Brisbane G20 Summit 14-16 November 2014

[+Pprime (P`)]

The G20 Leaders Summit is a Commonwealth led event being held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Southbank on November 15th and 16th, 2014.

The G20 is the most significant meeting of world leaders ever to be hosted in Australia, bringing together 26 World Leaders, 7 internationally protected persons and 4000 delegates over two days.

The eyes of the world will be clearly focused on Brisbane during this period with 3000 international media in Brisbane reporting on the G20 Leaders Summit.

The security operation around this event is the most significant seen in Australia’s history and will have entailed two years of planning from a QPS perspective, by the time the world leaders arrive. In excess of 5000 police officers from Queensland, interstate and NZ will provide security for the leaders, delegates and community within the declared and restricted areas. http://www.police.qld.gov.au/Resources/Internet/g20/documents/G20_Declared_Area_Bne_A0P_v4.pdf

As part of the delivery of the G20 Leaders’ Summit parts of South Brisbane and the CBD can expect some impact on local facilities in order to ensure a safe and secure environment.

 

Representatives of the Brisbane Geocaching Community have held briefings with the G20 Control Group in the QLD Police Service to ensure that geocaching is known to them, and to help prevent geocaching activities, or the discovery of containers, from causing unnecessary concerns to the security of delegates or the general public.

Geocaching listing requirements and guidelines do state clearly that geocaches must not be placed in restricted, prohibited or otherwise inappropriate places. Caches should not be located in places which could cause public alarm.

 

Accordingly, it has been agreed that by first week of October all geocache containers located within the Declared area will be physically removed (by you please), listings disabled and a message placed on their pages discouraging geocachers from searching for them. This will be a temporary measure until after the Summit is finished only.

 

It is still 3 months off and I will broadcast more information as we go along. Right at this moment I just need to get ‘the word’ out. More details on the Response Plan, affected players/caches, other measures and broader communications will follow. I am your community point of contact and I especially wish to acknowledge the assistance from Ministro and from Ruzzelz who will both continue to assist as needed. I will be in personal contact over the next month to those with containers located in the Restricted areas, and those with containers in or near the Declared Area to discuss what we would like them to do.

 

I ask that requests to rebroadcast this message are coordinated through me please, so I can keep track of the message spread and to retain a consistent content. Next month the focus will shift to those thinking of visiting Brisbane in October or November - there will be no caches to hunt in the CBD. I am contactable through facebook, geocaching.com, this forum, email or in person if you are a local.

 

Happy caching, thanks for reading.

 

(1) This message will be replicated to Brisbane-based social media and forums.

Edited August 15, 2014 by Pprime (P`)

[+Pprime (P`)]

http://www.police.qld.gov.au/Resources/Internet/g20/documents/G20_Declared_Area_Bne_A0P_v4.pdf

[+caughtatwork]

Accordingly, it has been agreed that by first week of October all geocache containers located within the Declared area will be physically removed (by you please), listings disabled and a message placed on their pages discouraging geocachers from searching for them. This will be a temporary measure until after the Summit is finished only.

Agreed by who? It's a bit presumptuous for a group to agree on behalf of the entire community as to what they will do with their geocaches. What happens to people who don't read a forum and who have no idea that they've agreed to something they didn't agree with? While this doesn't personally impact me or any of my geocaches, I think it important to understand with what authorities this was agreed.

[+Pprime (P`)]

All questions are good. In this case it is an agreement between QLD Police Service and Groundspeak Inc to be enacted by an undefined collection of interested people that can call themselves the "Geocaching Community of Brisbane". Almost all affected COs are already involved, with only a couple of others either uncontacted or unable to participate in the timeframes requested. I really just posted here in order to start raising awareness of this pending event of unprecedented proportions, and if you like 'fire the starting gun' for three months of communications.

 

This forum is indeed not the only form of communication, there are social media posts already (and much discussion there - all positive as noone wishes to see negative publicity), as well as shortly a series of targetted emails. Assistance will be available to all who require it.

 

Beyond that, in the future, I will be seeking to broadcast a more general request for geocachers not to go looking in the Brisbane CBD during October or November. Plenty of other places to go, but for a little while there'll be nothing to hunt in this Declared area.

[+caughtatwork]

As Groundspeak cannot speak for other listing sites, yes, the message needs to go far and wide as Groundspeak can only speak for listings contained on their site. I wonder if the QLD Police Service understand that the agreement they have with Groundspeak is non-binding (or even completely unknown) against other listing sites?

[Keystone]

Hello,

 

Please ask a Geocaching HQ Lackey or one of the fine Australian Volunteer Cache Reviewers to post here in order to validate your request. Thanks.

[+Crew 153]

As a local to the Brisbane area I am glad to see that Pprime has taken the role of coordinating the local geocaching community so that the chances of negative publicity on geocaching is minimised during this time of heightened security in the area.

[+jonut73]

I had been wondering what would happen during the G20.

 

I work in the city in the restricted area and, from what we have been told, there are going to be a LOT of security forces everywhere who will probably "act first and ask questions later". For example, we were told that walking along the footpath with a simple carton of eggs would probably result in being stopped and searched (because apparently carrying a single boxed item is suspicious). So I can just imagine what might happen to someone trying to seem inconspicuous while looking for a cache.

 

So yeah, I think its a good idea to remove the caches or suspend them just for that period of time.

 

Oh...hi BTW. This is my first post

[+Pprime (P`)]

In 6 week’s time Brisbane Australia will host the G20 Leaders Summit. With around 4000 delegates, including 35 internationally protected persons, the same number again of media representatives, at least that in Police, and an unknown number of Defence Force personnel and protesters descending on the CBD and Southbank, security levels, and paranoia, will be at the most extreme. An International incident that involves a Geocache, or a Geocacher is not in the interests of our game.

The local community, have been preparing, and in conjunction with the G20 Police Response Group have chosen to PHYSICALLY REMOVE and DISABLE all geocaches within the G20 Declared Area. http://www.police.qld.gov.au/G20/Documents/G20_Declared_Area_Bne_A0P_v4.pdf The last few will be gone within the next two weeks – and will not return until after the summit is completed in late November.

If you are planning a trip to Brisbane between now and then, please know that caching in the city will shortly not be possible. If you are coming to town to watch the pageantry, or to protest, please know that there will be no geocaches to grab along the march.

The rest of Brisbane and the surrounding areas are most certainly open for geocaching, and there are many lovely places to visit and amazing caches to find – you are most welcome. And please come back, afterwards. Brisbane city and Southbank caching will return to normal by the end of November.