Troglodyte is the magazine of the Northern Caverneers Inc. Editor: Cathie Plowman

PO Box 315 Launceston Tasmania 7250 caves@northerncaverneers.com

Volume 23 Issue 2 December 2013

Sarah Gilbert and Jill Bennett ready to survey Cyclops Cave. Photo: Cathie Plowman

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Thanks to Paula and John Barrass for hosting the NC Christmas barbecue. I was sleeping between night shifts, but it sounds like a lovely evening with plenty of cicadas for company.

Welcome back to Tasmania to Steve Jacobs who has been on the mainland for most of the 2013, hav-ing a varied life involving leading outdoor recreation programs for St Kevin’s College, Melbourne, guiding on the Larapinta Trail in the Northern Territory and watching the Australian cricket team. Ste-ve was underground with NC within a week of his return and we look forward to more of his company over the summer.

Welcome to Matt McClean and Zac Healy who are joining the club. Both the guys have a background in emergency service work and bushwalking and work in the Emergency Department at the Launceston General Hospital.

Nic Haygarth has moved his weekend recreational focus from poking about old mining tunnels to pho-tographing waterfalls.

A flood in the Van Nynanten garage hastened the planned move of the NC archives from Paul’s care to Jill’s. When the school year has ended, Jill plans to sort, scan and re-organise the club archives and bring material together. If you have something that might be relevant to the club archives, you might like to scan and send to Jill as well. There will be updates on this project as things progress.

The teachers in NC are worn out, with both Jill and Jessica looking forward to a break from reports, planning, meetings and audits over the summer.

Janice continues to coordinate the search and rescue training and liaison for NC, attending the meet-ings for relevant community groups convened by Tasmania Police, and staying in touch with other clubs and SES personnel. The next event is planned for March 2014.

The March family are off to Japan for a Christmas skiing sojourn. ‘It will be great to have some really cold weather’ says Janice.

Finally, I’ve been working on a book on glowworms for several years. Living Lights: the Glowworms of Australia and New Zealand will be on sale in late December. Recommended retail price is $15.00. Thanks to everyone in NC who has ever been in a cave with glowworms with me as all those experi-ences contributed to my inspiration for the project. (And even better still, I’m not doing any routine shift-work or weekend work after 3 February 2014!)

Soil Cone ....................................................................................................... 2 Parks and Wildlife Service update ................ Cathie Plowman..................... 3 Mole Creek surveying workshop .................. Janice March .......................... 3 Cave surveying and mapping ........................ Cathie Plowman..................... 4 Baldocks Cave survey exercise ..................... Henry Shannon ...................... 4 Surveying Black Shawl–Pyramid ................ David Wools-Cobb ................ 5 Bullita 2013 .................................................. David Wools-Cobb ................ 6 IUSS conference, Brno, Czech Republic ...... Cathie Plowman..................... 9 Karst Care report - Gunns Plains Cave ......... David Wools-Cobb .............. 13 - Gunns Plains tree planting .... Cathie Plowman................... 14 - Kubla rubbish removal .......... Cathie Plowman................... 15 Membership list ........................................................................................... 16

Contents:

Season’s Greetings

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Parks and Wildlife Service update Cathie Plowman

Thankfully we have had a good resolution re access to the Baldocks road. But not a lot else has happened. The three senior PWS managers that we have spoken with all agree that user-group involvement in decision making and management is the PWS preferred manner of operating. Yet progress on developing a true community partnership with the caving community remains slow. However, we continue to communicate with the relevant managers and remain hopeful of some positive outcomes in the future.

The World Heritage Area management plan is currently being reviewed and a new plan will be finalised in 2014. There have been extensive additions to the WHA with the Tasmanian Forests Agreement Act, 2013 and much of the Mole Creek Karst National Park is now in the WHA.

Mole Creek Surveying Workshop Janice March

16 and 17 November 2013 Participants: NC: Jessica Bayles, Jill Bennett, David Butler, Janice March, Cathie Plowman and Henry Shannon. STC: Sarah Gilbert, Alan Jackson, Janine McKinnon, Jane Pulford, Ric Tunney and Tony Veness. Rolan Eberhard (DPIPWE) and, above-ground, Cameron Brooke and Linda Overend (PWS) DPIPWE Karst Officer, Rolan Eberhard organised a day of training for cavers interested in learning to survey or wanting to improve their skills. This was on the Saturday, followed by a well overdue meeting re Kubla Khan management on Sunday morning. We were based at the PWS house at King Solomons Cave where we all stayed inside (except for Ric and Janine), although the weather was glorious that weekend. A meaty barbecue for Saturday dinner and Sunday lunch were provided by PWS and ably cooked by Mole Creek ranger Cameron Brooke.

