Geocaching Australia

Geocaching is a treasure hunt with something for everyone. Using map coordinates and a GPS enabled device, you can find a geocache near your home, in the city, in the bush or in Antarctica.
Geocaches come in all shapes and sizes too. You can find a tiny little one as small as your fingernail, or a huge geocache with exciting 'treasures' inside. It can be as easy or as hard as you like to make it. You can drive up to your geocache and spot it from the car, or you can choose to hike for miles up and down mountains in the snow in search of that elusive container.
Now get out there and have some fun! But beware, it can be addictive!

Choose a geocache:

1. Click on the map for your state, move the map to your home location then select a geocache.
   OR
2. Enter your post code in the Postcode search box and click 'Search Now'.
   OR
3. Enter your locality in the Locality search box and click 'Search Now'.

Then:

1. Choose any geocache from the list and click on its name.
2. Enter the coordinates of the geocache into your GPS device or load the geocache into a geocaching app on your smart phone.
3. Use your GPS device of smartphone to navigate to the geocache.
4. Sign the logbook and return the geocache to its original location.
5. Log your adventure online.

• Find the geocache.
• Log your name in the log book.
• If you take something from a geocache replace it with something of equal or greater value.
• Log your adventure online.

You will need a GPS device or a GPS-enabled smartphone so that you can navigate to the cache.
To log your adventure online you will need to create an account that identifies your geocaching name.
Access to Geocaching Australia is free and open so no payment is needed to go geocaching.

Geocaches are hidden all over the world. Geocachers will hide caches in locations that are important to them as well as locations that may require a special skills such as tree climbing, abseiling or kayaking. Geocache locations are very diverse and may be at your local park, at the end of a long hike, underwater or on the side of a city street.

There are lots of different types of geocaches such as:

• Traditional caches
• Multi caches
• Events
• Virtual caches
• Locationless caches
• Movable caches
• Beacon caches
• Mystery caches
• Webcam caches
• Pod caches
• TrigPoints.

• Geocaches are rated according to a scale that measures their difficulty to find and terrain where the cache is located or the terrain you need to traverse to get to the geocache site.
• Finding a difficulty 1 geocache should take only a few moments, a difficulty 2 or 3 may take you 15 minutes to an hour searching for the geocache itself whereas a difficulty 5 may takes some weeks of puzzle solving.
• A terrain 1 geocache should be able to be found by someone in a wheelchair or crutches whereas a terrrain 5 may require abseiling, tree climbing or other specialised skills like diving.
• Geocaches also have a size ranging from nano through to large and all sizes in between.
• Finding a nano geocache which can be smaller than your fingernail can be a significant challenge, a small is around 200ml and may take a little while to think through where it may be hidden whereas finding a large which is generally 20 litres or larger shouldn't be too troublesome at all.
• When searching for your first few geocaches, choose a traditional cache type where the difficulty is low, the terrain is low and the size is small or larger.
• You should also check the latest logs from the geocache page itself to make sure that there are no unattended issues with the geocache and that it hasn't recently been reported as missing.
• Be environmentally concious when searching for a geocache. You may be searching in some creatures home. Do not rip or shred the area. Be gentle and kind to the environment. If you can't find the geocache don't take it out on the rocks, plants, trees or creatures that may be living nearby.

The method of loading coordinates onto your GPS will vary depending on the type of device you have.
Input Coordinates Manually
If your device does not connect directly to the computer, you will need to enter coordinates manually. This process will be different for each device. Check your device's manual for instructions.
Download a GPX file
If you have any model of GPS device that you can connect directly to your computer you can download the cache listing as a GPX file. GPX files are available to everyone free of charge and include all the needed geocache information plus all of the geocache logs. You can bulk download GPX files from Geocaching Australia free of charge by creating a My Query.

There are two apps available for Geocaching Australia. Neither are owned or developed by Geocaching Australia.
GA Cacher for Android
Geosphere for Apple

• When you have found the geocache you should always sign the logbook and return the geocache to its original location.
• Then when you get home or if you're using a smartphone while in the field, you log your adventure online.
• To find the geocache at Geocaching Australia use its unique identifier called a waypoint. This will be a code beginning with GA or TP. Enter the GA or TP code into the 'Search for a Geocache Code / Waypoint' search box and click Search Now. This should search for the waypoint and you can then click into the geocache page.
• Click on the 'Log' link on the geocache page, enter the date and select whether you found it or did not find it. Then write up your adventure. Geocache hiders love to read about your adventures in getting to the geocache site or the challenge you have trying to find the geocache. Write about your adventure as you would like to read about it.
• You can also rate the geocache when making your log based on your overall experience. This experience rating helps you and others to rank geocaches that you have enjoyed.