Great Aussie Icon Hunt # 5.2 Multi-cache

Great Aussie Icon Hunt # 5.2

Windmill – Aussie Icon

This series of geocaches is designed to help you when travelling around Australia, by breaking up the trip, and to discover a bit of a history lesson as you seek windmills in locations with a written history of the windmill and/or local region adjacent.

This particular Icon Hunt, Canberra to Brisbane, will take you through the towns of, basically, Canberra, Goulburn, Oberon, Orange (Park Open in Orange 7:30 am to Sunset DAILY), Coonabarabran, Moree, Goondiwindi, Toowoomba and finally Brisbane itself. You can do the whole route as one multi-day trip, or you can do it in chunks from both ends if you don’t have the time all in one hit, or you want to stagger the times you collect the data, for example, Canberra to Moree & return as one chunk, and then Brisbane to Goondiwindi & return in another chunk.
If you plan your trip through the above mentioned towns, you will be pleasantly surprised as to just how MANY caches can be found directly on the route. Some are a few km just off the main Highway, but all are easily accessed in a normal 2WD car, unless under flood. One special cache I must mention, the Cobb & Co junction one, GC1DKJ3 - Garlands Crossing, about 2km off the hwy, across a broad shallow (& mostly dry) creek bed – interesting spot with some relics lying around.
Enjoy the trip, and enjoy a different part of Australia, some gems of locations, some weird windmills, and I mean weird!, and interesting history at some locations too. Have fun! (That’s an order! - Please.)

Also, if you live in Canberra, when you come back to Canberra, you can track down "Great Aussie Icon Hunt #2" - Brisbane to Canberra GCQQJZ.
If you live in Brisbane, you can find this #2 hunt on the way down to Canberra. The #2 hunt takes the New England Highway route giving you a completely different route.

All windmills are accessible by car (no bush bashing required), they are all just a few metres off the highway, or in the centre of towns you will pass through, eg town parks. A couple are a few hundred metres down an excellent & graded public dirt road. There is limited access to one windmill due to the time of day a park closes, see above.
When you calculate the next windmill’s location, remember, it’s on the route through the towns I mentioned above; if it ain’t pretty much on that route, recalculate.

Street view could be useful .........
Use that (& your time machine) and all is revealed, 100%.

In many of the windmills, you will be required to count the number of blades on the fan. This will be difficult to impossible depending on the strength of the wind.
Therefore, a digital camera IS ESSENTIAL.

Now onto this particular geocache:

CANBERRA to BRISBANE

Windmill A
S 35º 20.669 E 149º 11.536. At a Bearing of 173º and 150m is the windmill you seek. Please do not go there, the windmill can be seen easily from where you are, especially with a digital camera.
Number of blades = AA, Colour of blades = (no. of letters in colour word) = AB, Windmill is surrounded by AC = 1 if trees, AC = 2 if buildings, AC = 3 if grass, grass and more grass, AC = 4 if Llamas.
Location of next windmill
S 33º (AB)0 . (AA-AB-AB-AC)8(AB)
E 149º (AB-AC)4 . (AB)(AB-AC)2

Windmill B
Number of blades = BA. Number of legs = BB. Number of bolts holding EACH blade = BC.
Location of next windmill
S 33º (BB)(BC) . (BC)(AB+AC)(AB)
E 149º (BB+AC)(BC) . (BB-AC)(BC)(AB+AC)

Windmill C
Number of blades = CA. Number of legs = CB. Number of sides on tail = CC. Number of bars holding tail = CD.
NOTE: in "suburbia" ? yes, you are in the correct location. No windmill apparent due to local garden renovations? Possible! Use Google street view, March 2010 historical view. (you can see CA & CB, but the other two values are CC = 4, CD = 2)
Location of next windmill
S 33º (BC)(CA-BA+AC) . (AB+AC)9(BB)
E 149º (CB)(CA-BA+CD) . (CC+BB)(CC)(AB+AC)

Windmill D
Number of blades = DA. Examine ONE grid structure, exactly at the coords, Number of GRID rails transverse to the road direction in the grid = DB. (even number)(not support or foundation members)
Location of next windmill
S 33º (CD)(CB+CD) . (AB+AC)(CB+CD)(CC)
E 149º (CB)(DA-DB-AC) . (CD)(CD)(DB)

Windmill E
Number of blades = EA. Number of legs = EB. (EA is divisible by EB)
Location of next windmill
S 33º (CD)(EB) . (CB)(EB-BC)0
E 149º (EA-DA+AC)(CB) . 1(EB)(DB)

