CAVE DWELLERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 132, 1 December 1938, Page 8

CAVE DWELLERS

A PROBLEM F-ORbYDNFY

Sydney is getting a number of cave dwellers, who are becoming a source of worry to the authorities, not because they are living in the caves so much as because4 they are dying there, says the, Sydney correspondent of the Melbourne "Age." Cave life apparently is' not suitable to those who take U on for want of a better home. Within the last few weeks two persons have been found dead in caves, and one pi them had. no reason for seeking such domicile. The trouble is those people think that because«blackfellows lived and were happy in caves .or rock shelters there is no reason \why other people should not be similarly' joyous But the blackfellow used discrimination in the selection of his cay«, and it would be well if other people who are contemplating taking up their abodes in caves made a few inquiries similar to those when seeking a house either from the agent or from people living in the neighbourhood. A cave must not be chosen just because it is a cave and offers rent-free covering but its aspect or orientation, as they say, must be studied. In these parts no blackfellow chose or lived in a cave with a southern1 aspect. It always had a northerly outlook, for from that direction it gets the greatest amount of sunshine and warmth. Having ascertained the orientation, it is necessary to have drinking water —an uncontaminated spring for preferenceclose to the place. The furnishings are a matter of suitability to the person's temperament and desire for bodily comfort. Then there is the question of food. A cave dweller who took his wife (an expectant mother) to one of these caves at Fairy Bower (!) has just been brought before the Court for looting milk jugs in the neighbourj hood. This question *of a supply of food is still Qic trouble, and a worry The body of a man was found in a cave the other day, and on a bed of bags, and the food supply consisted of a paper bag full of crusts. Cave dwelling is a hard life, even if it is I a rent-free one.