I have somehow managed to avoid doing much surveying before now (two trips in 20 years) and realised that it was a necessary skill, and that it might be easier to master and do more efficiently with modern technology like Disto and computer software to help.

Rolan facilitated an introductory session at the King Solomons house where he explained the need for a more comprehensive set of cave surveys of the Mole Creek caves, especially the ones in the national park. Why, for better in-cave management, for future exploration and for search and rescue purposes, decent cave maps are essential. We all agreed.

Janice, Tony and David doing serious data entering. Photo: Cathie Plowman

Some people aren’t a help.

Photo: Cathie Plowman

Surveying

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There are some good examples of Mole Creek caves with decent maps. However, many caves have been surveyed but not drawn up or partly surveyed and the data or drawings lost because of cavers not archiving widely enough, or maps are unavailable due to secrecy, carelessness or cavers losing interest in their project.

Alan, Sarah, Jane and Tony came up from Hobart to train us, so we split into four small groups and did a bit of surveying for the rest of the day in Haile Selassie, Cyclops, Baldocks and Devils Earhole. The experienced STC team mentored us and promised to be there for us when we needed help plotting it all on Compass, the most commonly used software—in fact, we spent a fair chunk of the evening entering data into laptops. But I have discovered now that the data entry is the easy part, getting it onto paper might be a bit trickier.

My day was spent with Alan (our mentor) and Janine who was learning ‘book’ i.e. drawing the cave and recording the data (distance, angle, inclination and LRUDs). We did some practice around the garden to check we knew how to read a compass and clinometer and that our lights, spectacles and other gear were not interfering with readings magnetically.

We headed down the track to Haile Selassie and rigged the ladder on the six metre pitch while Janine started drawing and I did the instruments. The cave is mostly down-climbable and has a lot of decoration and plenty of side passages to keep the scouts busy while Janine mused over the problem of how a three-dimensional cave goes onto a two-dimensional format. Alan thought I had done my apprenticeship of instruments after six stations and gave me a piece of graph paper too but, oh dear, where to start! Curved lines began to appear on the page and my pencil work soon became more confident as I familiarised myself with my chosen scale: 2 metres:1 centimetre.

It was a very pleasant way to spend the afternoon drawing while Alan pointed his Disto X in any direction to help get accurate heights and lengths of chambers. There were three main chambers and we left pink tape at each of 23 stations, so we can go in again soon and check all the smaller side passages.

The club now has two copies of the course notes from the Bungonia Cave Mapping for Beginners work-shop which was organised by Hills SC and Highland CG from NSW in October 2012. These are highly informative and give basic instructions on the use of Compass software.

Ed: Janice took to drawing like a duck to water and with excellent results. I wish I were so promising.

Cave Surveying and Mapping Cathie Plowman

Janice has written a good article on the current efforts, spear-headed by Rolan Eberhard (DPIPWE) to increase the survey and mapping skills and efforts in NC. Thanks Rolan. NC currently has active surveying happening in the four caves Janice mentioned. In addition, David Wools-Cobb will be leading a survey of the Black Shawl–Pyramid system in January.

Rolan has also instigated the surveying and mapping of Kubla Khan, a project that will be coordinated by Alan Jackson (STC) over the coming months.

Baldocks Cave Survey Exercise Henry Shannon

16 November 2013 Party: David Butler, Henry Shannon, Ric Tunney, Tony Veness With the idea behind this trip being to train up a new generation of surveyors, this meant I took a back seat while David Butler was being expected to operate outside of his comfort zone by doing bookwork. Ideally the sketching should also be done but as this is considered to be an ongoing project it will be possible to do traverse work first then come back with it plotted up to do the detail later. This sort of lazy man’s approach was partly forced on us by the slow pace of a learner’s efforts on detail work in passage with lots of detail; far from the best way to start. I noticed the care taken to make the survey stations re-locatable, which is essential when doing this trick.

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There is the point that drawing up in cave conditions presents problems. I find that adjusting for a sight can be done by using the graph paper squares: corner to corner gives 45°, with two squares abutting bottom corner to top corner of the second square gives to 30º and 60º angles. I can visually split to get thirds and halves of these known arcs which gets you to 10º and some 5º line angles and I then interpolate to get down to 1º near enough. I do distance measurements using the pencil and thumb against the scale drawn at the outset on the page margin. To adjust for a sloping sight I draw out the line at the correct declination then drop a perpendicular to get the horizontal component.