Windmill F
Number of blades = FA. Colour of Tail (no. of letters) = FB.
Location of next windmill
S 33º (DB-FB)(FA-EA) . (FB+EB)(FB)5
E 149º 0(FA-FB-EB) . (EA-DB-AC)(EB)7

Windmill G
Number of blades = GA. Number of letters in the two words on the tail = GB
Location of next windmill
S 33º 1(GA-GB-AC) . (FB-CB)(FB)1
E 149º (GA-FA)(GB-FB-1) . (GB-EB-1)(FA-FB-GB)8

Windmill H
Handed over what day? = HA. Final number of year = HB.
If YellowTail, HC=1
If Comet, HC=2
If Bryan Colac, HC=3
If Bryan Bros, HC=4
If Southern Cross, HC=5
Location of next windmill
S 3(HC)º (HB-AB)(GB-HB-HC) . (HB+1)(HB+2)(BB+EB)
E 14(HA-GB+1)º (FB-HC)(HB+2) . (DB+1)(HB-EB-1)8

Windmill J
Number of blades = JA. If Comet, JB=3, If Southern Cross, JB=5, If Bryan Colac, JB=7, If Yellow Tail, JB=9.
Location of next windmill
S 3(IA)º (JB-1)(HC+IA) . (JB-HC)(JA-GB)2
E 14(FB+HC)º (JB-HC)(JA-HA+GB-HC) . (EB)3(JA-GB)

Windmill K
No. of blades on windmill = KA. Pumped water from a bore of ?? metres deep. KB = ?? divided by 9. KC = diameter in Feet.
Location of next windmill
S 3(KA-JA-JB)º (KA-KB)(KA-KB-1) . (KA-KC+2)(KA-KB-1)0
E 148º (KA-KB-1)(KA-KB+JB) . (KA-KB-1)(KA-KB+JB)1

Windmill L
Number of blades = LA, Colour of blades = LB (No. of letters in colour word)
Location of next windmill
S 3(KA-JA-JB)º (KA-KB)(LA/LB) . 0(KA-KB)0
E 148º (LA/LB)(LA/2) . (JB)2(KA-KB)

Windmill M
Number of blades = MA. If blades are missing (for repairs?), derive MA as follows; Allan lived at “G???”, the word after this “G???” word has a double occurrence of a letter of the alphabet in it (eg “egg” has 2 “g”’s.) What is the numeric value in the alphabet of this particular letter, This is MA.
?m wheel Z pattern on three leg tower (Allan McKinney) MB = ?. Allan lived at “G???” MC = Number of letters in the “G” word.
Location of next windmill
S 30º (KA-KC)(MC) . (KA-KC)(JB-2)8
E 149º (KA-KB)(MC) . (MA-GB+2)(KA-KC)1

Windmill N
Number of blades = NA, “COMET ? PATTERN” on Tail. NB = position of ? letter in alphabet.
Location of next windmill
S 29º (KA-KB)(CC) . (NA-KC)(JB-2)(JB)
E 149º (NA-KB)(MC+1) . (NA-KB)(MC)4

Windmill O
Number of plastic tanks = OA, Number of concrete drinking troughs = OB(Look behind you, they are all lined up in a row). Associated with these troughs is a series of metal thingys, OC=1 if they are poles, OC=2 if they are stands, OC=3 if they are hoops, OC=4 if they are stalls, OC=5 if they are ramps. Number of windmill tails = OD
Alternatively, OB = 4 if the tanks are light brown, OB = 2 if the tanks are dark green. OC = 1 if the windmill is between the tanks, OC = 3 if the windmill is not between the tanks.
Location of next windmill
S 29º (OC-OD)(MC) . (MC)(MC+1)4
E 149º (OC+OD)(FB+EB) . (FB+EB)(KA-KC)8

Windmill P
Number of blades = PA (Yes, you counted correctly!! COUNT them!), Number of sides to tail = PB. The Predominant phone number associated with this windmill = 02 XXXX XXXX. PC=1st X, PD=2nd X, PE=3rd X, PF=4th X, PG=5th X.
Location of next windmill
S 2(PD+PG)º (PF+PG)(PC) . (PF)(PC)4
E 15(PD-MC)º (PF)(PG) . (PE)(PD+PG)9

