I had this location in mind for a while to place a cache, given I've gone past it 10+ times a week for the last 14 years. I had some ideas to make this a puzzle with a punchline (the best kind). So I was thinking of:
- A "Post-punk new-wave industrial-rock" band. But nobody has heard of them since the 80's.
- People who get up on the catwalk and strut around doing "Blue Steel" and other poses.
- Something to do with particle physics.
- Something to do with writing the constitution for a company.
- Something to do with die cast painted things.
- Variants of a car over time.
- Etc. Etc.
But in the end it was just a bit silly and I thought a traditional might do better here.
We* bought our 6-year old an RC car for festivus, nothing fancy. We took him down here on Christmas to try it out.
* actually, technically my wife bought him the present because "if it was left up to you each child would get a left sock for christmas and a right sock for their birthday", so we have an "agreement" now that I am not deeply involved in present shopping, which is fine because I really really hate being bombarded by that Mariah Carey song for 3 months of the yar. So I only have to buy one present, which i do usually at 4:30pm on the 24th each year. Did you know that the shops are starting to sell Easter Fruit Buns on Boxing Day? I mean don't get me started on the rampant commercialism associated with these calendar events... Anyhow where was I? Oh yeah right. When I was about his age (possibly a little older), I was bought a present for Christmas or my birthday, a Japanese RC car - a little red "Jet Hopper Turbo". They were like the latest thing out and every kid wanted one. I didn't need a place like this to take it because we had a farm, driveway, speed humps, pathways, and various offroad areas. In town there were parks etc. A couple of my friends had RC cars (one had the same one and fortunately our remotes were on different channels) and we'd come over to my place or go into town to the park and play with these until the batteries ran out! It was such great fun and to hang out with your mates and play with RC cars. My uncle had RC planes, they were something else but they were a bit of a trap - he nearly lost a finger from one of those and I wasn't deemed responsible for that. Oh right... I'm writing a cache description aren't I. Best not get distracted with the long-winded prattling on. Back to the cache...
I decided I'd tie these caches together based on the fact that the land here is reclaimed. I believe the reclamation works took place as part of the construction of Goodwood Road (the Bowen Bridge Approach Road) in the early 1980's. Prior to that, it was a litte waterfront inlet, and presumably the houses at Howard Road would have been waterfront properties. An original power pole from Dowsing Point Road is visible opposite where you park for "Sign of the Times", this road actually used to go through where the fenced off area is for the army base and around.
There are some obvious signs that the area is on reclaimed land, because if you go westbound on Innovation Drive at around 50km/h, you will notice a fairly pronounced set of bumps outside the rear entrance to the laundry. Those in the know tend to stay "on the centreline". And around to the west of where the cache is there is a part of road which has sunk several times and has been built back up (look at how low the kerb is). After rain, water seems to always accumulate there.
Congratulations to AlbyDangles for the FTF within 15 minutes of listing. Cache published at 8:52am and found at 9:07am. That has to be a record for 2020!