Australian Caves: Diversity, Wonder and Risk (Full)
Channel: The Royal Society of Victoria
Date: 2022-06-30

Australian caves are wonderful, both in terms of their visual impact and their scientific importance. They contain bat colonies that consume hundreds of kilograms of insects each night, a globally exceptional invertebrate fauna, vertebrate fossils that record animals and environments for at least the last 25 million years, and calcite speleothems that preserve detailed records of past climates.

And Australian caves have risks. There are inherent dangers in exploring caves, including cold, heat, falls and getting stuck, but there are very few accidents in Australian caves because organised trips must have an experienced leader and appropriate equipment. Some caves themselves have been at risk from overuse and threats like limestone quarries.

Australian caves are notable for their diversity (greater than any other area of equivalent size on Earth), which reflects variety in carbonate rock types, climate, vegetation and geological history. Australian karst has something for everyone, from the razor-sharp towers of north Queensland to the cold, deep shafts of southwest Tasmania, the carbonate dunes of southwest Western Australia, the clear cenote lakes of southeastern South Australia and the ancient reefs of northwest Western Australia.

Join geomorphologist Professor John Webb (La Trobe University), who will cover all these aspects and give examples from his own experience as a caver.

Presented with the support of the Inspiring Victoria program, in partnership with the Geological Society of Victoria (Victoria Division).