We New South Welsh folk are an inventive lot – Dr John O’Sullivan, the creator of WiFi, is Sydney born and educated; Professor Graeme Clark, inventor of the Cochlear implant, was born in Camden, NSW; and although Scottish born, it was in Sydney’s Darling Harbour that Thomas Mort created the first freezing works in the world in 1861.

With that great legacy in place, it’s time for the inventors of today to come up with ideas for Lab Caches for the OzGeoMuster 2019. With a “Battle of the Labs” trophy to vie for, NSW will need some clever ideas to come away as winners. Lab Caches are experimental and an extremely rare geocache type and they’ll be available at the OzGeoMuster 2019.

Our NSW Lab Cache coordinator Tatt2squared (find him on geocaching.com) will be able to answer all your questions. Even if you’re not a builder of caches but have a spectacular idea, run it by the team as they may have the skills to bring your genius idea to life.

For more info on Lab Caches visit the OzGeomuster Page and the Geocaching.com page covering Lab Caches.

Community Caches

In a recent question to the Committee, we were asked to come up with a way to help look after old and significant geocaches where the CO no longer plays the game or cannot maintain the cache themselves. The proposal was to have active players watch over these caches and maintain the cache when necessary, even though they aren’t officially the owner.

This situation has come about as players from the early years have moved away from their areas, have stopped playing the game, or sadly passed away. The game of geocaching is now 18 years old meaning that there’s a lot of history that could potentially be lost. Archiving happens, often for perfectly valid reasons, but from our discussions, the community is willing to bridge the gap.

NSW Original Stash

We have been in talks with the NSW reviewer (Tiddalik) who has kindly given us some practical advice on the matter.

How to maintain a significant cache when you are not the owner

As part of your local geocaching community you’ve established that the CO is no longer on the scene, the following points need to occur:

1. Place a 'Write Note' on the cache listing, stating that you wish to maintain the cache on behalf of the CO. (effectively making it a Community Cache)
2. Place the cache listing on your watch list.
3. Attend to all DNF's or 'Need Maintenance' logs, and place a 'Write Note' to inform the reviewer what you have done.
4. Upkeep the cache as if it was your own.

Remember, a cache can have more than one carer from the community, and if this is the case, all persons caring for the cache must be listed as such, with all carers having the cache on their watch list.

We hope this gives you the tools you need to take action locally and keep these old school caches active in our state. Please let us know about caches that you’ve successfully kept going (and the backstory on why they needed intervention) or if you’ve spotted a significant cache that needs some TLC - we’re not able to maintain them ourselves, but we might be able to bring it to the attention of people who can help.

In the back half of 2017 Groundspeak rewarded active hiders around the world with a big surprise... Virtual Rewards! A strictly limited number of new Virtual Caches.

Virtual Caches were originally designed for locations that would not suit a physical box but still worthy of bringing a cacher to. However, in order to stop overuse and saturation Groundspeak grandfathered them in 2004 as an available option. Now it is true Virtuals are plentiful on geocaching.com.au and waymarking.com was basically set up by Groundspeak to replace the cache type but we thought it was worth recognising the NSW geocachers who won, and have now hidden, their rare geocaching.com Virtual Caches! 

Well that was a lovely morning. Today some of the Committee and two very appreciated volunteers in Chad and Grant attended an event for the IUCN World Parks Congress in ‪#‎SydneyPark‬. The rain threatened but cleared to a glorious day and about 40 delegates from around the country and world got to experience ‎Geocaching‬ as an activity to bring youth into parks using technology. Huge thanks to those who helped out, and if you haven't yet, make sure you go check out the couple of permanent caches the park offers and the amazing rejuvenation the space has undergone in recent years.

At our 2012 North Sydney Get Together event, we were told that myrtle rust has now spread to the Sydney region. We have also been informed by geocachers in Queensland that it is now a problem in that state too. If you come across myrtle rust, please stand away from the affected tree, take a photo and mark the approximate coordinates with your GPS receiver. When you return home contact the council or land manager to alert them.

The following information is from fellow geocacher Meredith Stewart.

You may have heard over the last few months of an outbreak of Myrtle Rust on the Central Coast. While containment in the nurseries has been largely successful, in recent weeks the situation has worsened with it's detection in bushland in several reserves on the Central Coast. These reserves have been closed down and extensive control works are under way as we speak.

There is a risk that anyone moving through bushland could potentially be spreading the disease via spores on clothing, including hats, within a reserve or from one reserve to another.