The cache
Oxley Recreational Reserve is located on the Oxley/Meadow Creek Road, 3.5 km just outside Oxley. This reserve is crown land and run by a committee of management (who are all volunteers). The Oxley Reserve was formed in 1865 and is a unique 47 hectare mix of bushland and cleared areas, backing onto the King River. The upper 10 hectares is where the majority of facilities is located. In the early 1900s the annual Oxley picnic day would attract over 3000 people from all over Victoria who would camp the weekend and partake in tennis, footraces, gymkhana events and games. The Reserve is still used for recreational purposes today. Camping and Pony Club still go on here.
The cache you search for is a regular size purple container.
Regional Information
The Milawa Gourmet Region is located in the lush Ovens & Kings Valleys of picturesque North East Victoria only 2.5 hours north of Melbourne, and 18 kilometers from Wangaratta.
The Gourmet Region story.... Milawa Gourmet Region- Australia's first gourmet region was conceived in 1994, with each member providing a service to visitors and proudly displaying the gourmet region's logo.
The region is centred around the townships of Oxley and Milawa and is home to numerous fresh and processed food producers, a number of Victoria's leading wineries. Accommodation options include a range of bed and breakfast stays, motels, caravan parks, camping and five star hotel. This series of caches will take you on a journey around the areas. To enable you to enjoy a lot of what this region has to offer I have tried to take you close to as many different types of things as possible, starting here with this cache just outside of Oxley. But first a bit of history on Oxley.
Oxley history- In 1824 explorers Hume and Hovell passed through the area and Hovell observed that...".the land adjoining is exceedingly good with fine hills and grassland, it is as pretty a spot I have seen since leaving home". On November 24th Hovell named the area "Oxley Plains". Indigenous people in the area did not encounter white men again for twelve years when Major Thomas Mitchell passed through in Oct 1836. First settlement was in 1838 when George Faithfull took up the Oxley Plains run consisiting of some 92000 acres, where he ran sheep and cattle. He later built a Homestead which he called "Wangaratta".
When gold was dicovered in Beechworth district in 1852, Oxley boomed because of its location on the main Cobb & Co route to the goldfields. With gold Bushrangers became active in the region, the most infamous being the Kelly gang. To improve travel through the area the first series of bridges where built across the King River flood plain in 1863. In 1865 Oxley shire was formed. The King River is the lifeblood of the surrounding region providing water resources for irrigated crops, vineyards, grazing and for the Oxley and Moyhu townships.
R . I . P