When a new sight has to start from an awkward position on the page, I draw the angle line starting from a close-to big grid square then draw the traverse line parallel to it.

Suunto compasses have a problem with the card sticking if aimed at all far off the horizontal and need care to be sure the compass card moves freely, and check you are counting the right way from the 10s you are using. For steep sights I improvise a plumb-bob I can line up with the target then sight across to the cord not the station.

Where there is a magnetic problem like iron stanchions on electrical fittings, remember that each station will have its own magnetic north, so use foresight-backsight with care particularly with locating the stations and attribute the difference to the turning of the compass card. Say foresight from a magnetically safe area is 180º, so you would ordinarily expect the backsight to be 0º but you get 4º, consistently. So it is the card that has changed so true 0º shows as 4º. The next sight forward is say 154º but this needs to be adjusted to 150º when plotting up and so on.

There were remarks made as to the need to have backups of the survey data. So I got the old computers out and got readouts of what is extractable from hard disc. No survey data except for King Solomons. Rosie however has backup discs that cover most but not all of the Marakoopa stuff.

Surveying Black Shawl–Pyramid Cave System David Wools-Cobb

Plans are well advanced to survey the Blackshawl–Pyramid cave system. This was part of a project given to Karstcare some three years ago, or longer, but waiting for decisions from the Parks and Wildlife Service requires patience and more.

I am hosting a number of mainland visitors for a week of work and fun caving and four-wheel driving and hope to complete most of the survey during their visit.

The cave survey will commence on Saturday 11 January there will be a number of trips over the following few days. NC members are welcome to join in: either for the fun trips or to assist with the survey. There will be a number of permit trips to other caves, however my top priority will be the survey of Blackshawl.

The visiting group are made up of very experienced surveyors who have worked on expeditions all over mainland Australia. Come along to learn more or have some fun.

All surveyors must be members of Wildcare.

The culmination of the week will be a four-wheel drive trip to Montezuma Falls and the Pieman Heads and we have room for a few more if you’re keen.

Please contact David W-C if interested.

Tony and David in Baldocks Cave. Photo: Henry Shannon

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Bullita 2013 David Wools-Cobb

Most winters I try to head ‘somewhere north’ and this year it was back to the Judbarra/Gregory National Park, Northern Territory, famous for the Bullita Cave System (about 115km and still going).

I took the usual five day drive up the Stuart Highway, visiting friends in Adelaide and Alice Springs along the way, collecting Garry Smith (Newcastle–Hunter Valley Speleological Society) at Alice Springs, to meet most of the group in Katherine.

One memorable night, just off the highway it was so cold that condensation froze in the tent. An extra doona that Joy had thrown into the Cruiser was extremely appreciated.

This year’s expedition involved cavers from all over the country, with 10 staying near the Parks main head-quarters and five camping out near the Spring Creek area. Much planning goes into these expeditions, particularly regarding the food, as with considerable isolation, you can’t get too many things wrong before the expedition becomes a failure.

My group consisted of Kevin Moore, Phil Maynard, Alan and Megan Pryke and myself.

My job this year was to raid the butcher in Katherine, to collect a pre-order of cryovaced meat. A nice friendly guy, but he needs to understand that boneless chicken should not be more bone than meat! It takes considerable time to load the pre-order of groceries for each camp at the local Woolworths, but we managed to leave about mid-morning, arriving at the Visitors Overnight Quarters (VOQ) of the park mid-afternoon. Unfortunately, the main camp left some of their food in our hired Toyota Troopie, causing major stresses for some days until they could retrieve it. As my group of five at the isolated camp could only keep a limited amount of meat cold, it was arranged to meet up every few days, cave together and collect more meat.

It took about 2½ hours of four-wheel driving to reach Spring Creek Yards, with the East Baines River completely dry at the crossing (I’ve never seen it that low). We had reports that there was no water at the site we were planning to camp, so bashed our way through the bush to a site used several years previously just south of the Spring Creek Yards. The campsite was a great spot, on a rocky sand bank alongside a billabong, which may or may not have crocodiles in it!

I managed to hit a large rock quite badly on the drive in, but no obvious damage except a few missing bolts on the bash-plate.

