WWFM III - Make a Federal case of it Jolimont, Victoria, Australia
By Rhinogeo & Facitman on Saturday 10 May 2008. Waypoint GC19T7Q

17th

All 52 teams that attended have logged online making this the best attended 'real' event held in Australia

Thanks to all who came along and I'll see you at the next one if not before [:p]  

17th

it was good to catch up with some cachers i haven't seen in a while. thx Rhinogeo & Facitman
 

11th

Thanks all
This was our first FM for us(my daughter and I),It was different.We had a lot of fun.
 

11th

Just made it in time to see the swarm of geocachers head across Fed Square for the group photo, fortunately inside the cache time limit.

Good to catch up with so many so briefly!
 

11th

Attended this with Nutcache, geofreak and new friend from the US The Ref. Great to catch up with a few familiar faces. Had never been part of a flash mob before so thanks for organising this.
 

11th

We travelled from Warburton to attend this 15 minute event. It was fun to try to be discreet and chat with a few others that we recognised while waiting for the minute to arrive before the mass migration to GZ. We had to exit soon after as our carpark was past it's use by date. Great to catch up with the familiar faces even though it was for a brief encounter. Also great to meet up with the ref from California, who had contacted me a while back, and we hope to spend some time showing him around our area. Thanks to Rhinogeo and Facitman for the event.
 

10th

Arrived ten minutes before the start to see some familiar faces & small pockets of people hanging around .
Then all of a sudden it seemed like Fed square had been taken over.
Thanks Rhinogeo & Facitman for organising another great flash mob
Can't wait till the next one !
Cheers
LIVERPOOLRED
(Y.N.W.A.)
 

10th

What an event this one was! This was our second flash mob event but this time at least, we could see everyone . It was sensational to watch the flood of geocachers approaching GZ at the appointed time and then to see the "river" of people proceeding to the next two WPs before the mob photo was taken.

It's always great to catch up with old "friends" at events not to mention meet some new ones, albeit briefly.

Well done Rhinogeo & Facitman for organising another ripper. Hopefully we'll see you, and other fellow geocachers, again at many more .
 

10th

Thanks for my first WWFM. Got up at 6:30am to be there and only made it by minutes!! It was fun to see. Thanks again.
 

10th

Attended with my dad and friends.
Nice to go to an event on the train!
Walked around Melbourne CBD all day and nearly wore the feet right off my legs!!
Thanks for a well planned event!
 

10th

Attended with Mini Cacher One and the Coffee's. Thanks to Facitman and Rhino for organising the event.
 

10th

Managed to arrive just in time,
Thanks Rhino and Facitman.
 

10th

Got up and got ready to attend but everything took longer than expected, so at 09:50 there we were rushing down Hoddle Street to make it there in time. But eventually all three of us made it. Great idea and first FM we have been too.
Thanks for organizing it fro John-Gill-Jaiden.

 

10th

Stayed over in Melbourne to do the FM before returning back to Western Australia, and was it worth it? Yes, it sure was. I loved being there a bit early and playing "spot the cacher". Loved the mass convergence to GZ at 10 am; meeting so many friendly cachers; putting faces to the names of those who had set caches that we had done (or DNF'd as the case may be). A great time. Thanks to Rhinogeo and Facitman for your organisation and to everyone else for making me feel so welcome.
 

10th

This was our second flash event and what a great success it was. We arrived a little early, as traffic was very light so we sat and had a coffee watching the other teams we knew arrive. We could not believe it when at 10.00am most of Federation Square got up and moved to GZ. So many teams we had not seen before and unfortunately we did not get to meet many at this very short event. Many many thanks go to Rinogeo and Facitman for all their effort in putting this together.


 

10th

Great event, my first "Flash" with a mob and a lot of fun too, great to see the crowd merge as one. Thanks to the organisers.
 

10th

10:00
Well ... what a great family group to be involved with. Our first event of this type and what a great 15 mins. Arrived in the vacinity of the GZ at 9:20 and caught up with "the Ref" from America. Then met "Listmaker" and discussed GPS'r problems during the event. All in all a great experience. Thanks Rhinogeo and Facitman for the organisation of another successful Victorian event.
 

