B&W (M) King's Grave - Melbourne General Cemetery Carlton North, Victoria, Australia
By
pwags on 20-Aug-10. Waypoint GA2503
Cache Details
Difficulty: | |
Terrain: | |
Type: | Burke and Wills |
Container: | Small |
Coordinates: | S37° 47.242' E144° 57.877' (WGS 84) |
55H 320774E 5815825N (UTM) | |
Elevation: | 48 m |
Local Government Area: | Melbourne |
Description
The grave of John King, the sole survivor of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition.
Background:
Of the four explorers who crossed the continent, John King was the only one to survive the return trip. In stark contrast with the grandiose memorial for his older colleagues, John King's grave appears somewhat insignificant. The inscription on King's tombstone is quite amateur in style, and even contains a spelling mistake - can you spot it?
King joined Burke for the dash to the Gulf and was the only survivor of this journey. He survived with the assistance of the Yandruwandha people until he was rescued by Alfred Howitt. King never fully recovered from his ordeal and died at the age of 31.
The geocache:
This geocache is a short offset-multi cache. You are required to gather some information at WP1, followed by a very short stroll to the final location, where you will find a hidden 200ml Sistema container, camouflaged to match its surroundings. There are also three commemorative Burke and Wills pathtags in the cache - you are welcome to take one if you find this cache quickly enough!
WP1: S37 47.242 E144 57.877. Here you will find the grave of John King. According to the memorial stone, King died on AB January, 1872.
GZ, the cache: Simply substitute the missing two digits you gathered at WP1 to find the coordinates for the geocache, hidden a very short distance away at S37 47.2AB E144 57.886.
Hints
Haqre ebpx, onfr bs gerr, abegu-jrfg pbeare bs fznyy erpgnathyne pbapergr obeqre |
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Decode |
Logs
We're archiving this cache as it appears to be missing. If it reappears or is replaced by the cache owner it can be resurrected by logging an "unarchived" against it.
if thy could mayhath you might want to checkith it so seeith if it is still thereth
Had hoped to find this one on my brief work trip to Melbourne.
The required information was recorded while I thought about the life of the man lying below.
A short walk and I was able to find this cache, still well hidden. I love the decoration on the cache and I love cemeteries.
Found at 11:05am. TFTC. TNLN.
A fair bit of a search at gz as well but eventually came up with the goods.
Thanks pwags for the cache. All in good shape. There was actually a signature in the logbook from a month or two ago.
The early morning rain had cleared as I parked just to the north of the cemetery, so I had beautiful sunshine during the couple of hours wandering about. This was my third GCA cache for the morning, after completing the longer multi.
When I checked the app, I kicked myself for not looking earlier... though it turns out that the data I collected during the big multi contained the information I needed to locate this cache. So, it was a nice quick find on the way back up to the car.
Five caches for the morning, a good walk and plenty learnt. I call that a win. Cheers.
Happy to report cache is in good order, logbook is well, and don't think I have made any spelling mistakes....
Things were a tad wet and muddy underfoot depending on the path you take, think I took all the muddy ones!!
Thanks for a great hide.
Cheers gordo
So I've decided not to become a hero.
Thanks for the warning and real life lesson pwags.
Cheers pwags, thanks for another B@W's cache.
This was a very interesting Cemetery to visit with a couple a really nice Caches to do. This was a quick calculation and find - thanks pwags !!
TFTC !!
Cache was a quick find after the easy calc's.
Thanks for the hide.
Certainly not as grandiose as the team leaders grand memorial for a very brave man, the only one who endured all the hardships of the epic journey and survived albeit for a short time.
A quick and easy find as a deviation from the nearby GC multi.
TNLN
Our thanks to pwags for the cache and bringing us to this location.
Cheers
Ian & Sandra
Team Ladava
Cache condition - fine
TFTC
kellyhaunts
TNLNSL. Thanks pwags.
Enjoyed the stroll on this warm morning. Once at GZ the cache was not to bad to find. We love the B&W series of caches and look forward to completing all in Victoria soon.
TNLNSL
Thanks pwags for a great cache
1st of 10 finds on this warm and sunny day for caching. Just a normal grave site for someone who might have just been modest. Thanks for the cache.
- M
Poor Mr. King. The only one to return alive and no-one knows anything about him. What a tragic story from start to end is the story of the B&W Expedition.
We found the stroll across to this location quite enchanting exploring the old grave sites as well walked past them. Some of them so old the stone has worn down to almost nothing, leaving those interred there almost completely unknown.
We collected the simple clues at GZ and headed to the cache where GabGab made the find.
Took nothing, left nothing.
Thanks pwags for this, another fascinating piece of B&W history. I really appreciated the effort you went to and your assistance in the B&W Project.
*Overall Experience: 4*
GAFF 1
Cheers from Sydney
After finding 'Grave Site' we made our way to King's Grave. Australian History is something I am really interested in, and these series of caches are just perfect to commemorate the expedition.
After doing the maths, we made our way to GZ and the cache was soon in hand. I didn't take a pathtag as I took one from Grave Site but harry took one.
Thanks for bringing us here and showing us all some amazing history!
On the day of the Federal Election, along with Robyn of The Morris and Princess Diala, we voted to follow the B & W Party.
We walked from a nearby cache discussing the many and varied memorials along the way. Information to hand and off to the cache and sign the log.
TNLN . . SL . . TFTH.
Why did he get placed all the way in here? He should have had a nice gravestone near the Burke and Wills tribute.
...Thats what you get for returning home alive after a epic adventure....
Thanks again for this Multi pwags!
We had all helped to hide them
Lots of research and preparation
The ftf would be all gone
But we were part of the commemoration
So to Bill and Bob and John
Who fought through great adversity
Your journey is still remembered
Happy anniversary
It was great walking through the grounds, from your last cache, looking at all the headstones. Been a while since I have cached in here.
Thanks, Robmc.