We set up a big gazebo for food storage (shade is a premium), and the solar cells to keep my fridge going, and a shower system off a pulley up a tree.

Alan Pryke bragged that last year’s gas cylinder had done fantastically—ran the fridge and gas stove for the whole two weeks. A day and a half later our fridge ran out of gas and Alan admitted he hadn’t bothered to re-fill it! That left us down to my 50l Waco…and there was no way my beer was going to be warm!

We had a satellite phone to maintain contact with the other group—however we’d been given the wrong number, so they could not contact us and for some reason we couldn’t leave a message for them! Bob Kershaw came out to rescue the other group’s food and managed to mangle a tyre for his troubles. The

Mainland travels

Phil Maynard and Kevin Morgan in Prometheus Cave. Photo: David Wools-Cobb

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tracks in the area are pretty rough, in fact in some places almost non-existent, with some nasty rocky sections.

Our group’s main focus was on BAA112–Prometheus Cave, a 10 minute drive and 1 hour’s walk from our camp. Each day we’d set out quite early to avoid the day’s heat, and meet at 1700 for the 3½ walk each way. I believe it would have been in the high 30°s during the day on the surface, underground was about 20°–22°, tee-shirt & shorts caving!

Prometheus Cave had been found relatively recently and had been joined in with the main cave system of the area in the previous year. Alan Pryke had put in considerable work producing a base map with what was known from previous surveying. There were question marks everywhere; it was our job to fill in the rest of the known karst, hopefully with cave.

My first day’s surveying was pretty exciting, as it was a new cave to me, and we found lots of new areas, including a passage that kept going and going, with many side leads heading off some distance before lucking out. With so many ‘heads’ to knock off we called it the Hydra. All too often this passage looked like it would head towards another known cave in the area, but unfortunately it didn’t make it by only 20 metres.

On my second day we discovered the Block Room, a huge (60 metre x 25 metre) chamber formed by a big flat block collapsing from the ceiling, with leads off everywhere. One in particular went to the Antigravity Room, a large expanse with only a few small blocks keeping the ceiling up. We were to return here several times to close down all leads.

All surveying was done with Disto X, which for those who don’t know is an old superseded laser Disto with a special board soldered in the give it functionality for clinometre and compass (with the ability to blue-tooth to a PDA if your are keen).

As a break from Prometheus Cave, I spent a day in the southern karst area at Atlantis Cave which has large passages in a maze system, all at one level.

Two other days were spent in the southern karst dropping down a 50 foot ladder (BAA29), trying to get a cave that Peter Freeman had found, to join up with the main system. Some of this surveying was quite grovelly and uncomfortable. Fortunately on our second visit we managed to join an open grike of this cave with another known cave nearby, sort-off joining the system.

I spent another day in Spring Creek ‘proper’ surveying Fawlty Towers Cave and between our two survey parties we more than doubled the size of the known cave. This area required a four kilometre walk each way from where we could drive the Troopie, It was incredibly hot, however being many kilometres from our camp we needed to walk in the day to allow time to drive back before dark. The countryside is quite spectacular, with

Alan and Megan Pryke in Prometheus Cave. Photo: David Wools-Cobb

Fig tree rots in Prometheus Cave. Photo: David Wools-Cobb

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limestone bluffs everywhere, boab trees and great colouring in the late afternoon.

Each evening we would have a routine, while some broke out the beer, gin and tonic and nibbles, others would shower (black bags work very well up there). After dinner we would check our survey data, enter into a lap top computer and try to find any errors.

A highlight one evening was big snake crawling through camp right by our dining table, heading for the water.

As I needed to leave a day before the rest of my group, on my final day I arranged to meet the other group for more caving in the southern karst. This involved driving ‘the jump ups’ by myself, with no spotter available as a guide. It was daunting, with several additional rock packing efforts to protect my precious Cruiser, but no problems.

This day I was surveying with Bob Kershaw and Peter Freeman. Bob was keen to relocate a cave he had found a couple of years ago and after a torturous route we managed to relocate it, only to discover it was the same cave we had found (from a different direction) a few days previously. We still managed to add several hundred metres of survey, but unfortunately did not discover any ‘bounding passages’.

Back to the VOQ that evening for a meal, and then next day Garry and I headed off back to civilisation.

The rules of Parks and Wildlife Service, Northern Territory preclude me publishing any definitive details without formal permission, however I know our group added several thousand metres of survey; I believe to a good standard. It was fun, hot, sometimes pretty grovelly but enjoyable work.