10th

This was our first flash mob. We thoroughly enjoyed joining in, thanks
 

10th

Attended by Facitman at 10:00
After the successful WWFMII it was easy to agree with Rhinogeo to host another WWFM. It was also an easy decision to host this one at a more reasonable hour of the day.
It was fun to be near GZ well before 10:00 and spot the geocachers around the square. Rhinogeo and I moved to GZ just before time and with a blow of a whistle it was on and cachers were appearing from everywhere. It was a fun 15 minutes and terrific to see so many attending.
It was over way too quick but that's the good thing about organising a 15 minute event, it's not too hard to fill in the time
Thanks to Rhinogeo who did most of the pre-work, to Rob for hiding a cache in his pocket and to Amy for being the official videographer/photographer

 

10th

Find # 2384 and 1st of the day at precisely 10:00am. This was my second flash mob event and it was a better turn out than the last one at 4:00 in the morning, it was good to get a change for a chat before the main gathering. Thanx Rhinogeo & Facitman for the event....
 

10th

My first FM experience. Was pretty amazing when virtually everyone in Fed Square converged on GZ! Well done to Rhinogeo and Facitman for organising the event.
 

10th

I've NEVER seen Fed Square so busy on a Saturday morning. Damn shame that 99% of the populace was there with one sole intent, a World Wide Flash Mob!

The turn out for this FM was MUCH better than that for the Eternal Flame. What's wrong with the concept of staying up till 0400 from the event before???

I'm still confused though, if Eternal Flame was the first, and we haven't missed one, how did this become number 3???

The quick dispersal method was more effective at 0400 I noticed though, perhaps lack of sleep assisted this matter.

Only a flying visit for us, had to get the better half off to work again.

Thanks Rhino & Facit for another well organised FM.

Looking forward to the next.
 

10th

I've uploaded a video of the event to YouTube http://youtube.com/watch?v=f52S_ELOmXI

Our event was one of 167 events held all around the world. In 15 countries thousands of geocachers "shared" this experience. Sonny and Sandy at PodCacher will be bringing together pictures, audio and stories from all the Flash Mobs on the Podcacher podcast. To see the pictures and listen to the show, go to podcacher.com http://www.podcacher.com  

10th

This was the Coffee's second FM, but the first in daylight. We arrived at the City square just in time thanks to some clever driving techniques and discovered people scattered everywhere.
This was a good example of FM and by the book everyone converged at the right time. I believe a couple of muggles originally followed at the thought of something for nothing may be happening but disappeared very quickly. The plan for a surge by cachers didn't really happen even when we yelled "found it" but an idea has emerged for next year.
The event went to plan and before the crowd dispersed we grouped up nice and tight for a FM style group photo.
Many thanks to Rhinogeo and Facitman for putting this event together, and congratulations to the FTF coin winner.
Regards Mr.Coffee and the "I can now say I have flashed myself in the city square, and in broad daylight too" Clan.
 

10th

Wooh Hooh, nice to catch up with new acquaintences. Look foreward to the pix.
Squal.
 

10th

Mary & David were there. Another first for us - we haven't been to a FM Event before. Parked at the Arts Centre and had time to buy some Aussie souvenirs for our overseas trip at the end of the month. Slowly, slowly people we recognised appeared at various spots around the Square. There were quite a lot of others about too, but we didn't yet know if they were here for the Event or if they were tourists. An incredible feeling watching the time count down, then it seemed as though almost everyone around the square was converging on GZ. The mass logging followed, then Rhino led us all on a GPS tour of the Square that finally led us all to the site for the group photo, and the group call to Geotalk. Tremendous fun, and at a very civilised time too. Our thanks to Rhinogeo & Facitman for putting it all together, and to all the other Teams for making it all so enjoyable. Sorry we couldn't get to meet everyone.

[This entry was edited by maccamob on Saturday, May 10, 2008 at 5:21:37 AM.]
 

10th

My First Flash Event and really enjoyed it. The socialising instead of dispersing quickly meant that I could put some more faces to names. A well organised event. Certainly not boring. Thanks to the organisers.
 

10th

"All aboard".
After travelling with Fozzy778, chati and Geolock from Ballarat we also picked up Kinkell1 from Ballan on the cache train. when we arrived at Fed square I couldn't believe how well everybody blended into the background...
Loved the event and company shared during the course of the day. My feet hurt!

 

10th

Geodad and son strolled by the GZ 10 minutes or so before the event, and we passed though we thought we spotted a few suspicious characters. At 1000, they all showed their true colours simultaneously. As we walked past one or two of the only genuine muggles in the area, we wondered what they were thinking as just about everyone converged on the cache.

We had a great time meeting other cachers and revelling in the novelty of the event. Many thanks to Rhinogeo & Facitman for organising the event. Great fun.

