This cache’s title sounds a bit over-stated, I know. But haven’t you scanned the Geocaching landscape and noticed that, while some suburbs are cache-rich and some cache-light, there are some where nary a one is to be seen? Sure (as those who have cached around the sun many times will say), that doesn’t necessarily mean the place is virgin territory, cache-wise. The place may be well- haunted with the ghosts of caches past. But what really matters, for the purposes of this exercise, is that there’s nothing there now.
Sometimes that’s understandable, with virtually the entire area being an unending wasteland of suburban dwellings, where the survival rate of a cache is probably less than that of WW2 aircrew doing daylight bombing raids over Germany. But sometimes … well, you wonder. Enough parks. Enough geocachers (if not on-site, then nearby). I’m sure there could be historical or cultural reasons that don’t show up on a map.
But I decided to take a tilt at this particular windmill, and invite any others like-minded to do the same. I reckon a couple of caches in a suburb could warrant the title (so there is a back-up if one of them falls foul of unexpected circumstances)
Here’s my first go …
Blairmount, until relatively recent times, has been an end-of-the-road place. Badgally Road pretty much ended at the driveway into St Greg’s School. The suburb was (and is) geographically limited in growth space by dedicated properties and the motorway. This is reflected in the figures from each recent census, the population actually decreasing from 482 in 2011, to 422 in 2016, to 408 in 2021. Though not quiet (the motorway, in spite of the walls, still creates a racket), Blairmount most definitely wasn’t busy. But that all changed with the establishment of Oran Park, then Gregory Hills, as suburbs, and the needed thoroughfare provided by linking Badgally Rd with Gregory Hills Drive.
The old Blairmount farm homestead was built in the late Victorian era. The building still exists, and stands on scenic protection land, and is often missed when driving past. Much more easily noticed when accessing this cache, though. It doesn’t possess the “English country estate” appearance of some properties in the south-west.
Between 1928 and 1951, the property was a place known for breeding prize-winning Clydesdale horses. These heavy draught horse, originally bred near the River Clyde in Scotland, are today honoured by one of the modern suburb's major roads … Clydesdale Drive. All the other streets in this small suburb are also named for breeds of horses.
Jaybeem on the FTF podium again. What’s the anthem? “Yo ho ho and a ...”