I dropped Garry off at Alice Springs airport, collected my wife Joy, ready to drive back to Tassie via the Simpson Desert…and that’s another story.

Kevin Morgan in Prometheus Cave. Photo: David Wools-Cobb

Mystery photo: David Wools-Cobb has supplied the above photo for people to try and guess where it was taken and at what time of day. David. might even supply a prize!

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Overseas travels

International Union of Speleology Conference, Brno, Czech Republic Cathie Plowman

Brno is in southern Czech and the capital of the province of Moravia. The conference was held in late July and David B and I were part of an Australian group of 27, including seven Tasmanians.

We arrived in Europe in mid-June and enjoyed walking in the Swiss mountains, car touring and walking in Slovenia and a five day trip in Croatia, including the spectacular karst of the Plitvice Lakes and the Velabit Mountains before the conference activities began.

There was an array of options for pre and post conference excursions. We were spoilt for choice but had opted for a pre-conference trip in the Dinaric karst of Slovenia and a post-conference entitled: Karst, Caves and Caving in Slovakia. Both were excellent and we cannot compliment the leaders enough.

The Slovenian excursion was based at an outdoor education camp near Postojna. The energetic leaders had arranged a terrific program and some highlights were:

Kebe Museum. This small family-operated museum has a model that shows the annual filling and draining of the Cerknika karst polje with the theme ‘ the lake is here, now it isn’t’. It took three years for the father of the family to build this ‘live’ model, which fills with water during the commentary and then drains away to reveal the summer pasture lands. The model has five language options and the interpretation at this small museum would rank amongst the best that you would find in a national park in Australia. Certainly, I’ve never seen karst interpreted this skillfully and effectively.

Postojna Cave. It was mind-blowing. You travel 1.7 kilometres into the cave by train. The cave is really five caves, with over 21 kilometres of passage, some linked up

by tunnels built by prisoners-of-war. It didn’t take long for us to realise that there are strong military links with the caves in the areas we visited. They have been used as munitions stores, under-ground barracks and extensive tunnels have been built to move armies underground.

Learning about karst from the experts. Slovenia is about 100 kilometres by 200 kilometres in area, and is 44% karst. There are over 10 000 documented caves and subsequently a high level of interest in exploring and studying the karst. Our leaders had a wealth of knowledge and we looked at numerous blind valleys, unroofed caves, poljes and caves. Inside the caves we were shown evidence of extinct cave bears, tourism and cultural developments as well as many solutional features. Europe’s oldest show cave is

Vilenica Cave which has operated since 1633. Many of the show caves we visited in Slovenia and Slovakia are operated under lease by local speleological societies who are responsible for maintaining infrastructure. Opening schedules depend on the season and patronage, from tours several times per day, to perhaps on just a couple of days per week.

Skocjansje Jame. The scale of this cave was difficult to comprehend. It is just 5.8 kilometres in length, but the large chambers are spectacular. The Reka River drops 127 metres on its journey through the cave. Exploration history dates back to the 1820s and tourism to 1884. Quite rightly, this magnificent cave is on the World Heritage List and the Slovenian authorities are working to have the greater area of the Dinaric Karst added to the List.

Polje model, Kebe Museum.

Sign advertising Postojna Cave.

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Labodnica Cave. This cave is just inside the Italian border. At -329 metres, it was the deepest known cave on Earth for over 70 years. Access to the Reka River (for its water) caused the cave to be developed with a fixed ladder system, still in use today to access the bottom of the cave. Not your usual show cave trip, but show caves options are very varied in this part of the world.

The conference proper followed the Slovenian trip. It commenced on the Czech National Day (21 July) and it was quite a privilege to be one of over 1100 people from 61 countries. Our hosts welcomed us with traditional music, dancing and costumes. It was beautiful and, being very hot, a lot of Czech beer was enjoyed.

The following six days were packed with presentations, posters, field trips, excellent photography presentations as well as meetings for committees etc. You could only attend a small portion of what was being offered. I was part of a team that included Tim Moulds and Mike Lake who judged the poster exhibition for a prize. I was delighted that Tim, Mike and I went about the judging separately and with different methods, but still came up with the same short-list of posters for the prize. Very satisfying.

The conference field trip that David and I attended was to the Sloupsko–Sosuvske Caves. Besides this system including the first cave chamber in the world to use electric lighting (in 1881), the archaeological story was stunning. Stone tools have been dated at 120 000 years BP. People who hunted mammoth inhabited the cave 22 000 years ago, and people who hunted reindeer and horses 10 000–13 000 years ago. I was bemused that there was an in-cave sports-court where nurses apparently bring children with asthma to increase respiratory stamina. (I continue to wonder if this is evidence-based treatment.)

