BT VII – Driving in Circles Traditional Cache

As the unofficial capital of Melbourne’s battler western suburbs, Footscray has been traditionally blue-collar, but in recent years it has become an increasingly multicultural community as migrants, particularly Vietnamese, have chosen to settle in the area. Indeed, Footscray celebrates the Vietnamese New Year, the Tet Festival, at the Showgrounds at Flemington.

While in 1947 almost the entire population was Australian born, by 1954 this had changed to almost one-fifth born overseas. By 1961 this had risen to one-quarter, and by 1966 to almost one-third. Australian Bureau of Statistics Census data for the City of Maribyrnong shows that the proportion of persons born in non-English speaking countries in 1996 was 40% of the population. The first woman elected to Council was Yugoslavian-born Silka Kerry in 1972. The first woman Mayor was Vietnamese-born Mai Ho, 1997–1998.

The Melbourne Museum of Printing is also located in Footscray. The museum and one of the world's largest collections of printing machinery and artifacts are located at 36 Moreland Street. The museum specialises in retention of traditional printing, both the equipment and the knowledge.

Footscray folk are loyal to a fault in their avid support for the long-established AFL club, the Bulldogs. The home ground of the Western Bulldogs, Whitten Oval, is in Barkly Street. The club was founded in 1877, and has occupied the Whitten Oval since 1879. The oval is named after Footscray's favourite son, E J (Ted) Whitten, who captained the club for 14 years. A bronze statue of Ted occupies pride of place outside the social club at the ground .

Melburnian television watchers will know that "Footerscray" and "Brunerswick", are the locations of Franco Cozzo's stores—you might see his store on the way to or from this cache.

This description assumes that you are a business traveller, that you are staying at a hotel in or near Melbourne's CBD, and you are starting from Flinders Street Station at the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets.

Enter Flinders Street Station and take a Williamstown Line train. Get off at Footscray Station (12 mins).

The cache is a 680m walk from the railway station, or 460m as the crow flies.

Melway street directory reference for the cache is: 2S K9
UBD street directory reference for the cache is: 29 F17

Exit the station and walk east along Bunbury Street (start near the foot bridge) until your GPSr tells you to turn left; proceed to GZ and start looking.

The cache container is a 1.2L Sistema clip-top container.

The initial contents are:

Emu
No Junk Mail sign
Pack of cards
12 coloured pencils
Pool ball key ring
Purple highlighter
Karabiner
Giant jingle bell
Swiss Air Lines TB
Austin Powers TB
Clue for the Business Traveller's Cache
Log book, stash note, and pen

As always, please replace the cache exactly where you found it to discourage accidental discovery.

After you've found the cache, here are some other things you can do in the area:

• The Melbourne Museum of Printing is quite close to the cache site. It is open on Thursday and Sunday afternoons from 2 p.m. You can find more about the museum here
• Visit Footscray Market on the corner of Hopkins and Leeds Streets, opposite the railway station (S 37° 48.000, E 144° 54.070). Attractions are: fresh fruit and vegetables, clothes and shoes, variety stalls, health foods, recorded music, meat and fish. The market is open on Wednesday to Saturday.
• Vietnam on a Plate. Take a guided walking tour of the Footscray Asian precincts. Tour the Footscray Market into Asian mini supermarkets, Chinese herbalists, great cake shops, and the unique little Saigon shopping centre. Includes lunch and trip to a Buddhist temple. Tours run on Saturdays between 9.30 a.m. and 12.30 p.m. Phone (03) 9689 1186 for more details.
• Check out the Nicholson Street pedestrian mall (S 37° 48.020, E 144° 53.970). There are several "$2 junk shops" that will satisfy all your geocaching swapping needs.
• If you are a fan of Italian furniture, visit Franco Cozzo in Hopkins Street (S 37° 48.000, E 144° 54.200).
• Re-board the Williamstown train and get off at Spotswood (three stations further on). Walk east along Hudson Street to the Scienceworks Museum (S 37° 49.940, E 144° 53.550). Scienceworks is a dynamic interactive science and technology museum combining the only digital planetarium in the Southern Hemisphere, the Melbourne Planetarium. You can find more about Scienceworks here.

There are currently no other caches conveniently close to this location.