Buchan Caves

Oyster Moon
Paul Foskett & Rhu Nash
Fri 5 Apr 2013 09:41

More limestone caves although not as spectacular as Jenolan.  Two caves were on show – The Royal and Fairy -  there are another two but these only open in summer.   Very narrow passageways with a lot of ducking and crouching to get through.  What was interesting here was that you had big stalactites and stalagmites and columns but you also had a serious number of little stalactites.  You can see the whole of the cave roof covered with them in this picture.

 

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These are fossil remains of bits of crushed shell.

 

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Columns and shawls.

 

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Flow stones.

 

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This is the end of one of the flow stones, all wrinkled and wobbly!

 

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Looks like frost but cave coral.

 

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This is Frank Moon who was employed by the Victorian government to hunt out limestone caves, presumably so as to compete with NSW Jenolan Caves.  What a job.  He found Fairy Cave on 18th March 1907 and then worked his way through the system into the other caves.

 

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Roots growing into the cave – we were about 30m underground at this point.

 

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The reason this was called Fairy Cave, the glitter!

 

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Edge of a shawl.  First time I noticed the serrated edge of the shawl.  Reminds me of eating skate wing.

 

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These are weird stalagmites, fat at the top.  Presumably growth has decreased for some reason.

 

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More cave coral.

 

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