In this very tiny summary about the conference, I must mention that it was very hot. Also, ASF stalwart and long-time treasurer Grace Matts celebrated her 78th birthday during the week.

To Slovakia. A hot night on a train, most of it stationary in a shunting yard, and we arrived in Liptovksy Mikulus to be greeted by the excursion leaders. There were three post-conference excursions in Slovakia. Ours had seven participants and two wonderful leaders. Again, the next week included many, many experiences of caves, mountains, friendship and culture. Here are just a few details…

Demanovska Cave of Liberty. This might just be the most beautiful show cave I have ever seen. Many caves are beautiful, but this was so extensive and had so many exquisite speleothems including extensive calcite rafts and tiny cave pearls. However, we had the advantage of having our own leaders and able to go on the extensive network of paths, some

Cathie descending to –329m in Labodnica Cave.

Group photo of conference delegates. Photo: Conference committee

Pavel Herich and Lukas Vlcek our Slovakian excursion leaders with David.

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not used for regular tours. We spent over 3½ hours in the cave, whereas the usual tour time is about 1½ hours. Also, we were a party of nine, whereas the tour parties we saw had 60-80 people in them. The cave was absolutely fantastic, but I wondered about the experience the regular visitor would get. We were treated as VIPs. The beauty of the cave was marred with lamponflora and lots of black speckles of lint on the formations. There didn’t seem to be a cleaning program, just scores of visitors to ‘pump through’. Also, another management issue gained momentum in my brain: the practice of throwing coins into pools of water. There were precious and delicate pools with small pearls disfigured by coins that had been thrown in. I plan to follow up on this human behaviour and hope-fully present on it at the upcoming International Show Caves Association conference (Jenolan, November 2014)

and perhaps generate some discussions and management options on this practice. (And I’d appreciate any photos of tossed coins from caves, fountains, pools etc.)

Demanovska Ice Cave. This was a new cave experience for David and I. The freezing temperature of the cave causes the water the freeze, resulting in ice flows and ‘speleothems’. Over 2000 people visit the cave a day. Again, due to our VIP treatment, our leaders were able to give us a private tour. Ice worldwide is suffering from climate change and in this cave the features are slowly abating. Large quantities of snow are pumped into the cave each winter the help maintain the cold temperatures, ice features and tourist resource.

The Cave of the Dead Bats. This cave is on Dunbier Mountain in the Low Tatra Mountains. It is at 1520 metres ASL. The cave is named for the skeletons of dead bats that were found in the cave after 1977. The bats remains were dated at between 6000 and 4000 years BP, and from a species that no longer existed. The cave seasonally fills with ice and the average temperature is 1° C. This too is a show cave, operated by a

speleological society, with the staff living in a small hut that is also the tour base, change room etc.

Ochtinska Aragonite Cave. We saw this cave on the second last day of our excursion. It is memorable for the fantastic aragonite features, the sizzling heat of the day and the difficult nature of the manager. The cave is adjacent to a large magnesium mine and was discovered as part of mining operations. Apparently much formation was damaged by miners who did not realise how important it was. Today the cave is on the World Heritage List as part of a join Hungarian-Slovak site. After we left the cave, we retreated into an air-conditioned resort for lunch. This is apparently operated by the trade union as a holiday resort for the miners working at the adjacent site.

Krasnohorska Cave. Unbelievably the trip just got better and better. After the above cave and lunch, we travelled a little further to a village with the name of this cave. The name itself means ‘beautiful mountain’ which describes an adjacent hill which has a magnificent castle atop it. The castle was extensively damaged by fire in recent years (apparently associated with children and matches) and it was certainly apparent that the Slovakian people were heart-broken. Reconstruction works are underway, but many irreplaceable documents and treasures were lost. Anyway, back to the cave. We left from the pension where we were staying and which hosts the cave office. We made our way across the village, sweltering in caving gear, as wedding guests arrived in their finery for an evening wedding at the same pension. We were very close to the Hungarian border, the people were ethnically Hungarian and do not speak Slovak. The cave is part of

Unusual way to attract visitors to a cave, Stanisovska Cave.

Cathie in Demanovska Ice Cave.

Hut over entrance of Cave of the Dead Bats.

