Some of the world's best subterranean wonders are here in Australia, right beneath our feet
From show caves for tour groups to a taste of white-knuckle, hard-hat adventure, we plunge underground to visit half a dozen of Australia’s most amazing cave locations.
 |
| Margaret Cave. |
In 1899, Western Australia’s Margaret River area wasn’t like the landscape of wineries and chocolate factories we see today. Not by a stretch.It was rough country and, while looking for wild horses, Edward Dawson discovered a hole leading into a massive cave.
Our guide explains the physical features of Ngilgi Cave and also how opera diva Dame Nellie Melba’s grand piano was lowered into it so she could perform in the Amphitheatre.A huge calcite column known as the Suspended Table is reflected in the beautiful underground lake, making this seem like wonderland at 62 meters down.Nearby Jewel Cave has 700 meters of stairs and walkways through several caverns. A large chamber of stalactites, stalagmites, helictites and shawls has features with crazy names like turkey, broccoli and frozen waterfall.
 |
| kelly hill caves |
This is one of the few dry limestone caves in Australia, created differently from normal solution caves, with direct rainfall being responsible for speleothem formation -- the technical term for stalactites and so on. Just off the South Australian coast, sports wildlife, lighthouses, seascapes, food and wine.
It is also home to Kelly Hill Caves.There are all the usual formations, including good examples of shawls, but I’m most impressed by the small, intricately beautiful helictites with stony hooks on the end.Kangaroo Island, just off the South Australian coast, sports wildlife, lighthouses, seascapes, food and wine. It is also home to Kelly Hill Caves
 |
| capricorn cave |
Just a glance at Naracoorte’s World Heritage listing is enough to grasp that the South-Australian cave system is one of unusual quality.
“The Pleistocene fossil vertebrate deposits of Victoria Fossil Cave at Naracoorte,” it says, “are considered to be ... Australia's largest and best preserved and one of the richest deposits in the world.”Here, a guide explains the accumulation of bones in the caves, excavation techniques and research.
There’s a chance to see complete skeletons of megafauna specieslike the marsupial lion and sthenurine kangaroo.
The Wonambi Fossil Centre contains fossil displays and a walk-through diorama with life-sized models of extinct animals that broaden our understanding of what life was like here 200,000 years ago.
 |
| Yarrangobilly caves |
“It makes bubbles,” the child replies eagerly.“Yes. Because the gas comes out,” the guide explains.
Our short geology lesson about solutional caves explains how rainwater mixes with carbon dioxide, seeps down from above and dissolves the rocks because of gas in the carbonated water.
Dripping from the roof of the cave, it forms stalactites, while droplets landing on the floor grow into stalagmites.Yarrangobilly Caves are off the Snowy Mountains Highway south of Tumut in New South Wales. Created from 440-million-year-old limestone, they were discovered in 1834 by a stockman.Only six of the 300 caves are open to the public and, of those, two host regular tours.
 |
| Jenolan caves |
In 1872 this became illegal thanks to local politician John Lucas, after whom one of the caves was named.
Today there’s greater awareness. As Jenolan Caves’ former general manager, Andrew Fletcher, explained when reopening the Temple of Baal cave in 2006 (it first opened to the public in 1907).
“The combination of LED track lighting and HID spotlighting ... produces only one-third of the heat of the old system,” he said. “Which is great news for the cave’s fragile environment.”
Synchronized music and sound effects have been added, creating an evocative display of that cave’s formations like the beautiful nine-meter-long Angel’s Wing shawl, one of the largest cave shawls in the world.
The Lucas, Orient, River and Ribbon Caves have all been similarly revamped, creating a stunning show cave experience for Jenolan’s 250,000 annual visitors.
Situated north of Rockhampton in Queensland, Capricorn Caves have been a tourist attraction since their discovery by Norwegian John Olsen in 1882.
This system of aboveground caves inside a limestone ridge can be experienced in different ways.
There’s a tour of the Cathedral Cave, with an optional ending through the narrow Zig Zag Passage, where visitors emerge into daylight on a swinging bridge in the rain forest.
For an educational perspective, the Geotour examines significant marine fossils encrusted on the walls and the threatened ferntectaria devexa, for which the caves are one of only two known habitats in Australia. But for something to get the adrenalin pumping, Wild Caving Adventures see participants squeezing their way through the wonderfully named Fat Man’s Misery, a 30-centimeter-diameter hole, or crawling like commandos before finally emerging on top of the ridge.
To orient yourself as we cave-hop around the country, click here to open an interactive map of the sites featured in a new window
Walang komento:
Mag-post ng isang Komento