About the Park
Wilson Botanic Park is a 100-acre botanic garden located in Berwick, Victoria, Australia.
The park is open every day of the year (except Christmas and and Good Friday, from 7am to 6pm (9pm during daylight savings) & entry to the park is free.
The area the park now occupies was a blue metal quarry, in operation between 1859 and 1976. The northern section of the current park was donated to the City of Berwick (now City of Casey) after the mining operations ceased. The southern section was later purchased by the City to establish the botanic gardens, which were officially opened in 1992.
The park has two lakes which were the former quarries, "Anniversary Lake" and "Basalt Lake" which has a sheer basalt rock face on its eastern edge and a boardwalk and bird hide on its western edge. A steep pathway leads to the Hoo Hoo Lookout Tower which has extensive views over the surrounding suburbs. Ben's Lookout also provides extensive panoramic views, as does the Directional Marker located at the highest point of the park.
Wilson Botanic Park has two fossil seams, during the operational days of the quarry many fossils were found, some more than 22 million years old. The fossils include wood, leaves and pollens of flowering plants and conifers, some of the earliest known Eucalyptus fossils were found within the park.
Facilities within the park include an information centre (open from 10-4 daily), an open-air amphitheatre, playground, education room, multiple barbecues, shelters, rotundas and toilets.
Car parking is available (free of charge) at the park entrance (enter via the bluestone gates off the Princes Highway) and the park is accessible via the Hallam Bypass Trail for cyclists and walkers. There is a bus route along the highway and the park is approx 2km from the Berwick railway station.
The park is very dog-friendly and many people often walk through the park (with or without dogs), however, cycling is not permitted within the park.
Please respect the gardens and keep to the paths, you do not need to go off the pathways (more than a few steps) to find any of the caches & do not cross into any of the fenced-off areas or attempt to go from cache to cache in a direct line as there are steep climbs and dangerous cliff-drops within the park. Keep a watch out for wildlife (including snakes) and the many birds that inhabit the park, you may even see some turtles in the lakes.
There are a number of other caches within the park that you can find while walking around the points of interest.
Cache Location Clues
At (or close to) each Waypoint (listed below) you will find a brass plaque or similar sign. Use your GPS to find the sign and then answer the question to solve the location of this cache. The information obtained will provide a clue to where the cache is located (but not coordinates), it should be possible to obtain the clues and discover the cache location on a single visit while walking around the park. The walk is approx 4-5km, all on well maintained but sometimes steep pathways.
The coordinates provided for this cache should have you standing just inside the park's main entry and near a sign showing a map of the park. While you follow your GPS around the park, check each 'Point of Interest', because the cache is located at one of them.
Q1/Waypoint 1 - Park entry
About 20m south - just inside the Park's main gates is a large brass plaque mounted on a rock.
On the plaque, what is the day of the month when the park was opened?
(Answer is a 2 digit number)
Q2/Waypoint 2 - Rotunda
Inside the Rotunda is a small brass plaque.
What is the second letter of the two-letter word on the second line?
(Answer is a single letter)
Q3/Wyapoint 3 - Playground
Adjacent to the playground is a brass plaque mounted on a rock that indicates who donated the playground to the park.
What is the last letter in the company name (before the LTD.)?
(Answer is a single letter)
Q4/Waypoint 4 - Ben's Lookout
What is the first letter of the poem inside Ben's Lookout?
(Answer is a single letter)
Q5/Waypoint 5 - Amphitheatre
A large brass plaque is mounted on a plinth at the amphitheatre.
What is the first letter in the surname of the person who provided the bequest that funded the building of the amphitheatre?
(Answer is a single letter)
Q6/Waypoint 6 - Boardwalk
A brass plaque indicates who funded the boardwalk.
What is the last letter in the second word (of three words) of who funded the boardwalk?
(Answer is a single letter)
The Cache
If you have not already worked out exactly where the cache is hidden, explore each of the other numeric 'Points of Interest' on the older version of the Park map that can be downloaded from here. The cache location should be immediately obvious once you know the clue and have visited the location in question.
The cache is now a bison attached to an appropriate cache guardian. BYO pen, and please replace the cache as you found it.
I hope you enjoyed exploring Wilson Botanic Park and had fun solving the clues and finding the cache.