Spring is here and it is time to get outdoors...and indoors! We will be hosting our usual Spring event next week and then will be sponsoring another in early November with GCNSW member ADI!

First up, Geocaching NSW invites all geocachers, whether members or not, to attend our "Climbing into Spring" event on Sunday October 22nd at Sydney Park, St Peters. As well as the usual Meet'n'Greet in the park, we have also negotiated a group discount at the nearby Sydney Indoor Rockclimbing Centre! Come brush up on those rope and bouldering skills before hitting the bush this year. 

The logbook will be at the park and the event is an informal meet and greet, “BYO everything” picnic where you can make new friends with a common interest. Share stories about your latest caching adventures and swap travel bugs and geocoins. You may even pick up a hint on those pesky DNFs or get a clue or two on how to solve a puzzle cache you’ve been stumped on. 

The climbing activity is not a requirement for an attendance smiley, but should be great fun. We plan to meet at 10:00am at the park and walk to the centre to begin climbing at 10:15am.

There is car parking at Sydney Park and St Peters train station not too far away. See the event page for full details.

Next up we are sponsoring GCNSW Member AlphaDeltaIndigo and helping her to run a GIFF Event in the Rocks on November 4th starting at 6pm. FREE Popcorn will be provided for you to enjoy as you sit through a screening of the finalists from the Geocaching.com 2017 Geocaching International Film Festival competition.

Come along for a very different event and see the creativity the community has put on display for your enjoyment. A gold coin donation will be an optional contribution to help cover the venue hire. Screening at the Harry Jensen Community Centre just below Observatory Hill, you can log your "Will Attend" and see full details here.

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! 

"It’s the international treasure hunt that’s captured the globe, and now it’s headed out of this world."

NBN Newcastle did a geocaching feature on the occasion of a special travel bug blasting off with astronaut and geocacher, AstroRM, to the world's highest geocache, the International Space Station.

Geocaching NSW Committee member, Marcus Vitruvius, sporting a stylish GC NSW shirt, spoke with NBN reporter and web producer, Georgina Smyth. See the full report at nbnnews.com.au

You're invited to the association’s ninth Annual General Meeting and Meet’n’Greet. When and where? Sunday, 20th August at the Carlingford Bowling Club on the corner of Pennant Hills Rd and Evans Rd, Carlingford.

The formal AGM will run from 10:30am until about 11 or so and is for members only. That's where we do all the necessary annual reporting and elect a committee. However as soon as it's out of the way, we'll move onto the fun part - a Meet’n’Greet open to all.  Come along and meet other cachers, share stories, log trackables, get hints for those tricky hides  and enjoy the camaraderie. Plus, you can buy the new 2017 Geocoins and other association paraphernalia.

Some of the current committeee are standing down this year after several years of service. It is vital that we get some "new blood' on the team and members are encouraged to nominate themselves or other members. A Nomination Form, the Notice of Meeting, Agenda and other docs are here in the Member's Forum. if you can't remember your login details, drop us a note to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Hop across to the AGM Event now, log a "Will Attend" and lock it into your diary.

At our 2011 AGM, Tiffany Hoy, a student from Macquarie University, came along and spoke with a group of geocachers for a feature she planned to write about geocachers.

The group, which included Calypso62 and Webwitch, invited her along for a group hunt after the event and introduced her to the 'hobby'.

Along with a number of of other interviews and contributions she has put together a great story titled 21st Century Treasure Hunt. It's a brilliant story and recommended reading. 

Well done to Tiffany - or should we say Epiphany22 - and to the geocachers who helped her with the article.

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.

We Welcome Willing Wanderers to our Wonderful Winter Walk: Wollstonecraft to Waverton.

Geocaching NSW invites all geocachers, whether members or not, to attend our winter get together on Sunday June 18, by Sydney harbour. It will be preceded by a morning walk through a stretch of cache-rich bushland on the lower North Shore.

The event is an informal meet and greet, “BYO everything” picnic where you can make new friends with a common interest. Share stories about your latest caching adventures and swap travel bugs and geocoins. You may even pick up a hint on those pesky DNFs or get a clue or two on how to solve a puzzle cache you’ve been stumped on. For cachers who only want to attend the event, it officially commences at 12:00pm at the published coordinates at Balls Head Reserve.

The morning walk is not a requirement for an attendance smiley, but if it's anything like previous years, it will be a lot of fun and offers the opportunity to find about 12 caches on the way. The walk commences on the western side of Wollstonecraft Station, near the cafe, where we plan to meet at 10:00am, ready to start walking at 10:15. It concludes when we get to the Ball's Head event at about 12:00pm. The walk covers about 5km over moderate terrain with uneven surfaces so dress for the terrain and weather, which could be wet, sunny or both.

If you need to to return to Wollstonecraft Station after the event, it's just a half-hour walk back through the streets or a 15 minute walk to Waverton Station for a one-stop train ride.

Get all the details here at the event listing.

Geocaching NSW founding President, Darren Osborne, speaking on ABC NSW's drive program radio.

Geocaching NSW Drive July 2011 by Geocaching NSW

The audio from the interview has been provided with the permission of ABC.

Our volunteer bushcarers taking a break

To mark this year's April CITO weekend, Geocaching NSW's Kid Ron Satan worked with Strathfield Council to organise an outdoor environmental event at the Davidson Street Bushland Reserve. This bushland harbours some rare and interesting indigenous flora and fauna species but until now hasn't received much volunteer input. Over 25 volunteers turned up for the event and Council's Natural Resources Coordinator, who had never heard of geocaching before, remarked what a great group we all were. He is very hopeful Geocaching NSW might return to this site.

We got a lot done in just a couple of hours. Achievements included: planting 65 local plants including Bursaria spinosa (Sweet Bursaria), Lomandra longifolia (Matt Rush) and Xanthorrhoea resinosa ssp concava (Grass Tree) removal of several large Lantana bushes - collection and removal of a number of bags of litter and rubbish spreading of woody waste for use as mulch in the creation of a new garden bed at the front entry enhancement of existing frog pond

Some of the new plantings

Besides the worthwhile environmental achievements, there was plenty of camaraderie around all things geocaching and the early release of our 2017 geocoin. We were delighted to welcome several new members to the association too.

See the photos and read all the logs here on the event cache page.

NPWS manager of conservation operations Mick O'Flynn speaking with Paul Bevan on ABC Newcastle 1233 radio in 2010, during the development of the NPWS policy with GC NSW.

The audio from the interview has been provided with the permission of ABC.

NPWS speaks to ABC Newcastle about geocaching by Geocaching NSW

More information about geocaching available at ABC Newcastle.