Straws in Junee Cave

 Cave diving, Tasmania  2 Responses »
Mar 112014
 
Straws in Junee Cave

About the cave Junee is the master drain and resurgence for a wide swath of the Junee-Florentine karst area. Many of the large, deep caves in the vicinity have had their waters dye traced to arrive back on the surface in the river flowing out of Junee. The tourist walking track through the State Park leads to a viewing platform in the forest. A quick clamber over the edge lands you knee deep in the chilly river, and three trips upstream into the dark zone put our dive gear at the edge of sump 1. About the dive Sump 1 is dark and silty, with greenish water and black walls. We had relatively good vis on the way through and [read more…]

Images, suspended

 Caving, Tasmania  No Responses »
Feb 182014
 
Images, suspended

About the cave These images are from the Junee Florentine in Tasmania, from a cave called Dwarrowdelf. I was down there the weekend before last, with the intention for the trip to refine my SRT technique and get some practise in. After Saturday on the climbing wall in Hobart improving rope lengths, on Sunday we headed to Dwarrowdelf. The cave was selected as it has a series of SRT drops in a row without much (any) horizontal cave in between. As well as nailing down my skills and improving the speed of my rebelays, I was keen to attempt taking pictures while on the rope. From previous caving adventures I have shots of people leaving the bottom, and appearing or [read more…]

Waterfalls in Growling Swallet Cave

 Caving, Tasmania  No Responses »
Feb 072014
 
Waterfalls in Growling Swallet Cave

About the cave Growling Swallet is an extensive “dry” cave system in the Junee-Florentine karst area in southern Tasmania. The early parts of the cave are complex with multiple routes and leads off in different directions and at different levels. After some distance it straightens out into over a kilometre of mainline streamway passage. The cave temperature is around 8 degrees, a little colder than your average mainland cave. About the trip I was down in Tassie over the Australia Day long weekend two weeks ago with a group of cavers from across Australia. There were a few different missions underway, including some that resulted in an impressive new connection between caves. Our focus was Growling Swallet and the sump [read more…]

Exploration in Constitution Hole

 Caving, Tasmania  No Responses »
Aug 122013
 
Exploration in Constitution Hole

About the cave Something different this week – caving without dive gear! The cave in question is Constitution Hole, a newly discovered entrance at the bottom of a hill in the Junee Florentine area of Tasmania. After a short walk through the rainforest, the cave starts with a muddy pitch, a narrow meander, a short pitch and a nasty wet traverse before reaching the top of the Hang-glider Chamber seen above. About the trip On this particular weekend we discovered a much easier shortcut back to Hang-glider as well as two new pitches in the lower area. Stopped by a shortage of rope we didn’t complete the descent but headed back up. While waiting for the photographer (again!) to ascend [read more…]

For Your Eyes Only in Junee Cave

 Cave diving, Tasmania  3 Responses »
May 302011
 
For Your Eyes Only in Junee Cave

About the cave Junee Cave is located just out of Maydena, Tasmania, about a 90 minute drive from Hobart. Unlike the caves in South Australia and Western Australia, Junee is a river cave system, with rushing water flowing out of a dark hole in the ground. A ten minute walk along a beaten track beside the stream, where an interpretive sign by the cave entrance is just the beginning of getting to where this shot was taken. Having climbed over the tourist viewing platform and clambered down to the water, the would-be cave diver needs to lump the gear about 300m upstream inside the cave. Unseen under rushing water, a rocky floor that gets unexpectedly deep in places makes this more [read more…]

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