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the Hungarian-Slovak World Heritage site (quite an extensive area). The cave was about two kilometres in length and while it was nice, it didn’t seem extraordinary, until we reached the end. There was a little lake tucked away with marvellous reflections. And there was more, we had walked past a ladder on our way in and en route out, climbed up it. Here was a giant column right in front of us. At 34 metres, it was once in the Guinness Book of Records. We sat spellbound in front of it for about 15 minutes, before dragging ourselves away from it and back to the pension where wedding music, dancing and merriment lasted throughout the hot night.

In conclusion, we would highly recommend visiting these countries if you get a chance. The leaders and experiences were exceptional. Since arriving home we have written to the Slovenian, Czech and Slovakian national speleological societies to acknowledge and thank the leaders and organisers for their wonderful efforts.

Lunch provided by the local caving club featuring borscht cooked on the open fire, to be eaten before going caving. Plenty of beer served too.

Lukas descending Stary hrad Cave.

Cathie, Marjorie Coggan and Lukas Vlcek at entrance to Michnova Cave.

Cave dig using excavator.

Cathie on wire bridge in Krasnohorska Cave.

Photos: Cathie Plowman and David Butler

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Gunns Plains Cave David Wools-Cobb

16 June 2013

Party: NC/Karstcare: Paula Barrass, Paul and Jean Van Nynanten, David Wools-Cobb, Other Karstcare: Julie and Rodney Gale, Kevin Higgins. Others: Rolan Eberhard (DPIPWE), Stephen Mansfield (PWS), Barry Davies (PWS), Vicki Davies. Karstcare had been engaged by the Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) to remove some old, rotting wooden form-work under the concrete pathway and viewing platforms in Gunns Plains Cave.

We met at the cave entrance at 9.00 a.m. It was freezing cold and after a basic briefing about the job from Stephen and safety issues and allocation of teams from myself, we entered the cave with bags and tools, only to find conditions much warmer underground.

One group worked under the far viewing platform, while the other group worked under and around the highest viewing platform near the big shawl. Rolan collected cave beasties for future science, as they were only going to be removed with the debris and die anyway. The PWS staff assisted with carting gear to any area requiring it and the removed debris out of the cave. I rigged a rope off the hand rail near the shawl to remove some old chip board and rotten bearers, with Rolan assisting nearby. Tarps were used on the pathways wherever possible, to keep mess to a minimum and to prevent debris falling further.

Paul rigged a safety rope below the far viewing platform as there are several nasty drops in this area. It was surprising how much wood and debris ended up being stacked or bagged at each site. We took a

break for lunch, PWS provided a barbecue and drinks, which was most appreciated.

After lunch, most people concentrated on hauling out all the wood and bags. I descended a hole nearby to clean up all the debris that had fallen earlier. Transporting the debris was heavy, tiring work, with many trips up and down the stairs. However we managed to finish by 2.30 p.m. hopefully not leaving too much mess on the pathway. Cave operator, Geoff Deer was planning on running a wet and dry vacuum cleaner through after we left.

Total work hours: 60½ hours

Paul under viewing platform. Photo: Rolan Eberhard

David removing rubbish. Photo: Rolan Eberhard

The clean up gang. Photo: David Wools-Cobb

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Gunns Plains Cave Tree Planting Cathie Plowman

20 October 2013 Participants: NC/Karstcare: Jessica Bayles, David Butler, Matt McClean, Cathie Plowman and David Wools-Cobb. Other Karstcare: Julie and Rodney Gale, Lyndsey Gray, Ken Higgins, Deb Hunter PWS: Kelvin Barrett, Ben Correy, Stephen Mansfield, Linda Overend (and children Coren and James Buck). Gunns Plains Cave: Trish, Geoff and Benjamin Deer.

This is a project that had it’s origin at Stephen Blanden’s funeral in July 2012. Jim McLeod and Sue Gray from Oldina Nursery had some plants that they wanted to give people to plant in Stephen’s memory. On the day, it was hard to think how best to distribute the plants but a decision was made to keep the plants together and plant them some-where in a suitable environment in Stephen’s memory.

Discussions with people at Gunns Plains and the North West office of the Parks and Wildlife Service followed and it was decided to include the trees as part of restoration and revegetation works at Gunns Plains Cave, a place certainly dear to Stephen.

