Geocaching Australia

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to find out what my first ever cache was, I found it quite by accident one day while out of a photography shoot. I'd never heard of caching before, I didn't have the resources to play after I found this cache, I only started early 2011. So, I can't remember the suburb it was in but here is what I do remember, maybe someone will recognise this cache and tell me what it is/was?
As I said, I found it in 2005.
It was in an inner Melbourne suburb. Quite a funky one from what I recall, trendy some may say
The cache was a sistema painted black, about small lunch box size.
Located on a wooden pedestrian over-pass over a rail line. The cache was hidden between the metal kick-plate and the rest of the bridge.
The other thing I remember very clearly is that it was very close to a police station. It must have been a pretty large one; it's car park backed right onto the rail line with only a very small dirt walkway between the fence and the line itself. There were an awful lot of the .05 Booze buses parked behind the station. I worked with the police at the time so I took a happy snap; this is what you could see from the over-pass:
http://s102.photobucket.com/albums/m112 ... CF5834.jpg

Here is one of one of the photography group who came to check out what I'd found, this pic contains the actual cache but not the important stuff like the log-book etc *head desk*
http://s102.photobucket.com/albums/m112 ... CF5838.jpg

This one is of me being a smarty pants leaning on the fence line of the police station, as you can tell by the sign it's a pretty older type of area. The sign might be recognizable to someone, maybe?:
http://s102.photobucket.com/albums/m112 ... CF5841.jpg

I know it's a long shot, but if anyone recognises any of this stuff, I'd LOVE to hear from you. And yeah, I've trolled through all the train lines on Geocaching.com trying to find it,but nil joy. It may well be archived.

From the look of it, it's this one.
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_de ... wp=gc1tzv4

Railway.
Police yard (VicPol Traffic Centre)
Smelly area

Was only published in 2009 though.

Not sure which cache but I reckon that's Dawson St police depot, in Brunswick. The rail line (and a bike path) runs down the back and there's a railway overpass in the vicinity.

Ah, yes. What caughtatwork said. Only not that cache. There's only one other that I can think of -- a long multi that finishes somewhere around there -- but that only dates back to 2006. I've been caching in Vic since 2007 and would have* found any traditional that was there (since I lived not far from there), so either it was a cache that was already archived by 2007 or it was a multi or mystery that finished there that I don't know about.

* Probably.**
** If I remember correctly.

caughtatwork wrote:From the look of it, it's this one.
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_de ... wp=gc1tzv4

Railway.
Police yard (VicPol Traffic Centre)
Smelly area

Was only published in 2009 though.

OMG! That's IT! That's IT IT IT!!!!! Thank you so much!!!! No wonder I couldn't find it, it has been archived as I feared it may have been. Thank you so much for this, caughtatwork, I really appreciate it. Such a pity it's gone, I'd've loved to go back and sign the log. Was just sitting here with Epicmac and we worked out it was in the Brunswick area...I was just about to update my entry here

Not being picky or anything, but the find log you entered was for a date 6 months before it was published.
Doesn't matter unless you're anal about things like that like I am.

gmj3191 wrote:Not being picky or anything, but the find log you entered was for a date 6 months before it was published.
Doesn't matter unless you're anal about things like that like I am.

Which is quite possible, there have been many caches placed that don't get listed for a while, either because of the hider losing interest before listing, or there being a problem that the reviewers see. Depends on the cache in question I suppose.

What happened in the four years from when you thought you found it and when it was published?

Dippedidooda wrote:What happened in the four years from when you thought you found it and when it was published?

Eddies in the space-time continuum.

(What's he doing there?)*



* Sorry, slightly obscurer than usual Douglas Adams reference.

Timing, or rather 'time', is a big issue here. GC1TZV4 only survived for a short period between being published and the first of the DNFs - less than one month in fact . That gave Maggies-lens a very small window of opportunity to have found it. Not impossible I know but ...

On the other hand, SamCarter's earlier post got me thinking and there is another possibility, but I don't want to go into it any further lest too much info be given away . My guess is that GC1TZV4 was not the cache that Maggies-lens found , particularly given that she thinks it was 'in 2005'.

A simple test could be the date/time on Maggies-lens' photos that she took. If they were taken during June-July 2009, then GC1TZV4 is probably/possibly it. If not, then it is most likely a different cache. The good news is that the 'different' cache can still be checked for her logbook entry .

If, however, the photos were taken in 2005, then it is unlikely to even be the 'different' cache to which I am alluding and the mystery deepens . Good luck .

Well, well, I just checked the 'info' on the photo of the guy holding the cache container and it lists "Date/Time: 2005:02:08 03:53:43"!

That being the case, Maggies_lens did not find GC1TZV4 (kg84 only started caching in April '09 and I really don't think he would have put a cache out in '05 in anticipation of eventually starting caching and getting a cache approved ).

That date also means though that the other cache I thought it might be is now an unlikely candidate as it wasn't approved (as opposed to being physically placed mind you) until 2006!

As I said, the mystery deepens !!!

EuDes wrote:Timing, or rather 'time', is a big issue here. GC1TZV4 only survived for a short period between being published and the first of the DNFs - less than one month in fact . That gave Maggies-lens a very small window of opportunity to have found it. Not impossible I know but ...

On the other hand, SamCarter's earlier post got me thinking and there is another possibility, but I don't want to go into it any further lest too much info be given away . My guess is that GC1TZV4 was not the cache that Maggies-lens found , particularly given that she thinks it was 'in 2005'.

A simple test could be the date/time on Maggies-lens' photos that she took. If they were taken during June-July 2009, then GC1TZV4 is probably/possibly it. If not, then it is most likely a different cache. The good news is that the 'different' cache can still be checked for her logbook entry .

If, however, the photos were taken in 2005, then it is unlikely to even be the 'different' cache to which I am alluding and the mystery deepens . Good luck .

My EXIF viewer says they were indeed taken in 2005. 02/08/2005, to be precise.

FUJIFILM FinePix S5600 | 14.8mm F3.3 1/300 ISO800 | 2005:02:08 03:50:13 | Digital Camera FinePix S5600 Ver1.00

Looks like the mystery deepens.

But I definitely agree, it's Dawson St TOG depot.

EDIT: Beaten!!

Except - the timestamp (03:50:13 ) is inconsistent with the fact the photo is cleary taken in the daylight. And a quick google for the camera model brought up this page http://www.trustedreviews.com/Fujifilm- ... era_review which claims that model was only released in July of 2005, which would make it impossible to have used it in feb 2005.

So I reckon the camera date/time was never set up. It probably defaults (on initial power up) to say 2005-01-1.

I found a copy of the camera manual at http://www.scribd.com/doc/973136/FinePi ... manual-PDF and page 14 confirms the date & time needs to be set one first power up after purchase or "when the batteries have been removed and the camera has been left for a long period".

The screen shots also suggest the default is 2005-01-01

So I reckon all the EXIF data can say is the photo was probably taken 6 weeks after the camera was purchased.

GCA CSI