Due to the huge success of our initial First Fleeters Series, we have decided to continue with finding interesting stories about the Seamen and Surgeons that cared for our convicts. As always take extra care when geocaching and even though these roads are quiet they are still thoroughfares for many vehicles each day. We have combined our love of geocaching with our love of Australian history and found some very interesting stories for you. Some of these caches are in a rural residential area so please keep caching to reasonable hours.
It is a simple park and grab power trail series which can include tree fishing (please be very careful gaining the log out and returning), suitable for beginners and for those that wish to boost the old Smilies tally for others. Please read each cache's attributes. Please be very mindful of how busy this country road can be at times. All care has been taken to only place these caches where safe parking is available.
In regards to the tree fishing caches, IT IS YOUR CHOICE IF YOU UTILISE A TOTT, OR YOUR OWN EQUIPMENT, OR JUST SIMPLY CLIMB THE TREE, IT IS YOUR DECISION. THE TERRAIN RATING IS A GUIDE ONLY.
Please note: These caches have been placed in a rural or country area and as such the road verges may not be manicured and may have thorns, thistles, burrs and most probably overgrown grass. If caching in hotter weather, there is a high chance for reptiles including snakes, lizards and monitors to be active and there will be lots of spiders.
Since this is a power trail containing a lot of caches we DO NOT expect a hundred find blurbs, a simple TYFTC or F (ound) is accepted and preferred. There is no need to send us a big blurb for each one that contains the same message. However if there is a genuine story to tell please share.
The devices we use to determine the GPS Co-ords are a Garmin Quintrex (which uses 1 satellite) and a mobile device with an app that uses up to 40 satellites. But we are human and mistakes can be made, and we always provide a hint. This is geocaching and you are looking for a cache so at some point you just have to trust your geosenses.
GEOCACHING IS A FAMILY OUTDOOR ENTERTAINMENT FOR US, SO PLEASE KIND AND CONSIDERATE WITH YOUR COMMENTS IN YOUR LOG. HAPPY CACHING!
Daniel Stanfield (d.1826), marine and settler, was reputed to have come from an English naval family. He arrived at Port Jackson with the First Fleet as a private in the marines. He was promoted corporal and on 15 October 1791 at St Philip's married Alice, widow of Thomas Harmsworth who had died at Sydney in 1788. In less than a month Stanfield was on duty at Norfolk Island. By 1794 he was discharged from the marines, sworn in as a constable, had begun to farm at Little Cascade and received two goats from Lieutenant-Governor Philip Gidley King, who described him as a deserving settler. In March Stanfield was robbed and with other islanders petitioned Lieutenant-Governor Francis Grose for restoration of the arms of which they had been deprived by government order. Stanfield also talked of enlisting in the New South Wales Corps, and in November he sailed in the Daedalus for Port Jackson. Next October he returned to Norfolk Island in the Supply with his wife, four children and the promise of a sixty-acre (24 ha) land grant. By 1804 he had five children, 30 sheep, and of his 120 acres (48 ha), 35 (14 ha) were under cultivation. When the evacuation of Norfolk Island was planned, Governor King suggested that Stanfield with his children should remain and encouraged him by offering additional land from expired leases on the island. However keen and determined, Stanfield did not find life easy; he sailed with his family in the City of Edinburgh and arrived at Hobart Town in October 1808. Next month he took up land at Green Point near Bridgewater and built a weatherboard house which he valued at more than £2000 and which stood for over a century. There Stanfield's industry and enthusiasm brought him better results than in Norfolk Island: by February 1825 he had been granted 1200 acres (486 ha) in widely separated areas, had purchased 890 (360 ha) more and claimed to have 1000 cattle, 800 sheep, 10 horses, a flour-mill and other capital. His only grievances were that Michael Howe had raided his stock-yard and other bushrangers had plundered his properties, though he was sometimes compensated for these deprivations by more land. In 1826 he was summoned to Hobart to give evidence against the receivers of goods stolen from him, but he died there suddenly on 4 February, leaving 'a very numerous and opulent family'.
His eldest son DANIEL STANFIELD was baptized on 25 April 1790 at St Philip's, Sydney. He inherited a full measure of his father's energy and acquisitiveness, and a great deal of property. But he was not entirely reliant on his father. By 1825 he could claim 450 cattle, 600 sheep, 7 horses and other capital. His land grants included 410 acres (166 ha) from Governor Lachlan Macquarie, 300 (121 ha) from Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane, and 300 (121 ha) from Lieutenant-Governor (Sir) George Arthur, and he had bought 830 acres (336 ha) at Green Lagoon. His brothers also had land and stock and in 1827 the land commissioners reported that the Stanfields, 'a large Clan altogether, have had immense Herds of Wild Cattle roaming all over this quarter of the Island, finding themselves limited, they have driven off many hundreds to the Sea Coast'.
Stanfield improved his properties and became well known as a stock-breeder. In 1828 he was one of the first in Van Diemen's Land to export apples to Britain; one specimen was a foot in diameter, but the shipment did not carry well. Like his father he had trouble with bushrangers and by 1825 had been to Sydney twice to give evidence at the trials of some culprits. Again like his father he had a large family: in Hobart in January 1816 he married Maria Kimberley (d.1851), the daughter of a transported convict; according to one report, they had eight children by 1831. He died on 28 March 1856.