Windmill Q
Number of blades = QA(weird shape aren’t they!) (Don’t forget, count how many should be there)
NOTE: Use Google street view if the windmill is obscured or difficult to see, March 2010 (Yes, its there!!!!) - If a three legged structure, QA = 18, if a four legged structure, QA = 24, if a three AND four legged structure, QA = 16.
Location of next windmill
S 2(PD+PG)º (PF+PG)(PF) . (QA/2)(PE)1
E 15(PD-MC)º (PG)((QA/2)-1) . (PE-PG)(PF)2

Windmill R
Number of blades = RA. RB = number of TALL weird stone PILLARS on the main road traffic island about 40m east. Keeping you at bay from the windmill is a RC=1 (picket fence), RC=2 (wooden rail fence), RC=3 (steel rail fence), RC=4 (wire fence), RC=5 (rope)
Location of next windmill
S 2(PC+RC)º (RB+PF)(PF) . (RB)(PE)3
E 15(PF-RC)º (PF-RC)(PC) . (RB+PF)86

Windmill S
Number of blades = SA, “A pipeline was laid to a standpipe tank built just west of the town. At ?? m high, and 8m diameter it held....” a LOT of water!! SB = ??. A storm dumped SC” of rain, filling it up. In 192? “A bore was put down between the dam and ……”, SD = ? (last digit of year)
Location of next windmill
S 27º (SC+1)(SD-SC-1) . (SD-SC)(RC+SC)(SC-1)
E 15(RC)º (SC-RC-2)(SA-QA) . (SD-MC+PE)(SA-QA+2)(SD-1)

Windmill T
Number of blades on windmill divided by 2 = TE. Number of Sulphur Crested cockatoos = TD. Windmill: If Comet TC=3, If Bryan Colac TC=5, If Southern Cross TC=7, if Yellow Tail TC=9. Total number of sheep dogs x 2 = TB. TA = first two digits of the chemical used.
Location of next windmill
S 27º (TA-TE-TD)(TB) . (TA-TE)(TE-GB)0
E 15(SD-TB)º (TA-TE)(TD) . (TD)(TB)(TD)

Windmill U
Number of blades = UA, Number of bolts anchoring the tower = UB. Maximum speed (km/h) of windmill = UC.
Location of next windmill
S 27º (RB-UC)(SC) . (TD+UC)(TA-TE)0
E 15(SD-TB)º (TA-TE)(TB+UA-UC-SD) . (TE-RB)(SC)3

Windmill V
Largest Diameter = ? ft. VA = ?. Last numeric digit of the Year these windmills were named = VB
Location of next windmill
S 27º (VA-RB) . (UC+TD)(SD-TB)0
E 15(UA-TB)º (UC)(SD-TB) . (UA-TB+TD)(UC)0

Windmill W
Number of blades = WA
Location of next windmill
S 27º ((VA-WA)/4)(TD) . (PE)(UA)9
E 15(TD)º (PF-UC)(TD) . (TB)(VA+RC)

Windmill X
Number of blades = XA
Location of next windmill
S 27º (WA+XA-TB) . 5(WA+VA+XA+TD)
E 15(TB-SC)º (WA+XA+TD) . ( 4*(VA+WA+XA) )

Windmill Y
Number of blades = YA
NOTE: Use Google street view from Dec 2007
Location of next windmill
S 27º (YA+XA-SD) . (SD-SC)(SC)0
E 15( (YA/XA) + (WA/XA) )º (QA-XA-TD)(OD) . (TA-XA+1)(TD)8

Windmill Z
Number of blades = ZA, Total number of letters in the words on one side of the tail = ZB

Cache is located at:

S LMº NP.QRS
E 1TUº VW.XYZ

Where
L = VB
M = AB

N = MB
P = TA – ZB – UA + FA – UB - BC

Q = SA-MA+ZA-KB-RC
R = VA – RA – XA - BC
S = PC - ZB

T = CC
U = HA-PA+PB

V = SB-HB-NB-GB
W = OB + IB - OA

X = QA + DB – YA + UC
Y = RB + SC – RC – TE + GB
Z = TC - OA

Finally, as with all windmills, from time to time a blade may fall off and you may see the windmill before it is replaced. So, count how many blades should be there.

I found it an enjoyable trip(s) (Yes, I physically checked it all by doing it myself (express trip!) ), and don’t forget to plan your route along the towns I mentioned and you will have a ball collecting caches. (There is also great shopping at Moree, have to confess, the 2nd trip wasn't just to check) Take your time, enjoy the trip, read the interesting history at some locations, admire some locations, and above all, please just have a good time.