Acknowledgement of Country
I would like to pay my respects to the First People: the traditional custodians of the lands and waterways of Ngunnawal, Ngunawal and Ngambri Country. I would like to acknowledge that this geocache has been placed on what always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.
The Great Owl of Canberra
Welcome to Belconnen's famous Owl sculpture! Owl is the humble title for this piece by Bruce Armstrong but I believe it also deserves an MP title (Member of Parliament). Makes sense really! The powerful owl represents the nation's capital and the home of Federal parliament and power with great pride. But also the collective noun for a group of owls is 'parliament'. Bruce Armstrong, the legend himself, said that "it made a lot of sense to have an owl, parliament and Canberra". Roger that!
This big, beautiful sculpture was erected in 2011 and was one of dozens of art projects commissioned under former ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope, obsessed with public art. The Member of Parliament has a meme and cult following on social media and is popular on shirts, fridge magnets, pins, patches, and the like. A local radio station set up at the bird in 2021 by popular demand from listeners to pay tribute to one of Canberra's "hidden gems". ACT Health also used an image of the Member of Parliament on Valentine's Day 2022 for public health messaging.
What are your own memories of the Member of Parliament since its erection?
This Cache
For reasons that I hope become clearer soon, I decided recently that I wanted to hide a new multi to go along with my virtual cache at this iconc location! Time to come again! All you have to do is visited the posted coordinates (WP1) and look at the plaque at the base of the Member of Parliament titled 'Owl 2011'. Then, using letter values (A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, Z = 26, etc), substitute the following:
A = 4th line, 3rd word, 4th letter.
B = 5th line, 6th word, 6th letter.
C = 8th line, 3rd word, 4th letter.
D = 1st line, 1st word, 1st letter.
E = 12th line, 14th word, 1st letter.
The cache is located at S35 15.ABC E149 03.D0E.
I recommend driving between WP1 and GZ. Please be stealthy at GZ and rehide the cache well.
***FTF honours goes to Aquilus1***