Sheepyards Opal Field.
This cache is placed on a claim with the owner’s permission. The owner’s have agreed to act as Maintenance personal. There is a shaft nearby GZ. Although enclosed and secured to DPI regulations I would keep kids on a VERY short leash at all times while in the area. It is about 10M or so from the roads in an area often used by visitors to the Sheepyards Pub and is in the base of a tree. Geocachers have the owner’s permission to enter the claim to find the cache only. There is strictly no camping, fossicking, or wandering about to areas of the claim that invade the owner’s privacy. The Sheepyards Pub is on the adjoining claim has a camping ground with shower/toilet facilities and a Backpackers bunkhouse.
A Bush Mud Map can be obtained from the Tourist Information at Lightning Ridge. There is another Pub, the Glengary Hilton and the Club in the Scrub providing the locals with locations to catch up and all should be visited to share time with the locals and learn about the area. There is also the Grawin General Store, Sweeney’s Arts & Craft and 2 golf courses. If you have been to Coober Pedy, you will know what to expect. They are a long way from providing greens or even grass or anything that looks like any golf course you have seen before. Pick up a Community News from just about everywhere and read about all that is happening.
If you want to try your luck at finding opal then go to the main dump (close to GC2D453) where you are allowed on the pile (there are 2) which is not in use by the local miners dumping. It has been reported that many tourists make a small fortune. We were not at all lucky during our 2 hour visit to the dump and will have to return to try again.
The Cache is a 1Kg plastic screw top fruit container. It has a logbook, pencil, NSW Geocaching item for the FTF and the container is filled with goodies to take or swap. There is also 2 trackables. If you are going to take a trackable, then please leave one in its place. If you don’t have one then just record the number and discover what is there. Please leave it there for others to make swaps.
The Bush Mud Map and History of the area.
Before a local miner “Ducky Bath” drew the first “Mud Map” of the area the only signs for people to follow were the ones that locals tied to to trees or placed beside the road. Visitors to the Opal fields were continually getting lost and straying off the main tracks onto private claims, putting themselves and others in danger. Ducky set forth on his own to hand make and hang many directional and fun signs around the fields so that people could travel around safely. Even though the “Mud Map” has grown and changed since it was first sketched it has always kept it’s original form.
Since the first discovery of Opal in the area, people have come and gone with each new strike, seeking their fortune in search of “THE RAINBOW IN THE ROCK”. Opal was first found in 1908 near Hammonds Hill. Then in 1920 there was great excitement when an Opal the size of a man’s fist was found at Richards Hill. The Opal weighed almost 1lb (450g) and was named “THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD”. With no new strikes happening, the area became quite again with people moving away until the discovery at Glengarry in 1970 of a rich new seam of Opal in MILLIONAIRES GULLEY. The next major rush of people to the area started on Melbourne Cup Day in 1985 when a couple wandering around the paddocks found Opal near some old sheepyards. The latest strike called SHIELD’S MULGA RUSH was found in 2000 by a local miner and his son (The Shields). It is being said that because of the quality and amount of Opal being found in the area and the use of machinery to move more soil, the new rush will continue for a long time. There have been many “strikes” in the area and miners are continuing to find Opal today but many “old timers” swear that the area is not finished and there are more big strikes waiting to be found. WHO KNOWS WHERE OR WHEN?
The use of spoilers:
The introduction of Social media to showcase caching activities is now starting to expand and I can see that over a period of time, more people will get involved and showcase their activities through this medium.
I believe that it takes away the experience that Geocaching offers. Tat for every person undertaking a cache hunt, it should be like they are the first to discover it. It is as much about the journey of finding the cache (working out the puzzle, thinking about where a cache might be hidden etc) as it is about finding the cache and racking up the numbers. Geocaching can take you to some beautiful and completely unexpected places. If someone has seen it on a Social media site, then the experience will no longer be a new experience.
It has been the reason why many people who have hidden caches check their logs regularly and remove spoiler images or logs. Geocaching is a controlled environment where the ownership and presentation is in the hands of the cache owner. The use of social media takes the ownership away from the cache owner and places it in the control of those working to discover the cache and present a story on an external medium. Once it has been presented on Social media, there is nothing a cache owner can do to remove it.
Geocaching is a game that everyone plays in their own way. The way Geocaching is set up means that every time a person finds a cache it is a new experience for them because they find it themselves and comment on their experience as a new finder, hopefully without a spoiler. After viewing a few spoiler reports on Social media and having to take action to remove spoiler activity presented in logs through Geocaching lately, I am requesting that this cache is not used for a Social media presentation. Please respect my request.