Page 11 of 15
West Australia 2000
by Mr. Wilson
Rich Long and myself, plus our respective wives decided to
visit
W Australia in March 2000. The plan was to visit the various relatives,
go walking and fit some caving in. Rich
was going to stay somewhere near Rockingham (south of
Perth)
and we were staying with Hillary's sister at Yanchep (north of
Perth). As it worked out I never did find out where
Rich and his wife managed to stay but I am sure that they really enjoyed
themselves! Hilary and I plus Pat and
Neville went down to the
Stirling
Ranges and camped at the
only site there. I managed to fall foul
of "JOYCE" the idiot site owner who seemed to think that customers
were there to be patronised. This was a
shame because the site was in a good location in a National Park (hence the
monopoly). Her name was not Joyce but
she reminded us of Joyce Grenfell of St Trinians fame.
Hilary, Neville (the brother in law) Pat (the sister in law)
and myself managed to ascend two of the major peaks. Neville did really well - he just took two of
his live longer pills and then proceeded to climb (Bluff Knoll 1073m and
Tolbrunnup 1052m) Tolbrunnup was the hardest of the two. These mountains are very much like the
Snowdonia range in
Wales,
but they have their own eco system which is totally opposite to British
mountains. The approach walks are fairly
dry and featureless but as you get to the 500m mark the undergrowth starts to
sprout, getting more and more lush until the top is reached. This is due to the cooler temperatures and
cloud and rain around the top of the range. It is possible to have difficulty pushing through the thick lush growth
on some of the lesser-walked peaks! This
range stands alone in the south west of OZ as the highest points, but 60k south
of the Stirlings lie the Porongorups which resemble the Malvern hills, these
hills have many more roads leading to the start of the routes and have several
camping and caravan sites on or nearby. The region is basically a farming area, mostly cattle on a grand scale
probably like the small American ranches.
We liked this area and would have been happy to spend a
couple of days more exploring the soft and accessible hills, in the end we
managed to ascend two routes here, Castle Rock a super route with a boulder
finish and good views, and a short Karri Tree walk through the forest towards
Devils Slide. For those who have an
interest in forests the Karri tree walk in
Walpole is a must, you walk 30m up on a
walkway high in the treetops, we really enjoyed our afternoon there.
Having toured the south coast a little, Hilary and I visited
Jewel
Cave on a private tourist trip. This is a stunning cave, very well decorated
and well worth a visit. There are many
caves nearby which I visited later. North of Perth in a National Park is Yanchep, a caving area (mostly
small caves similar to Burrington). Hilary and I went on a very good walk in the National Park which
encompassed most of the caving area (we also found a really superb bunkhouse in
the middle of the bush, which would make a good base for cave exploration, see
photo). The major caves in the region are
for the tourists, that is
Crystal and
Cabaret
Cave, not overly long. There are 500 caves in all, mostly
numbered. The principal explorer of the
region, Lex Bastian told me that it would be impossible to name all the sites
and caves, so you have this quaint situation where someone says we are going to
visit no. 54 today, meaningless to anyone else, but very practical! For example
Carabooda
Cave
(yn 485, the largest cave in the area to date from my map would be 260m 027deg
magnetic from yn 484. This cave is a
short distance out from the western foot of a fairly steep ridge, the entrance
being the largest solution pipe in the centre of a solution doline with several
exposed pinnacles.
The Western Australia Speleo Society were very helpful to me
and I managed to spend a busy long weekend with them at Margaret River, the
principal caving area at the moment with 300 caves listed at this time! Their shed is big and roomy but has no water
or sanitation plus no lighting, this means every thing has to be brought with
you (it also has these quaint tree squirrels that run up and down the tin roof
at night - very noisy)! The toilet
consisted of a spade and a beer crate with a toilet seat attached to the top,
the plan being to walk as far away as possible, dig a large hole, place the
crate on top, sit on the seat and perform, backfill hole and return to shed
with crate under your arm. "No one
would possibly know where you have been." The club took me to the flat roof extensions in
Jewel
Cave,
a totally wonderful place with floor to ceiling pretties everywhere. The cave itself is a fairly easy trip but the
high humidity and CO2 levels can make it seem hard going, the series is about
40m deep and in total 3k long. The water
table has been dropping for about 12 years now and there is a great deal of
discussion as to what is the cause (it is now a good metre lower). Our next visit was Moondyne which is an
"adventure cave". It was also
well decorated and contained some extremely good cave coral, it used to be
called
Coronation
Cave for many years but
has now reverted back to its original name. The cave would not put anybody to the test but is worth a visit. It has fairly high CO2 levels and is only
approx. 400 m long. The next day I
visited
Easter
Cave. This was the highlight of my trip (I have subsequently discovered that
this is the most well decorated cave in
Australia). We spent some time wandering in the bush
trying to find the entrance. This is not
surprising as the cave is only open 4 times a year to parties of 4 (very tight
access). I was privileged to get a trip
on this visit many thanks to WASS. It is
a superb cave, stunningly decorated, 2k long and about 40m running depth. There were some small lakes and ducks, but
the steady drop in the water table has made the trip easier and dry with a
lovely draught. We have nothing like
this in
Great Britain,
15 to 16 degrees temp and 80% humidity. There is more beauty lying on the floor than in the whole of GB cave on
Mendip; the crowning glory being the LEMON, a wonderful rounded stalagmite with
a reddish coloured base. Apart from the
10m entrance ladder pitch and several dry crawls the trip was not hard as we
know it. I sincerely hope that the tight
access arrangements keep this cave safe from mindless idiots. Deepdene was my next cave which involved a
walk in the bush but we found it first time. WASS have been doing access checks with little trigger machines powered
by batteries. This was basically a trip
to help them retrieve the kit. The
person who is conducting this survey is a WILLET CLONE right down to beer pot
smile and general build, I couldn't believe my eyes so I head butted him and
got a Willet result "GRUNT GIGGLE hit me again." This guy John is Willet's doppelganger!
Hilary Wilson in the hut at Yanchep
We had a look at the cave which at one time must have had
some really superb gours they have now all dried up. The whole system was only 160m long. Years ago people used to light fires to
illuminate the formations (in the 1890s it was common practice to illuminate
the King's Chamber with burning rushes. They would then retire from the cave and watch the smoke drifting lazily
from the entrance!). Luckily this
practice has died out now!
My last cave visit was Brides, a 50m deep hole doline with a
small cave at the bottom right hand side. There used to be a wooden ladder / staging which served as access, but
it burnt down in a bush fire (probably the same fire that demolished the first
WASS hut). Perhaps this was the same
fire that burnt the BEC hut down! The
access is now a 50m abseil via some bollards - quite pleasant. This concluded our tour of West Australia and
I drove back to
Perth
in the borrowed 4 - wheel drive Nissan Patrol. (Thanks Neville I could not have managed without transport). We intend to return in the near future and go
north where there are even more caves and good walking. I cannot thank all the Western Australia
Speleo Society cavers enough for their efforts and the Retirement Rellies who
we sponged off for four weeks (so they say!).
Mike Wilson.
NB I am going to buy some of the brother in law's livelong
pills just in case they work.
Ross (WASS member) in Easter cave
Mike Wilsons Map of the area visited in
Western Australia
(Apologies for the
quality Ed.)
