Meadowbank Memorial Park [Meadowbank] EarthCache

🛰 Meadowbank Memorial Park
[Meadowbank] 🌏

This EarthCache will take you on a short journey of geological discovery along Meadowbank Memorial Park's Remembrance Walk.

Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the Land on which this cache is located, the Wallamattagal People of the Darug Nation, and their continuing connection to Country and community. We pay our respect to Elders past, present and emerging.

Their land stretches from the north shore of the Parramatta River, including the City of Ryde, from the intersection of the Lane Cove River and west to Parramatta.

We recognise the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Australians and we are committed to honouring their unique cultural and spiritual relationships to the land, waters and seas, and their rich contribution to society.

Are you a CITO Crusader?

Every geocache presents us with a perfect opportunity to CITO (Cache In Trash Out).

Please help clean up some litter while you're here visiting this cache and attach a photo to your log to show off your much appreciated efforts!

Finding this Geocache

Instructions and How to Verify Your Find

Once you have visited all Waypoints and complete the EarthCache requirements you can post your find, as per the EarthCache guidelines.

You will, however, need to verify your find by sending me a message via the Message Center with the GC code and cache name (GC4NNFH Meadowbank Memorial Park) on the first line and provide your answers to the questions listed below, otherwise your log may be removed. To do this, visit my profile and click on Send Message.

Adhering to the EarthCache guidelines, please be careful not to include any detail in your log or photos that may assist others in answering the questions without actually visiting the sites and carrying out the fieldwork.

OPTIONAL: Take a photo of yourself, as well as any other members of your party, with GPS in hand in front of the obelisk memorial. Upload the photo to your log.

EarthCache Questions:

1) How many pillars are there in total?

2) What stone are the pillars made from, explain your answer.

3) Name all of the countries represented with a former name (include their present day name).

4) Select five of your favourite commemorative stones. Name the country of origin, describe its look and feel, and what you like about the stone. If you can, also name the type of stone and provide any insight into why it has been selected to represent the particular country.

5) What stone is the obelisk made from? Does it differ from the stone pillars and, if so, how (think type, look and feel)?

6) Name the two locations that are carved into the stone of the obelisk.

Earth Sciences Lesson: Geological Material

Hawkesbury Sandstone is predominately made up of coarse-grained sand (mainly quartz grains) but with variable amounts of claystone grains. A large a powerful river deposited its flood plain of sandbars, lagoons and braided channels to form the Hawkesbury Sandstone around 235 to 240 million years ago. Over time the sand settled, was buried and then cemented into rock by iron carbonate deposited between the grains. The iron content is responsible for the ochreous, or rusty stains and bands, which gives the Hawkesbury Sandstone its distinctive yellow-brown colouring.

Mittagong Formation is a thin, transitional unit that gradationally overlays the Hawkesbury Sandstone and consists of thinly bedded sandstone, siltstone and claystone. Usually less than 6m in thickness, it is only found in certain parts of the Lane Cove Valley. Mittagong Formation is identified by its thin, reddish-brown to yellowish-brown gritty clay soil with scattered laterite nodules and fragments of lateralised siltstone and sandstone.

Ashfield Shale overlies the Mittagong Formation, where present, or the Hawkesbury Sandstone and dates back to 235 million years ago. It is a mixture of claystone, laminate, siltstone and thin sandstone deposited in shallow coastal lagoons and swamps that were crossed by meandering streams. Ashfield Shale is dark grey to black in colour due to the minor organic matter and a high content of siderite (iron carbonate mineral) and is more brittle than Hawkesbury Sandstone.

The commemorative stones have been imported from their respective foreign lands and may require additional desktop research to complete the logging requirements for this Earthcache.

(Sources & further reading: Geo-Sites by John Byrnes and Geology.com).

About the Meadowbank Memorial Park Remembrance Walk

The Meadowbank Memorial Park Remembrance Walk was commissioned by Ryde Council and the Bennelong Australia Remembers Committee to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. It was unveiled by the Honourable John Howard MP (Prime Minster of Australia and Member for Bennelong) and Col McKinnon (Bennelong Australia Remembers Committee Chairperson) on the 14th of November 1997.

The Walk is a dedication from the "youth of Australia (who are our future)" to the "men and women who served during the Second World War, all Australians who played a role in keeping the country functioning during those long years, and the sorrows and difficulties of the widows, widowers, children and families of those veterans who did not return or died in the intervening years."

The walkway winds down to the World War I memorial (the obelisk) and comprises of a number of small pillars engraved with names of various countries in which Australians served during the second World War. The pillars have a commemorative stone or stones donated by the respective country inset at the top, with rosemary bushes planted in between each pillar.

The memorial park also incorporates a third dedication, which marks the 90th anniversary of the genocide of the Armenian people by the former Ottoman Government.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

Lest We Forget.

Are you a member of Geocaching NSW?

Did you know, New South Wales has a geocaching association? Geocaching NSW aims to enhance and improve the activity of geocaching and holds regular events where geocachers meet to enjoy their common interests. Visit the association website.