On January 10th, 2024 it will be 20 years that the first ever EarthCache was published. This cache is placed along NSW South Coast at Wasp Head.
To celebrate this milestone, Geocaching NSW will organise an event at Wasp Head on Saturday 13 January 2024.
The Wasp Head EarthCache is located at South Durras on the NSW south coast. It is about 20km north of Batemans Bay. From Sydney, it is a pleasant 3¾ hour drive and just over 2 hours from Canberra so it is well within the reach of many geocachers. Visit the event page for more information.
In 2003 at a GSA conference, a GSA member suggested that the Society become involved in geocaching. A meeting was then held with Geocaching.com along with some land manager partners, such as the U.S. National Park Service, to consider a program that would meet land manager issues as well as develop a way to teach the geocaching community something about Earth science. Based on those discussions, a set of basic guidelines were developed which form the core of the current EarthCache publishing guidelines.
Back in 2004 Gary Lewis, a.k.a. Geoaware was working as a geologist for the Geological Society of America (GSA). Whilst on vacation in Australia, he placed the first EarthCache at Wasp Head.
Since the first EarthCache, more than 30,000 EarthCaches have been placed in over 200 countries/territories and which have been visited over 6 million times.
As part of his video podcast “Cache The Line” interviewed Gary Lewis in 2021.. Gary talks about the first EarthCache at Wasp Head and gives insight in the permission and review process for EarthCaches. Well worth watching.
