log.

What a great spot for a cache, We have been meaning to come here for a while, having the day off work today seemed like a good day.. we did the tour and all the information was so great!! Good to see the council holding on to a piece of history, wouldve brought a new log if i had of read previous logs prior but just signed a scrap piece of paper. Thanks crew153 a great cache location

TFTC

Out caching on a breezy Friday with Happy Queenslander, a newbie friend who was keen for a walk.

Finally made it to Mayes Cottage on the right day of the week and surprised to find the building, outbuildings and gardens so well-preserved here in the middle of suburbia. The stables were interesting if a little rundown.

We strolled down to the tree for an easy find Not so much a logbook as lots of scraps of paper, so we added our names to one of those. Replaced with care.

TFTC Crew 153!

Had a lovely visit with my mum on a visit from Victoria.
Toured all through the house and grounds and found a cache as well.
I noticed that there were only a few sheets of paper to sign, but nice and dry.
May have not looked down the bottom of the container or it needs another logbook.
TNLNSL TFTC Thanks Crew 153 All good with this cache