Coal Loader Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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This cache is set in honour of the official opening of Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability on 10 July 2011.
“The Sydney Coal Bunkering Company began building a coal loader in 1917 on the western side of Balls Head to act as a steamship bunkering station. It was the most advanced means of loading coal into steamers then available in Sydney Harbour. Coal from colliers was dumped onto a huge timber and rock platform on the shore. It was fed by gravity down chutes to four tunnels below, and then into waiting hopper cars which were then hauled by cable out to a long wharf. The coal was loaded as fuel onto the steamers docked alongside. In November 1940 a freak wind storm damaged one of the gantry cranes beyond repair, leaving only one crane in operation until the late 1950s. Operations at the coal loader ceased in October 1992.” Ian Hoskins, Council Historian at Stanton Library, North Sydney, 2010 at http://www.dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/waverton The wharf, coal-loading platform, tunnels and a few brick administrative buildings remain as evidence of bunkering operations. North Sydney Council has redeveloped the site from an industrial dockfront into a learning and participation 'hub' for sustainable living. The Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability features the Caretaker's Cottage environmental education centre, a community garden, community nursery, workshop spaces, an indigenous garden and surrounding harbourside parklands. You can walk through the tunnels, enjoy the sparkling waters of Sydney Harbour, learn about living in harmony with the environment and go Geocaching all in one place! Major work through 2016 and into early 2017 is developing one of Sydney’s largest publicly accessible green roof spaces. Come and visit!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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