 

10th

Our second event and the best yet. Innocently walking in, we were honked and apprehended by EuDes and SSMC4 so figured we were heading for the right place. The Square was strange, all these groups behaving surreptitiously in a muggle sort of way, the odd embarrassed wave, checking to see if they were packing the odd GPSr or two. And then the surge and converge, a flash mob indeed. The photo shoot, meeting and greeting, a couple of bonus caches (still waiting for the Fedcam) - thanks Rhinogeo and Facitman.
 

10th

Stayed in Melbourne overnight to attend the event, got up reasonably early and made my way to GZ at about 0800 to confirm the location, went off to find a few nearby cachers and returned to find many suspicious characters lurking around fed square. Initially wasn't sure that there would be many in attendance, but as soon as 1000 struck, a wave of people soon swarmed towards GZ.

Fantastic location for a WWFM which was well received from the number of people in attendance. My wife and i had a great time meeting old and new faces.

Well done Rhino and Facitman.
 

10th

Attended with Chati, GeoLoch and in the company of Highrod and Kinkell1
Our 3rd event, and our FIRST flash Mob cache!!
We missed the first one due to locality and decided that this one was well worth attending!
Find # 411. Had a great time, thanks to RhinoGeo and Facitman!!
 

10th

Attended 200805101000-1015

When you organise one of these you wonder how many people will turn up but with this one being held at a far more user friendly time than the last one I was confident we'd do better than then, but I was not expecting the fantastic turnout of 51 teams (plus Facitman and me)

Lurking inconspicuously I noticed quite a few familiar faces but when I blew the whistle at 1000 cachers converged on us from everywhere (along with a few puzzled looking muggles [:p])

Logs collected, a little bit of a walk, group photo taken and raffle drawn it was all over too quickly but that's the nature of WWFMs

Thanks to all for coming - a group photo is on Flickr here http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2103/2479177159_0db6ffe090_b_d.jpg
 

10th

After making the trip done the GV & Hume I parked the car and made my way to Fed Square. Initially unable to spot the organizers I did spy a number of other persons lurking in the area.

It was great to observe the wave of persons, with GPS in hand, making their way toward ground zero much to the surprise of others in the square.

Well done guys, worth the trip done to attend.
 

10th

This is the first event we have attended and what great fun it was! Thanks Rhinogeo & Facitman
It felt kind of weird lurking around, waiting for 10:00am, but we enjoyed trying to pick the other cachers (which turned out to be most people in Fed Square). Was really nice to meet some fellow cachers and put faces to names. Thanks all for a fun event and look forward to another get together.
 

10th

Thank you very much Rhinogeo & Facitman for my very first flash mob. Very enjoyable. I just couldnt believe what happened at 10am. The whole square started moving to one spot. It was great to sit and watch people 15 minutes before the event.

Thanks again

MADSTARS
Nelsons Bay 2315
 

10th

What a GREAT experience!!! I have never been to a caching event of any kind, much less a flash mob. I had wonderful time meeting and talking to everyone. I also want to thank all of you for the offered hospitality (some of which surely will be accepted). I am absolutely overwhelmed at the welcome all of you gave me! I hope to see some of you on the caching trail in the coming days while I am here. I will be here until the 30th, and always up for a good cache run. Thank you Rhinogeo for the event, and special thanks to Nutcache for brining this to my attention.

ps Even though I Didn't bet the FTF, do I get the prize for "traveled the furthest?" HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

Thanks again for a wonderful, time and my first Aussie cache.

Cheers,

The Ref
 

10th

What a great & quick event, it was good fun picking the cachers in the small groups of people milling around Fed Square. Come 10am we found we had missed a few as almost everyone there headed up to GZ. Met up with a few cachers we knew and quite a few more that we didn't...and had a great time doing it.

TFTC!!!!
 

10th

I was up nice and early this morning to collect Amy's mum from the airport and after cutting a few deals during the week was able to attend the event as planned. I caught up with the event organisers over breakfast to discuss Amy and my roles for the day, a lovely mix of coffee, pancakes and riverside views.

There were far more cachers than I thought at FedSquare and it was exciting to watch them come out of the woodwork (stone work?). Some old faces, some recently met faces, and a whole bunch of strangers that I had no hope of meeting in the 15 minute time limit.

Thanks for another fun event, 2/2 for the flash mobs for me now.

Cheers Rhino and Facitman,

R + A + R + C - B
 

10th

Thanks for my first event cache. Had a great day. Nice to meet lots of other geocachers!
 

