Queensland

Queensland Events During COVID:

Due to government restrictions, geocaching events in Queensland can be conditionally held. For events to be published and held, local restrictions must allow for gatherings of 80 people or more. This is allowable only at stage 3 restrictions.

From 20 Aug 2021 until 27 Aug 2021, in South-East Queensland, only 30 persons can gather in a public or private place (stage 2). Please refer to covid19.qld.gov

The rest of Queensland that is not in lockdown, or is free to have events. Please refer covid19.qld.gov

“Please keep in mind that geocaches must comply with all applicable laws, including health and safety guidelines. Event cache owners are responsible for ensuring the number of people in attendance is in accordance with any requirements or restrictions for gatherings” - Geocaching Terms of Use

If you're submitting any event, we ask that your event:

• Must be held with permission of the land owner, and
• if outdoors, restrictions must allow 80 or more persons to gather, or
• if indoors at a public location the event must be held at a venue with allowable capacity under their COVID safe plan for 80 or more people.

All events will be reviewed carefully against the most current restrictions information. This means that there may be details and changes not reflected in the broad information above. We will do our best to make events happen safely, if you reach out and ask, reviewers are here to help.

If the government reapplies restrictions on gatherings we will archive or retract events if they are no longer able to proceed. Please note: Event Owners are not permitted to turn away attendees, or otherwise restrict attendees.

Lastly, if the Queensland Government makes changes to the COVID-Safe restrictions that you feel change the requirements in this wiki, please let a local reviewer (Ministro or Jingeri) know via email or geocaching.com.

Cheers,
Ministro - Matt
Jingeri - Thomas

National Parks and State Forests

QPWS allow Geocaching in their managed areas with permission. Here is their Geocaching on QPWS managed areas operational policy.

Geocaching Activity Guidelines have also been developed to provide guidance for QPWS staff and geocachers on issues such as appropriate cache size, length of cache placement, and approval process. The policy and guidelines were modelled on those from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife to achieve some cross-border consistency.

The first step after reading these policies is to find your local ranger, should you be unsure who it is that is responsible for an area you can email the QPWS enquiry centre info@nprsr.qld.gov.au

The following flowchart describes the process your application will follow.

Key Points:

• • This policy applies to all physical geocaches. (Events require separate permission)
  • The maximum term of approval for a traditional cache to placed in a QPWS managed area is 5 years.
  • Apart from Geocoins, no other trade or trophy items (including Travel Bugs) can be placed in the cache.
  • The cache listing must contain some minimum information before it can be published.

The Tourism and Visitor Management Unit of QPWS would like to give special thanks to ruzzelz who represented the geocaching community for his input during the development of the policy and guidelines.

To find out boundaries for lands managed by QPWS you can use the Queensland Globe portal.

Application Form

Information Sheet