The Vanished Suburb! Multi-Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Westlake - the little working class suburb that didn't quite fit in with the grand plan of Canberra - the Nation's Capital - and so it has faded almost invisibly into history.
Thanks to Ann Gugler who has marked out the area so that we can see and hear the echoes of that small working community. Of course, I am only going to show a couple of the markers - it is up to you to how far you explore this whole area. If you have the time, it will surprise you how broad an area this covers.
Wiki, 2/2008: "In 1922, a workers' tent camp was erected in the area on the eastern side of Stirling Ridge to house the men working on the main intercepting sewer. The following year saw the start of the construction of 62 small, four-room, unlined timber cottages, to be used as housing for the married tradesmen involved in the construction of the provisional Parliament House. Other camps were established at the eastern end of Stirling Park on the hills opposite modern Lotus Bay. The first of these was contractor John Howie's settlement (1922–30), consisting of 25 timber cottages for his married men and timber barracks (Hostel Camp) for his single men. Two other single men's tent camps were established nearby – Old Tradesmen's Camp (1923–27) and No 1 Labourers Camp (1924–27). The men from Howie's worked on the Hotel Canberra and the others on the construction of the provisional Parliament House and nearby administrative buildings.
The Stirling Park camps were known as "Westlake" to their new inhabitants, and previously "Gura Bung Dhaura" (stony ground) to the local Aboriginal people. In 1925, the population of this temporary suburb was 700. This represented roughly one-fifth of the total population of the Federal Capital Territory at the time; in the region, only Molonglo Settlement had a larger population, at 750. The site was chosen so that it was near to Parliament House but hidden from direct line of sight from anywhere "important". The small cottages at Westlake were removed starting in the mid-1950s, with the last one removed in 1965. Many of the Westlake workers' cottages were moved to Queanbeyan and are still used as housing today. The Stirling Park near the embassy area of Yarralumla now covers the historic Westlake settlement area. Some evidence of these former dwellings still remains today, and signage has been erected to commemorate these pioneering people of early Canberra."
Near W1,
A = Number of the month that the children erected the plaque.
B = Number of children in number 52
C = Lot number for Rawson
Near W2, there is a sign near a tree. If you stand on tip toes and look in the hole on the tree, you can say a quiet hello to a beautiful little possum with big eyes.
M = Number of letter "O"s on the sign near the tree.
N = Number of letters in the second last word on the sign
Near W3, There is pole with a big plaque and a tall plaque below.
X = The number of letters in the surname of the family at the top of the tall plaque.
Y = The number of lots listed on the tall plaque.
Calculate GZ,
S35 18.(X-A)(Y-C)(Y-B) E149 6.(M+N)(A-N)(M) Checksum: 57
*** First to Find Honours awarded to Tealby ***
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Onfr bs gerr