Totally Findable Tourist Caches
Welcome to Sydney
This series of geocaches is designed primarily with visitors to Sydney in mind who may have limited time and transport options and want a quick and easy find while out enjoying some sightseeing around this beautiful city.
All cache containers will be one of three types; a flat magnetic key case (MKC), a round film canister (FC or MFC for magnetic) or a fake rock (FR).
As always with city caching, the surrounding structures can affect GPS accuracy. If in doubt, use the hint however be mindful that the hint will indicate the type of container used and will be very specific to help you find the cache easily. If you want a challenge to find this cache and don't wish to know exactly where it's hidden, do not look at the hint.
At each location you’ll be given some information about the site you are visiting. I hope you find this information enlightening.
Enjoy!
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Protest
Woolloomooloo Finger Wharf
Image: Domain
At one stage, the Woolloomooloo Finger Wharf pictured above was the longest timber pile wharf in the world at 410m long.
By the late 1980s, the Finger Wharf had mostly become redundant due to containerisation of goods being imported and exported. Air travel also became more affordable with fewer people opting to travel by ship. As a result, the Finger Wharf remained an empty shell for over a decade.
When, in November 1990, the NSW State Government announced the imminent demolition of the Wharf, the Building Labourers Federation (BLF), supported by the Friends of the Finger Wharf, the Royal Institute of Architects and the National Trust as well as the local community, placed green bans on the project even though by 1991 it was already being left off planning maps. Many protests were organised to try to persuade the government to keep the Finger Wharf as an important piece of heritage for future generations. Numerous proposals for what to do with the finger Wharf came and went until 1996 when approval was given to redevelop the wharf into what you see here today.
Jack Mundey and the BLF marching in Sydney in protest
Image: The Commons - Social Change Library
The redevelopment incorporated a 273-room three-star hotel at the southern end and 345 luxury apartments at the northern end, along with restaurants, retail stores and a 63-berth boating marina whilst large sections of the interior were left intact. These included three bays of the Berth 6 shed being left undivided (the hotel reception area), the preservation of one of four lifts (now a dining room of one of the restaurants), the eight pairs of huge lattice-timber goods conveyors, one of eight machinery rooms and much of the old corrugated steel, fibro and multi pane sashes and chain-wire cladding along the streets. The exterior facades were restored in Federation style.
After you’ve found the cache, make sure you take a trip up the steps to admire the beautiful interior architecture.
Woolloomooloo Finger Wharf interior
Image: Wikimedia Commons