10th

Attended by caughtatwork and J at 10:00am
After attending the Eternal Flame WWFM, this one was at a much better time and so much better that daughter J decided to attend with me.
We walked into Fed Square to see little pockets of people gathered here and there all trying to look inconspicuous. A few old acquaintances were spotted and the video camera was brought up and they were caputured on tape trying to avoid waving (well, some of them avoided waving but not all).
At the appointed time we all headed towards the gathering point and drew more than the occasional staring eye of the public. Grabbing the log sheet we made our mark and took some more video footage.
Then we all traipsed around Fed Square like a big bunch of tourists and finally gathered to have a group photo taken.
I have no idea what people thought we were up to but I wish I had caught a few of their looks on camera. There were a number of bemused stares.
At 10:15 most people dispersed but we hung around for a little while to catch up on some gossip then headed off for a look at some of the city shops.
Thanks Rhinogeo and Facitman. A fascinating event that will be sure to grow more and more as they are held.
We must try and do something more bizarre next time.
Here's a link to the video I took. See if you can spot yourself. http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=bePqNDBHzLU
 

10th

What a great event in a great location . It was nice to meet up with some familiar names and faces and also to meet new cachers from near and far (notably Mark "The Ref" - all the way from the USA.)

Full points to Rhinogeo and Facitman for a terrific event.
 

10th

The only bikers!
 

10th

The only people in town at 10am on a Saturday are, obviously, tourists or geocachers. Yep, everyone in Fed Square was "one of us" - it was an amazing sight to see us all converge (I popped out from inside ACMI), and it was good to meet some people at last. Afterwards a group of us wandered off to find "AAPT - Tell it like it is". Thanks everyone!
 

10th

Hardly anyone there when I arrived at 9.50am and then at 10.00am suddenly a multitude emerged! Lots of teams that I hadn't seen before and some that I hadn't seen for a long time either. It was also impressive how far some traveled for the event. Thanks Rhino and Facitman for organising - it was a good start to the weekend.
 

10th

our very first event!!! how exciting and a little bit weird, watching just about everyone in Fed square converge in one spot! thanks


 

10th

What fun! Great to meet some other cachers at last. Thanks for this one.
 

10th

I enjoyed this, my first flash mob, especially the initial convergence on GZ. There were few muggle onlookers, so almost everyone in Federation Square suddenly started heading in one direction - an awesome sight. My thanks to Rhinogeo and Facitman.
 

10th

As I sat around waiting for GZ-hour I thought I could spot a few likely suspects in the vicinity. At 10am, however, it seemed as if everyone lurking in Fed Square was a cacher, because all of a sudden the place was deserted except for the large crowd converging on an ammo can! A couple of WPs later (found by following the crowd, more than the arrow!) the photo was taken, and a fun though brief event was over. Thanks Rhinogeo and Facitman for a fun 15 minutes.

[This entry was edited by SamCarter on Friday, May 09, 2008 at 6:22:02 PM.]
Rated: for Overall Experience  

10th

FTF!! I didn't even know that this Flash Mob was happening till 9:15. Got my weekly Geocaching email and saw that some event was happening today and on looking, saw it was a Flash Mob. We loved attending the last one at 4 AM, so I dragged both Geo-wife and Geo-mum and said we are going for a short walk to Fed Square.

Thanks to Rhinogeo and Facitman for organising this and also thanks for giving me my first FTF. The geocoin to mark the occasion is also very nice.

 

10th

This will be my first event ever - and probably the shortest one. For some reason I was worried it might be 10pm, so I used the free WiFi at FedSquare to check it and about it right now... *gg*  

10th

ssmc4 and I are on our way . Logging coins for discovery.  

10th

Will come in to town with EuDEs - 1.25 hours to go!  

10th

I managed to escape from some work in the city for 15 minutes this morning to attend this one. Amazing to see that virtually EVERYONE in Fed Square was there for one reason! I only wish I had enough time to stick around and get to know everyone. I should have also asked someone for a hint for nearby "Geometry" which has eluded me for a while now, as I see that a group found it at the conclusion of the WWFM.

Many thanks guys for organising this event - I look forward to hearing us on Geotalk soon!
 

10th

Dropping off the new coin so that it can be logged.  

10th

Suddenly Fed Square is filled with people holding gps receivers. They cluster around an ammo box, waving small pieces of paper. Then they wander, en masse, to an area a few meters away and shout while one of the group's leaders holds a mobile phone in the air. What fun!!

We enjoyed our second flash mob event, and it was kind of fun being able to see the other participants in daylight!

Thanks so much to Rhinogeo and Facitman.
 

10th

That was really weird: My first geocaching event ever was "E 16486.6km from your home coordinates" (Aachen in Germany) and lastet 15 minutes

Before 1000 I walked a bit around FedSquare and tried to spot other cachers. I managed to see a few looking secretly at their GPSrs and a couple obvious ones wearing the typical outfit of those who take geocaching really serious. But when I finally headed for GZ, I had to realize, that almost everyone on FedSquare was a geocacher. An amazing sight!
 

