Churchill began as a service centre for the Hazelwood Power
Station and future replacement for Yallourn and Morwell townships.
The town was planned with a well defined commercial centre,
expansive parklands, a mix of government and privately owned
quarter-acre (1,000 m²) town blocks and light industrial estates
spaced from residential areas by a belt of parkland.
Population was planned to reach 6,000 by 1971, and eventually
40,000 by 2000. However slow development of services and a slowdown
of the state of Victoria's power station construction program meant
that Churchill was to never realise its potential, and population
reached a modest level of 5500 by the 1991, before stabilising at
around 5,000. Signs of renewed growth are appearing, with a new
housing estate development opening in 2005, the first for some
years.
Churchill was originally to be named Hazelwood, but was renamed
after Sir Winston Churchill's death. The change of name has not
been without its critics, and residents who pushed hard to restore
the Hazelwood name were finally heard in 1989, when the town was
asked to vote on whether the town would be renamed to Hazelwood or
stay as Churchill. The name Churchill won by narrow vote.
Which brings us to the cache. The coords will take you to the
base of the local attraction, 'the big cigar'. Originally five of
these were going to be built around the town, but only one was ever
actually built. At the base of the cigar you'll find a wall and a
plaque dedicated to those who founded Churchill. To find the cache
(which isn't very far away) you'll have to do a little math.
The final coords are:
S 38 18.ABC
E146 25.FGH
JKL = The number of families that originally settled to create
Churchill.
MNOP = The year the wall was erected.
QRST/UV = The years Churchill was formed.
A = J + K
B = M
C = T
F = Q
G = R - Q - M
H = N
You shouldn't need a hint to find this as it's pretty easy. Most
of the caches we've placed down this way have been pretty simple
though, but hopefully this will help with getting the local little
ones involved in caching. There's no need to go on the road for
this one. If there's any maintenance required while we're not down
this way, the geocoads will be doing it on our behalf.