LAKES AND CAVES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 283, 3 December 1935, Page 8

LAKES AND CAVES

TOUR OF DISCOVERY AUSTRALIAN WONDERLAND. SYIDNEY, Nov. 21. Australia is so vast and many portions are so sparsely settled or little explored that discoveries are continually being made of new geographical and geological features. The latest important addition to the knowledge, of Australia comes from an exploration party, which, headed by Captain J. M. Thomson, harbourmaster at Port Lincoln, South Australia, has returned to Ceduna, after making remarable discoveries in the underground caves and lakes of the Nullarbor Plain, the desert-like stretch of country in Western Australia, across which the transcontinental railway runs. The party’ travelled in two motorcars and a motor-truck, taking with them petrol, water, and equipment, including an 80ft. rope ladder, a 10ft. metal canoe, photographic equipment, and powerful petrol lamps. The party’s most adventurous experience was the exploration of Koonalda -Cave, 60 miles from Eucla. There the ladder was used to reach the opening from an almost vertical shaft. Members of the party found themselves in an underground chamber 800 ft. in circumference. Thence they’ walked half a mile over rocks to another tunnel. After crawling through a small aperture they found a hole 50ft. across, with water showing 100 ft. below. Back at the entrance a further tunnel led 1200 ft., when it forked to shafts, both blocked by water, across which they could be seen Io lead into blackness. An Underground Lake. Fourteen miles from Eucla, the canoe was lowered 80ft. over a cliff to the entrance of a hole of Weebubbie Lake and carried along a sloping gallery for 1500 ft. until a lake was reached 300 ft. below ground level. From an arch a tunnel opened into an enormous circular chamber, the far wall of which was 1200 ft. from the farthest edge of the water. The average depth of the lake was 30ft., but in the centre it exceeded 100 ft. Thirty-two miles from Eucla, the Chowilla landslide was visited. An opening was disclosed, which penetrated 250 ft. into a room 300 ft. across. A mile further on, Abrakurrie Cave. 1200 ft. long, 160 ft. wide, and 150 ft. high, was reached. After a drop of 250 ft. this eave forked into two passages, one ending in a circular chamber after a short distance, and the other travelling 1500 ft. to a large cave, which had undergone a recent inundation. Forty-nine miles from Eucla and within three miles of the overland route to Western Australia, the Ixoomoloobooka Cave was piled with stalagmites and stalactites destroyed by floods, and now heaped on the floor tn the cave. From Nullarbor Station, the party went to a cave known as “The Graveyard/’ 100 ft. below the ground, with a bcaltiful display of stalactites and stalagmites. At the M urrawidginie Caves, six miles from Nullarbor (aboriginal drawings depicted red-coloured hands on the face of the rock. This is known as “the sign of the bloody hand,” which acts as a “Keep out” sign guarding tribal secrets against prying by native women. Disappointment resulted from a search for “The Catacombs” —enormous caverns of which little is known and of which there is a 15-milc difference in location as shown on land and aerial plans