Original coordinates: S 37° 45.932' E 145° 04.863'
You are standing at the ticket boxes for the Hoyts Bulleen Drive-In. You can't "drive in" now but you can walk down the entrance road without crossing any fences! Watch out for broken glass particularly if you have children or GeoDogs with you.
Long, long ago this was the latest thing in entertainment. It was tied to the post-war boom where more and more people had cars and they had large families so this was the cheapest evening out. You can see what Bulleen Drive-In looked like back in the 1960s. This Drive-In was right by the Yarra River and very close to several billabongs so fog was often a problem. You'd think this was a design fault but the land was probably cheap!! Flooding must have also been a problem...
One of the team remembers visiting this particular Drive-In to see "The Blue Max" with my brother. This film was mostly fast action but it did have an embarrassing love scene (I was about 16 at the time). It was very tame by modern standards but back then it was unexpectedly graphic. We always wondered how the censors allowed these M-rated movies to be shown at Drive-Ins where just about anyone could watch (for free) from the hillside. The local kids probably learned the facts of life somewhat earlier than the rest of us!!
You can see the foundation slabs for the original ticket boxes. How many boxes were there? Call this A.
Count the number of short but very solid posts designed to protect the now non-existent small ticket box. Call this B.
C = A * B
D = B + B
E = (B * B) - 7
F = C - 1
Go via normal roads to:
S 37° 45.CDF
E 145° 04.DE1
(Cache page updated 28/Feb/2021 Final coordinates, container and hide remain unchanged. - n0w0rries)
There is now a construction site for the North East Link at the former starting coordinates. The structures that were at the beginning have now been demolished. The original wording can be viewed above.
WP2 has now become the posted coordinates.
A, B & C can now be calculated from here.
You are now outside the exit gate. You can see the remnants of the projection and refreshments building. It was still standing up till a few years ago but it looks like someone has just pushed it over. This was probably done for safety reasons because the solid second floor concrete slab (required to support the heavy projection equipment) was about to collapse.
Nearby are several power poles and one of them probably provided power for the Drive-In since even now it supports a high-voltage transformer. It has a seven digit number written in black digits on a yellow background. Enter this number into the following boxes:
A = K + L
B = L + M
C = J + K
The final cache is at:
S 37° 4I.CMB
E 145° 04.GAL
Do not ignore the "No Admittance" sign on the gate - there are several legitimate ways to get to the cache. The cache is a well camouflaged 400mL Sistema box. In this case, the volume is important as Archimedes would tell you if he'd ever got out of the bath. For the same reason, please make sure that the top is properly clipped on.
Flooding may be a problem with this cache and this may restrict the number of ways it can be accessed. If you are not sure, check the river level on Melbourne Water. Point on the map just slightly above the letters "CBD" and you should see that the area is called "Yarra River". Click on the area and then click on the spot marked Heidelberg. That will give you the river level at the Banksia Street bridge. If the level is over 5.0m you are going to get your feet wet. If it's a lot over, do not attempt this cache (swimming in a flooded river is always a bad idea). The cache may even be under water but it won't float away - with the river at its peak of 8.4m the cache was under 1m of water and it stayed put. If the level is over 9m, the whole Drive-In will be under water.
WARNING: The river banks in the cache area are not particularly steep but there are hazards for the unwary in the vicinity. These include the river itself (particularly when in flood) plus snakes. We have never seen snakes near the cache (the local environment is possibly not ideal for them) but we did once see a Tiger Snake in native bush within 20m of the nearby cache named "The Billabong" and two others further down-river. If your team includes children and pets (dogs are allowed in this park), they must be closely supervised during the final search. In this case the Cache Hint should be read both literally and also in its usual cryptic clue role.
If you are interested in the location of all the Drive-Ins in 1966, have a look at Melway Edition 1. Click on a map number to see the original page. To expand the map page, click on it. It's fascinating to see Melbourne nearly 40 years ago - a bit like a time machine!