This will be the first time a mega geocaching event has been held in the Rutherglen region, with the five-day experience slated to draw in more than 1,500 attendees, on top of regular Easter tourism numbers.
Geocaching is an outdoor recreational activity where players use GPS-enabled devices like phones and tablets to navigate towards and uncover hidden ‘containers’, hidden across the world.
Currently, Indigo Shire has the highest number of containers in Victoria with over 800 currently installed and more to come. Some can be found in just a few hours, while others may take specialist equipment and many hours of determination to solve.
At Indigo Shire’s monthly council meeting last Tuesday, council unanimously agreed to support the event by providing $6,000 worth of funding to Geocaching Victoria (GVI) who will stage the event from Thursday, April 6 to Monday, April 10, 2023.
Council’s investment will be used to assist Geocaching Victoria to organise the MEGA event at the Rutherglen Showgrounds and promote the MEGA Event to local people and businesses in the lead up to the event.
With a similar event held in Wangaratta earlier this year, it is estimated the average spend per team would be $255 per day, equating to approximately $780,000 in economic output. This direct investment includes expenditure on accommodation, meals, entertainment and retail shopping while visitors are in the township, demonstrating a significant return on council’s investment.
Councillor Peter Croucher said it was an “exciting event which will no doubt bring more tourists to the town and economically assist Rutherglen”.
Councillor Emmerick Tiessl was pleased Indigo Shire was picked to hold the “high tech treasure hunt” event.
“I think it shows how diverse the events that come to Indigo Shire are, and how appealing we are to people outside of here,” he said.
“We have large open areas, nice venues and there is variety in bushland, tracks and roads which will all help for this event.”
Councillor Roberta Horne said it will be interesting to see how the event shapes up.
“It’s an international event that has been going on for some time and it has quite a following. We look forward to inviting lots of people to our town,” she said.
Early indications on the Rutherglen mega event website shows over 200 international visitors have registered an interest in attending. However, the event is not limited to geocachers with the entire community encouraged to participate in the free event.
Destination Rutherglen, who are involved in the organisation of the event, said there would be an increase in visitation in the area in the months leading up to the event and after the event.
“Destination Rutherglen will work with GVI to coordinate event show bags for all attendees, promoting offers from local businesses and touring options and opportunities shire-wide,” their report to council read.
“Having camping accommodation at Rutherglen Showgrounds will ensure that attendees are able to walk into town and spend locally.
“Many local clubs and organisations will directly benefit from the mega event via income generation. Local sports clubs, Lions and Rotary will have the opportunity to provide breakfasts/lunches/dinners as part of the daily activities. This will mean income generated will have a positive impact in various parts of Rutherglen's local community.
“There are also many physical health benefits as geocaching is an all-ages activity. It promotes exercise at your own pace and is a non-structured past time in that there are no set hours for training or actual games to play.
Geocaching Victoria is seeking to increase the uptake of geocaching in the Rutherglen community by providing four ‘Geocaching 101’ classes between November 2022 and April 2023, with the town positioned to be an ongoing geocaching site in the future.
