Reel™ History, Northfield Mystery Cache

The earliest known record of the name, Northfield being used in reference to the area, is from the 1890s in conjunction with the North Field Athletics Club.

The area of Northfield applicable to the cache is generally bounded by Hampstead Road, Folland Avenue, Dumfries Avenue, Westbrook Terrace, Grand Junction Road, Blacks Road, Bristol Terrace, Lord Howe Avenue, Foster's Road and Redward Avenue.

From 1963 to 1994 The Department of Agriculture Northfield Laboratories and Research Centre were located in part of the area.

Much of the area was once part of the Beefacres property that extended from the River Torrens to Grand Junction Road.

In 1901 Mr John Williams purchased more than 500 acres in the area and established a farm he called Moolooloo and a dairy was built at S 34° 51.410 E 138° 38.390.
In 1917 The land was purchased by the South Australian Government to establish the Northfield Mental Hospital Farm.

Captain Ross Smith and his brother Lieutenant Keith Smith and their two mechanics, Sergeant W.H. Shiers and Sergeant J.M. Bennett completed the first flight from London to Australia in Darwin on December 10, 1919.
On March 23, 1920 an estimated crowd of 20,000 people welcomed home the team of airmen when they landed at the aerodrome of Harry Butler & the Kauper Aviation Company west of Foster's Road near where there is now a memorial at:
S 34° 51.192' E 138° 37.866'

In 1963 the Northfield Mental Hospital Farm was transferred to the Department of Agriculture and the Northfield Agricultural Research Centre Laboratories were established. on Foster's Road.

The information from the Related Web Page is not needed to find this geocache but contains links to the history of the Department of Agriculture at Northfield and the Agricultural History of South Australia Photo Database, that has a gallery of 384 Northfield photographs. (Use Northfield in the Search Boxes).

"Alert: You are about to download files that contain further details that are not needed to find this geocache. As the cache owner, I represent that these files are safe to download although they have not been checked by Groundspeak or by the reviewer for possible malicious content. Download the files at your own risk."

Cedar College is now located at the site of the former laboratories.

In 1964, Northfield Mental Hospital was renamed Hillcrest Hospital and closed in 1994. The area of the former hospital is currently occupied by Clements House - Older Persons Mental Health Services, Hands On SA providing high quality and meaningful supported employment for people living with a disability, Unity House Student Accommodation in the old hospital administration building, Penwood Green Aged Care Village and The Heritage College.

In 1996 a training facility was established for the Adelaide Rams Rugby League Club in part of the Hillcrest Hospital on the corner of Hilltop Drive and Foster's Road. The rugby league club ceased after 2 seasons and the facility is now used by Adelaide City Football Club (Soccer) and the club rooms (above) have been expanded and are now the licensed premises Oakden Central.

If South Australia had been successful and hosted the 1998 Commonwealth Games the residential suburb of Northgate was to be the location for the Games village.

Analyse the following notes, that may have come from the dairy manager's diary, and use the coordinates in GeoCheck to find where the cache is hidden.

South 34º (13 May 1974) . (12 Feb 1975)
East. 138º (30 Apr 1976) . (01 Feb 1977)

Note: The cache is hidden within the area of the first image above (Northfield Aerial View 1987).