About the Location
Randwick Environment Park is situated on the former Randwick Barracks site. It care was taken up by the Randwick council in 2010 and rahabilitated to a more natural condition since then. What makes the park so special (amoungst other things) is that it has a special wetland area within it. These wetlands are known as Ephemeral Wetlands due to their transient nature.
What is an ephemeral wetland you ask? Good question. Time for a lesson.
An ephemeral wetland bounces from extremes based on the weather. It can be very wet when it has been raining, very dry when it has not rained for a long time, or somewhere inbetween between wet and dry spells.
During rainy times, the Environment Park starts to fill with water that comes from a combination of groundwater and stormwater. A lake often forms and attracts frogs, aquatic birds and other wild life. Various aquatic plants such as lillies also grow.
As the weather dries up, the lake begins to evaporate off. The biodiversity also starts to change as algae starts to grow and reduces the water oxygenation.
Eventually if there is no rain, the water completely evaoprates off. Grass, shrubs and weeds may grow in its place. The aquatic life has moved on and is replaced with animals more attracted to grasses and shrubs.
Eventually it rains again and we start the process all over again.
About The Cache
This is our first cache. My sidekick was enjoying caching so much they wanted to create their own "treasure". So here we are with Hide #1.
We hope you enjoy finding this cache. While you are here, check out several others in the area and take a leisurely stroll around the park loop. It's approximately 1km for the full circuit.
The cache you are looking for is a nano. Please return the cache as you found it so that others can enjoy it too. Discretion is also a must as the area is frequent foot (and bicycle) traffic and the cache has been muggled a few times now. Most of all, have fun and enjoy your surroundings.
Congratulations to FTF
Congratulations to frazeydaze and oldmorty for a patient FTF.