Fern's Plight Letterbox Hybrid

Please Do Not Disturb.

Shh! Have you seen a forest fairy?

Not many people have – the Leadbeater’s Possum Gymnobelideus leadbeateri is small, speedy and endangered.

Less than a hand-span in length, Leadbeater’s Possums live in the forests not far from Melbourne. They sleep with their families in hollow trees during the day and run through the understorey at night, hunting for insects and sweet nectar.

The species was named after John Leadbeater, the then taxidermist at the Museum Victoria.

It is primitive, relict, and non-gliding, and, as the only species in the petaurid genus Gymnobelideus, represents an ancestral form.

They also go by the common name of fairy possum.

Despite their appearance, Leadbeater's Possums are quite cranky fairies: each family fiercely defends its territory from other possums. They call to each other with a hissing ‘ts-ts-ts’ and use their club-shaped tails to carry bark to build their nests.

Formerly, Leadbeater's possums were moderately common within the very small areas they inhabited; their requirement for year-round food supplies and tree-holes to take refuge in during the day restricts them to mixed-age wet sclerophyll forest with a dense mid-story of Acacia.

Unfortunately these unique animals are threatened due to the loss of suitable habitat. This can lead to smaller and fragmented populations of possums. Once thought to be extinct, Leadbeater's Possum was rediscovered in 1961 and on 2 March 1971 became Victoria's faunal emblem.

You will not find any Fairy Possums in this reserve. We would not want to disturb them.

The cache is located in Glenfern Valley Bushlands.

This geocache is a Letterbox Hybrid and contains a stamp and a log book.

Letterboxing is an intriguing “treasure hunt” style outdoor activity. Letterboxers hide small, weatherproof boxes in publicly-accessible places (like parks) and post clues to finding the box online on one of several Web sites. However, clues to finding some of the most highly-sought boxes are passed around by word of mouth.

The Cache

To find Fern's Plight. Starting from the original coordinates, you will need to head down the mountain bike trail from the end of this road. Do not cross the creek. Pass behind the works depot. Soon you will come to a signpost at a junction in the trail, to the left is Wallaby Walk, to the right is Creekside Walk. Keep following the creek and you'll be right. As the trail starts to turn to the West you will arrive at Hill Track and a seat to rest your legs. Behind the seat Hill Track crosses the creek, (you need to backtrack a few metres). There is no need to cross the creek. To your left, Ferny Creek winds around in an s-bend here. Turn left before the water and follow the game trail to the West, out to the point. Fern is hiding up the dead tree.

Please replace the stamp after you log your visit.