Jenolan caves
By RW Bro Ted Simmons OAM
Jenolan is an underground fairyland People with an urge to travel often look interstate and overseas but ignore one of Australia’s most fascinating areas only 180 kilometres from Sydney and 70 from Katoomba, on the Great Dividing Range.
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amed Binoomea by the Gundungurra people, initially called the Holes in the Hill and later the Jenolan Caves, bushranger James McKeown is regarded as the first European to find them in the 1830s. Millions of years ago this part of NSW was covered by the sea and gradually geological activity pushed several thousand square kilometres of earth upwards to form a plateau almost a kilometre above sea level. Streams and rivers formed by rain began flowing through the plateau creating tunnels and caves while chemical substances resulted in unusual and interesting formations growing on the walls and floors. McKeown, who had robbed local settlers for years and cultivated a small farm in the valley, was finally caught in 1838 by one of his victims (James Whalan), who had tracked him to his hideout cave in the hills.
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Whalan and his brother Charles returned to further explore the area and particularly the caves. Charles and his two sons worked until 1867 as honorary guides after news had spread about the interesting formations. In 1866 the NSW Government declared the caves and the local environment as a reserve and appointed local man Jeremiah Wilson as the official keeper of the caves. In those days, visitors who wanted to see the caves had
Millions of years ago this part of NSW was covered by the sea...
to notify Wilson of their plans before being allowed to travel to the area. Jenolan is now surrounded by a 2,430 hectare wildlife reserve and can be reached by rail and road, has accommodation and cafes, and welcomes visitors. It has been my pleasure to have been to Jenolan as an ordinary tourist and as part of a lodge group where we had an informal meeting in the main cave. There are generally four types of caves, so named after their origin such as pore deposits, dripstones, flowstones and pool deposits. Pore deposits result from seepage, pool deposits are flowing terraces at pool edges, flowstones are formed by calcite films left by flowing water and are the bulkiest cave deposits. But it is the dripstones which provide the highlight of a visit with their spectacular limestone formations including stalactites which grow downwards from the ceiling, stalagmites which grow upwards from the floor and columns which occur when they meet and join.
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