Things dragged on a bit, as these things tend to. But finally a date was set and the above team of people met at Gunns Plains Cave on a very nice spring Sunday. Following the safety briefing, everyone got down to the business and people soon fell into doing the various jobs required: cutting back the grass with a mattock, digging holes, making up the tree guards and distributing these, distributing the

plants, planting the trees, adding the stakes and tree guards, watering. People swapped jobs and moved around as was needed.

About 280 trees were planted. I failed to write a list of the species, but they included musk, Christmas bush and a variety of acacias. Stephen’s sisters, Julie and Margaret visited with a sumptuous spread for morning tea that included sausage rolls, slices and biscuits. It was great to see them and share a day that was commemorating Stephen, but with the grief of last year somewhat resolved.

Back to the trees, they were all in the ground by about 1.30 p.m. We took some group photos, packed up and had lunch before some of us visited the cave and others just relaxed above-ground on a very nice day.

Jessica Bayles and Corren Buck. Photo: Cathie Plowman

The Team. Photo: Trish Deer

Julie and Margaret Blanden. Photo: Cathie Plowman

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Thanks again to Jim and Sue, to PWS staff for organising the tools etc, to Julie and Margaret for the morning tea and to Trish and Geoff Deer for keeping the urn on the boil and their hospitality. And, of course, thanks to all the willing hands who helped plant a small forest in Stephen’s memory. Now we can watch it grow!

Kubla Debris Weight Training Cathie Plowman

A pile of broken concrete sitting in deteriorating polyweave bags has sat outside the Kubla top gate since the new gate was installed about two years ago. Getting the concrete down the hill is problematic. People going on Kubla trips pass the concrete on the way into the cave but not after the trip. If anyone has spare time when they are out and about at Mole Creek, they generally don’t have a key to access the Kubla road. So the concrete has sat there and the bags have deteriorated to tatters.

But, at the recent Kubla management meeting, Ric Tunney (STC) had the bright idea that if we all went up after the meeting and carried a pack load of concrete down then the job would be done. Great idea and Ric, Janine, Alan and Rolan (STC) carried down a pack load each while Janice, David B and I went up and down for two loads. Only a few pack loads of concrete now remain and none of the pesky bags. We will complete the job this summer.

Rotten bags of concrete. Photo: Janice March

Janice, Cathie and David setting off down the hill. Photo: Rolan Eberhard

A ute load of rock. Photo: Janice March

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Northern Caverneers 2013

NORTHERN CAVERNEERS

PO Box 315 Launceston 7250

Club email (for outside enquiries) caves@northerncaverneers.com

Club members group email list nc-list@caves.org.au

BARRASS Paula 61 Ecclestone Rd, Riverside 7250 6327 2922 barrass@hpotters.com

PO Box 676, Riverside

BAYLES Jessica 98 Percy St, Devonport 7310 0428 597436 jess.wc25@gmail.com

BENNETT Jill 694 Relbia Rd, Relbia 7258 6391 8798 jelly7bean@gmail.com

0407 689878

BROWN Frank frank_brown@bigpond.com

BUTLER David & PLOWMAN Cathie

637 Deviot Rd, Deviot 7275 6394 7686 lueena@bigpond.com

DOWDE Peter 45 Osborne Ave, Trevallyn 7250 6331 7761 pdowde@bigpond.com

GROSSEL Geoff 98 Nullabor Ave, Harrison, ACT 2914 02 6241 8464 geoff.grossel@biosecurity.gov.au

HAYGARTH Nic 3/42 Frederick St, Perth 7300 6398 1334 lakelea22@yahoo.com.au

JACOBS Stephen 0427 813063 stephenjacobs2004@yahoo.com.au

MARCH Andrew & Janice 34 Wyett St, West Launceston 7250 6334 5567 janice@braesidedental.com.au

POULTER Norman 125 Betts Rd., Neika 7054 6239 6964 normal@iinet.net.au

SHANNON Henry & Rosie 319 Brisbane St, Launceston 7250 6334 1885 hshannon@iinet.net.au

0427 550999

STEDMAN Haydn & Lyn 56 Miles Rd, Mole Creek 7304 6363 1424 stedmanh@bigpond.net.au

VAN NYNANTEN Paul & Jean

37 Charlton St, Norwood 7250 6344 4614 vannynanten@bigpond.com

WOOLS-COBB David RD 419 Castra Rd, Ulverstone 7315 PO Box 20, Ulverstone

6425 3950 tascaver@bigpond.net.au

WRIGHT Steve & Beth PO Box 219, Gravelly Beach 7276 6394 3931 nutwood@intas.net.au