The park is open every day of the year (except Christmas and Good Friday, from 7am to 5pm (8pm during daylight savings) & entry to the park is free.
For details about the park (and the other caches here) please visit:
Wilson's Walk: Final.
or ..
Wilson's Walk: Exploration.
The Cache (You don't need to leave the path to find it)
A Pinetum is an arboretum of pines and coniferous trees - a very appropriate name as you'll see while walking along this track.
The original cache went missing & was replaced by something larger a short distance from the track, but the steep bank has recently been cleared of dead trees & branches, a watering system installed and planted with more juvenile Wollemi Pines making it an unsuitable spot for the cache.
The Wollemi pine made headlines around the world in 1994 when it was first discovered in the Blue Mountains near Sydney. One of three abseilers exploring the canyon was a Park Ranger who recognised that the tree was unusual & took small samples for identification by experts. It was found to be an entirely new species & genus.
Fossil evidence indicates that Wollemi pines were widespread in Australia 100-200 million years ago, which has led to the plant being known as the ‘dinosaur tree’. Fossil evidence from Wilson Botanic Park itself suggests such plants (or very close relatives) previously existed in the area approximately 20 million years ago. Up until the recent discovery, it was thought to have become extinct long ago. There are now less than 100 adult trees in the wild, making them extremely rare & vulnerable.
In an effort to save the trees, their location within the Wollemi National Park is a closely guarded secret. Wilson Botanic Park now has several juvenile Wollemi plants. These juvenile plants are about 2 metres high, however, adult plants grow to about 40 metres high with a trunk width of about 1.2 metres. The trees can live for at least 1000 years.
BYO pen and please re-hide the cache so that it cannot be obviously seen or muggled.