McIntyre Field - Water Treatment Plant Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

inspicio: One or more of the following has occurred:

No response from the cache owner.
No cache to find or log to sign.
It has been more than 28 days since the last owner note.

As a result I am archiving this cache to keep from continually showing up in search lists and to prevent it from blocking other cache placements.

If you wish to repair/replace/make available the cache sometime in the near future, just contact a reviewer (by email), and assuming it still meets the current

guidelines, the reviewer will be happy to unarchive it.

Should you replace the cache after 28 days has passed please create a new cache listing so it can be reviewed as a new cache.

More
Hidden : 10/8/2011
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: micro (micro)

Join now to view geocache location details. It's free!

Watch

How Geocaching Works
Looking for a different adventure?

Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions in our disclaimer.

Geocache Description:


McIntyre Field - Water Treatment Plant

Welcome to my 90th cache hide...

Note. As of 05/05/2013 cache replaced and is now an eclipse tin micro

The theme of this cache is the Tocumwal Water Treatment Plant. The Tocumwal Water Treatment Plant was built for and used by the McIntyre Filed (Tocumwal) air force base. See the history below for dates of construction of the base and other information on the base. Originally part of the base, the plant was obviously built to last, as it is still currently used today to treat the waste water from Tocumwal. Not a bad effort, making it over 70 years old. Another little bit of local history to visit.



This is another cache in what is now becoming a series around the Tocumwal Airfield. This cache, is quite near to another in the series.


Now a little bit of history on the Tocumwal Airfield, or as it used to be called in WW2, McIntyre Field.

The History...

The Tocumwal Airfield began operation in the second world war in response to the Japanese moving south in the Pacific Ocean. There was a real threat that they were going to invade Australia, and Tocumwal was a major airfield which was going to be used in that defense.

When occupied by the USAF (US Air Force) it was called McIntyre Field. In 1942, the RAAF took over operation of the airfield and called it "Tocumwal".

During its operation the airfiled was 25 square miles in size and was home to many different types of planes. including 54 B-24 Liberator bombers, 11 Vultee Vengeance, 5 Kittyhawks and an Airspeed Oxford.

After the war it was also used as a vast storage and repair depot with aircraft such as Avro Anson, Airacobra, Beaufort, Boeing, Boomerang, Dakota, Hudson, Lancaster, Lincoln, Meteor, Mosquito, Mustang, Spitfire, Beaufighter, Vampire, Winjeel and Wirraway.

After the RAAF left Tocumwal in 1960, over 700 aircraft were scrapped through until 1963. Many aircraft were smelted on site into aluminum ingots, pots and pans. The Holden Motor Company brought much of the Aluminium

Similarly, almost all of the 608 buildings on the airbase and at the hospital, were sold and removed. With post war building supplies almost impossible to get, this was popular at the time, but there was little foresight as to the historical value of this. There are a few buildings left, and many foundations which are subject of some caches in this series.

Abot 200 of the houses were moved to developing suburbs in Canberra. The suburbs which received the houses were Anislie and O'Connor. You can view the whole story at this link

The Tocumwal Archive

There were originally six large hangars built on site, there are three remaining today. One is used by the gliding club onsite to store aircraft.

The longest of all four runways that were made, has been covered by soil. If you drive about 400 meters west of the cache named "Gate 9 - Tocumwal Airfield" along the road the cache is on, you can see some white markers in the field, inside the airport fence line. This marks where that runway is. This location will be subject of another cache soon.

Our house is on land that used to be part of the airbase. When I have been working on our block, I have found old aircraft tools, red bricks from buildings and old bullet casings.

There are other caches around the area which have information about the airfield. These caches will be listed with the title "McIntyre Field"

The are well worth visiting, as the locations are very historical. Another image is shown below, it is an aerial shot of the airfield facing south.




Visit this link Tocumwal Airfield During WW2 or Visit this link A Brief History of Tocumwal Aerodrome

For more information if you like. It's not a bad read, and has some good information and pics.



Once again, have fun and be careful with the kiddies near the road. Also, anywhere in Australia, BE CAREFUL AND ON THE LOOKOUT FOR SNAKES, ESPECIALLY WITH THE KIDS. Good luck and importantly, have fun.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Zntargvp ba srapr yvar.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


Advertising with Us