10th

Thanks for my 15 minutes of fame. Wish I could have spent the rest of the day caching with you all, but I had prior commitments to attend to.

Photos available here: http://snurl.com/wwfm3
 

9th

I'll be there  

9th

We'll be there  

9th

I hope to make it as well, I am down on business from Nelsons Bay NSW for the last week. I have just changed my flight arrangements home so I could fit this special cache in.
MADSTARS
 

8th

here from the states and looking forwardto the event. Also lookin for some cachers to go caching with while I'm here. I will be her until the end of the month  

8th

Its a late RSVP but I'll definately be there, I hope there is plenty of Muggle activity this time round.
 

8th

All attendees are reminded to bring their GPSr units ... you'll need them both to tell the time and for other reasons  

8th

All things being equal, I'll be attending.  

7th

Certainly hope to be there!  

7th

We are determined to be there for our first geocaching event. Checked out the refined co-ordinates last night on our way to the James Blunt concert with Bigmutts1.  

6th

I will be there maybe with my bike it might be easier to get some parking, looking forward to it.  

6th

I should be able to make it.  

5th

Looks as though we'll be able to come along.  

5th

** Coordinates Changed From **
S 37° 49.090 E 144° 58.120
Distance From Old: 171.4 feet
A little bit of fine tuning of the coordinates after a pre-event recce this afternoon  

4th

All being well will be there  

2nd

RoundCircle and GeoFerret will be there. (We hope).  

2nd

I will be there with a geocacher Mark (AKA the ref) from California USA who is wanting to connect up with other cachers during his stay in Melbourne from 6-30 May. He is keen to do some of the "real gems of the area" so if there are some you reckon he should do let me or him know. Looking forward to seeing you all at this exciting, though brief event.  

1st

I really want to be there and will try my hardest to make it, even if it means leaving home on the murdercycle at 6am in freezing temps to get there. Looking forward to it.  

1st

I am coming to Melb for a 1 day meeting and was supposed to fly back to WA on Friday 9 but no way am I going to miss this one. I might have to sleep under a bridge but I'll be there!!!  

29th

At this stage I intend to be there; I'm looking forward to it.  

28th

We'll be there - sounds like great fun.  

27th

Hope to make it, my first "flash" in the mob sense, or any sense for that matter.  

27th

Sounds great. Will try to be there for sure!  

25th

Just dropping in my WWFM III Geocoin,
See you all soon

 

24th

Hoping to get there. Should be great. Just need to find someone to cover my shift at work.  

22nd

Looking forward to my first event - I'll be there!  

20th

Whitejaegar will be attending. After hearing about the last one we are looking forward to this one.

Cheers
Jim
Whitejaegar  

20th

I'm hoping to attend, no other conflict at the present. Sounds like fun.
 

20th

Looking forward to meeting some other cachers!  

19th

We will be there for sure Had fun at the last one at 4 am.  

11th

We don't do a lot of work in the morning so count us in.  

10th

Hope to attend, nothing on the radar currently stopping it from happening.

I'm with Coffee Clan, 4am is good, or, 3am if that's the PDT equivalent.  

10th

Should be able to attend this unique event.  

7th

Arrrgghhh.... I have had to change mine to a can't make it (didn't know you could do that!) as I will now be interstate. That's Interstate, not Intestate. Have fun. Have you decided on a special dance to do yet?  

26th

My first WWFM attempt. Sounds like a bit of fun.
I'm there.  

16th

I will have beer with my debriefing  

9th

Count me in. The last one was fun! I like Alansee's idea of de-briefing over coffee afterwards.  

4th

Would love to be there, especially as I still have to complete the Fed Square camera cache. Unfortunatly have made arrangements to be up in the North East. Why didn't you tell me sooner?[:(!] Had the wrong date; it seems I can be there. Whoo-hoo

[This entry was edited by chewinprickles on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at 4:46:10 PM.]  

3rd

I am also so there! I've missed too many recently and love the idea. Coffee at Southbank afterwards anyone? [?]

[This entry was edited by Alansee on Monday, April 07, 2008 at 3:58:35 AM.]  

3rd

What a cool idea - I recon we'll be there or be square!  

3rd

I'm in.  

3rd

be there or be square at the square, did you say 3am .  

3rd

Published  

3rd

Oh I am so there...Can we do something crazy, like 10 star jumps or sing a Christmas carol?