The Sutherland Shire is a local government area in the southern region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Geographically, it is the area to the south of Botany Bay and the Georges River.
With a population of 210,863 as at the 2011 Census, Sutherland Shire with an Area of 335 km² was the second most populous local government area in New South Wales (behind Blacktown), and the eighth largest overall in Australia.
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The Sutherland Shire is colloquially known as "The Shire" and it has been characterised through several reality television series.
Within the Shire is the birthplace of modern Australia, as it was the first landing site of Captain James Cook, who went ashore onto what is now the suburb of Kurnell on 29 April 1770.
The Sutherland Shire is also home to the Royal National Park. Established in 1879 it is Australia's first national park and the world's second oldest national park - after Yellowstone in the USA.
Suburbs in the Sutherland Shire.
At the time of publishing this cache, there are 42 Suburbs according to the Council web site. They are: Alfords Point, Bangor, Barden Ridge, Bonnet Bay, Bundeena, Burraneer, Caringbah, Caringbah South, Como, Cronulla, Dolans Bay, Engadine, Grays Point, Greenhills Beach, Gymea, Gymea Bay, Heathcote, Illawong, Jannali, Kangaroo Point, Kareela, Kirrawee, Kurnell, Lilli Pilli, Loftus, Lucas Heights, Mainbar, Menai, Miranda, Oyster Bay, Port Hacking, Sandy Point, Sutherland, Sylvania, Sylvania Waters, Taren Point, Waterfall, Woolooware, Woronora, Woronora Heights, Yarrawarrah, Yowie Bay
Active caches in the Sutherland Shire:
The first still active cache in NSW GC3E was placed on the 18.05.2000. The first still active cache in the Sutherland Shire GC2009 was placed on the 02.10.2001 by “The Odlids”. There have been more than 30 Cachers’ who have placed and maintained a variety of caches of different difficulty and terrain ratings catering for a range of individual and group needs since then. Caches are available for every year from and including 2001 and all but 3 suburbs (Kangaroo Point, Sandy Point, Sylvania Waters) have an active cache at the time of publishing this challenge.
When building your list for this challenge, it would be great if you select the caches that are important to you rather than copy from the lists prepared by others. This will also showcase to others the people who have kept you interested in local Geocaching.
The General location:
There are nearby picnic, swimming and toilet facilities to make your efforts enjoyable at S34° 04'11.13" E151° 06'39.90". You can spend some time in the area and if you are interested. You can even try some fishing. This cache is at a terrain rating of 2.5. Due to the chance of encountering a terrain of 5 within “The Shire” as a qualifying cache, the challenge has to reflect that. If you want to complete the final as a T5, please launch a Kayak from the nearby Jetty at Wally's Wharf and show proof in your log.
The Challenge is to be completed within the Sutherland Shire Council Boundary, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Before logging a find, you are required to:
- Find a cache in every Suburb that has an active cache within the Sutherland Shire Council Boundary, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. If you have found a cache that is now archived, that will be accepted.
- Find a cache for every year that an active cache has been placed within the Sutherland Shire Council Boundary, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. At the time of publishing this cache, this requires you to find a cache placed for every year from and including 2001 to the current year. If you have found a cache for one of those years that is now archived, that will be accepted.
- Find a cache within the boundaries of both the Royal National Park and Heathcote National Park if there are active caches listed for that Park. If you have found a cache that is now archived, it will be accepted.
- You are required to list the Cache Numbers, Cache Names, Suburb Names (there are various sites you can use to confirm a cache location) and the year that the caches were placed in your log entry. You can upload an attachment if you prefer to reduce the size of your log entry. The attached list of the finds by wazza9 for this challenge have been provided as an example.
Building your list:
Goecachers can now undertake this cache using the information provided by The Hancock Clan, odlids, wazza9 and Kid Ron Satan via his “Bookmark List” on the 26.02.14. A big thank you for all the effort they have gone to in preparing lists of all active and some archived caches showing the suburb they are located in and the year the caches were placed. The time it takes to confirm a suburb where the cache is located while building the required list to complete the challenge formed a part of the original difficulty level. The difficulty level has been modified to reflect the changed availability of information.
The use of spoilers:
The introduction of Social media to showcase caching activities is now starting to expand and I can see that over a period of time, more people will get involved and showcase their activities through this medium.
I believe that it takes away the experience that Geocaching offers. Tat for every person undertaking a cache hunt, it should be like they are the first to discover it. It is as much about the journey of finding the cache (working out the puzzle, thinking about where a cache might be hidden etc) as it is about finding the cache and racking up the numbers. Geocaching can take you to some beautiful and completely unexpected places. If someone has seen it on a Social media site, then the experience will no longer be a new experience.
It has been the reason why many people who have hidden caches check their logs regularly and remove spoiler images or logs. Geocaching is a controlled environment where the ownership and presentation is in the hands of the cache owner. The use of social media takes the ownership away from the cache owner and places it in the control of those working to discover the cache and present a story on an external medium. Once it has been presented on Social media, there is nothing a cache owner can do to remove it.
Geocaching is a game that everyone plays in their own way. The way Geocaching is set up means that every time a person finds a cache it is a new experience for them because they find it themselves and comment on their experience as a new finder, hopefully without a spoiler. After viewing a few spoiler reports on Social media and having to take action to remove spoiler activity presented in logs through Geocaching lately, I am requesting that this cache is not used for a Social media presentation. Please respect my request.