A Mary MacKillop Trail with a difference

Geocaching is an outdoor treasure hunting game which is played all over the world by families and people of all ages.

Mary MacKillop in Mt Gambier

Containers (called caches) are hidden under bushes, hanging in trees, magnetised to signs, holes in walls and many other creative spots. Participants in the game, go on the internet to get clues to where the caches are hidden. Once found, they sign the logbook in the container and leave a message on the Geocaching website.

A Mary MacKillop Trail has now been set up as part of the game taking participants to significant sites of the Sisters of St Joseph. There is one hidden on Mount Street North Sydney, outside the Interpretive Centre Penola, in the parklands near the West Terrace plaque in SA, Mary MacKillop Bridge Port Adelaide, MacKillop Lane Renmark SA, near Sr Laurencia’s Grave Port Augusta SA, near the Statue at the Adelaide Cathedral, near Flora MacDonald Lodge and in close proximity to about 20 Josephite schools to name a few!

Each hide has a historical description, on the website, of Mary MacKillop and the Sisters of St Joseph’s connection to the location of the hiding place. It also gives clues to finding the cache (usually longitude and latitude co-ordinates – a GPS is needed!). Finders can also collect a Mary MacKillop card or bookmark from the cache.

People in the game, from all over the world, have left messages on the website indicating that they have found the cache and appreciated the History lesson, learning more about Mary MacKillop…

• My primary education was courtesy of the "Joies" as we called them. Thanks for the hide dedicated to a truly great Australian
• Thanks for honouring a great lady of faith and action.
• More history and a cache. Its important for all to see what wonderful work this saintly lady did.
• Thanks for hiding a cache in memory of Mary MacKillop. Mary has a special significance - My son Dion died on August 8th - the same date as Mary. She sure was an amazing woman, My youngest daughter saw the bookmark you left there with Mary McKillop and got all excited cos she knows how she lost her eldest brother on the 8th August and that is Mary's day as well.

So, if you love orienteering, puzzle solving and treasure hunting – go on the website and find some caches. There are 2.5 million caches hidden around the world with 5 million people looking for them!

The game also has an activity called “Travel Bugs”. …….
A Mary MacKillop keyring, with a message “take me on a pilgrimage to North Sydney” was hidden in one of the SA caches. It has now been found, and that person took it to Mount Lofty (see photo) and left it in a cache for someone else to pick up (and learn about Mary MacKillop). This continues on, with people finding and hiding the keyring. It was last sighted in Mount Gambier!

Finders of the keyring leave messages and photos on the website as a bit of a diary of “Marys” travels. So far she has travelled 300km and there is a map of her travels on the website.

SO….. another way to make Mary MacKillop and the Sisters known to the “adventurous” !