The Discovery, Exploration and Scientific Investigation of the Wellington Caves, New South Wales, 1963, Lane Edward A. , Richards Aola M.

Although research has been unable to establish a definite date of discovery for the limestone caves at Wellington, New South Wales, documentary evidence has placed it as 1828. The actual discovery could have been made earlier by soldiers or convicts from the Wellington Settlement, which dated from 1823. Whether the aborigines knew of the cave's existence before 1828 is uncertain, but likely, as in 1830 they referred to them as "Mulwang". A number of very small limestone caves were also discovered about the same time in the nearby Molong area. The Bungonia Caves, in the Marulan district near Goulburn, were first written about a short time later. On all the evidence available at present, the Wellington Caves can be considered to be the first of any size discovered on the mainland of Australia. The Wellington Caves are situated in a low, limestone outcrop about six miles south by road from the present town of Wellington, and approximately 190 miles west-north-west of Sydney. They are at an altitude of 1000 feet, about half a mile from the present bed of the Bell River, a tributary of the Macquarie River. One large cave and several small caves exist in the outcrop, and range in size from simple shafts to passages 200 to 300 feet long. Mining for phosphate has been carried out, resulting in extensive galleries, often unstable, at several levels. Two caves have been lit by electricity for the tourist trades; the Cathedral Cave, 400 feet long, maximum width 100 feet, and up to 50 feet high; and the smaller Gaden Cave. The Cathedral Cave contains what is believed to be the largest stalagmite in the world, "The Altar", which stands on a flat floor, is 100 feet round the base and almost touches the roof about 40 feet above. It appears that the name Cathedral was not applied to the cave until this century. The original names were "The Great Cave", "The Large Cave" or "The Main Cave". The Altar was named by Thomas Mitchell in 1830. See map of cave and Plate. Extensive Pleistocene bone deposits - a veritable mine of bone fragments - were found in 1830, and have been studied by palaeontologists almost continually ever since. These bone deposits introduced to the world the extinct marsupials of Australia, and have a special importance in view of the peculiar features of the living fauna of the continent. The names of many famous explorers and scientists are associated with this history, among the most prominent being Sir Thomas Mitchell and Sir Richard Owen. Anderson (1933) gives a brief outline of why the Wellington Caves fossil bone beds so rapidly attracted world-wide interest. During the 18th and early 19th Century, the great palaeontologist, Baron Georges Cuvier, and others, supposed that the earth had suffered a series of catastrophic changes in prehistoric times. As a result of each of these, the animals living in a certain area were destroyed, the area being repopulated from isolated portions of the earth that had escaped the catastrophe. The Bilical Deluge was believed to have been the most recent. Darwin, during the voyage of the Beagle around the world (1832-37), was struck by the abundance of Pleistocene mammalian fossils in South America, and also by the fact that, while these differed from living forms, and were in part of gigantic dimensions, they were closely related to present-day forms in that continent. Darwin's theory of descent with modification did not reconcile with the ideas of Cuvier and others. As the living mammalian fauna of Australia was even more distinctive than that of South America, it was a matter of importance and excitement to discover the nature of the mammals which had lived in Australia in the late Tertiary and Pleistocene.

Nullarbor Expedition 1963-4, 1964, Anderson, Edward G.

The Nullarbor Plain, Australia's most extensive limestone region, consists of about 65,000 square miles of almost horizontal beds of Tertiary limestone. The Plain extends from near Fowlers Bay, South Australia, approximately 600 miles west across the head of the Great Australian Bight into Western Australia. However, for its size, the Nullarbor appears to be deficient in caves compared with other Australian cavernous limestones. The vastness of the area, isolation, and complete lack of surface water, makes speleological investigation difficult. Some of the most important caves are more than 100 miles apart. The 1963-4 Nullarbor Expedition was organised by members of the Sydney University Speleological Society (SUSS). Two major caves, as well as a number of smaller features were discovered in the western part of the Plain. One cave contains what is believed to be the longest single cave passage in Australia.

Fauna of the brackish underground waters of Central Asia., 1965, Birstein Jakov Avadievich, Ljovuschkin S. I.

In the cave Kaptar-Khana (south-western Turkmenistan) was discovered a lake filled with water with a salinity of 11,68°/oo. This lake is inhabited by a fauna of marine origin; Foraminifera (three species), Molluscs (Pseudocaspia ljovuschkini sp.n.), Harpacticoida (genera Ectinosoma, Schizopera and Nitocra), Isopoda (Microcharon halophilus sp.n.) and possibly Nematoda (Oncholaimidae). The majority of the discovered species are related to species of circum-Mediterranean origin. Geological data do not permit to consider this fauna as a relict of any of the Tertiary seas. The same applies to all other cases when animals of marine origin were discovered in subterranean waters of Central Asia (as for instance Microcharon kirghisicus Jank. on the shores of the lake Issyk-Kul). We can either admit a far greater anciennity of this fauna or an ability of its components to disperse very widely beyond the boundaries of marine transgressions.

Caves of the Coastal Areas of South Australia, 1965, Sexton, R. T.

The majority of South Australian caves occur in the Tertiary and Quaternary limestones of the coastal areas. Their distribution is discussed here on a geological rather than a geographical basis. The most significant caves are briefly described and illustrated to indicate different types and related developments in the coastal limestones. The most notable feature of the limestones is their soft, porous nature. Caves also occur in South Australia in hard, massively bedded Cambrian and Pre-Cambrian limestones and dolomites. These are not discussed in the present paper. To facilitate recording, South Australia has been divided into six zones as shown in Figure 1, and the caves numbered in order of discovery in each area. In general, both the name and the number of the cave have been given, but unnamed caves are specified by number only. The cave maps have been chosen to give as wide a coverage as possible of the various types, or to illustrate points of particular interest. The arrows on the section lines show the direction of viewing, and the sections are numbered to relate them to the plans. Where a cross-section and longitudinal section intersect, the common line has been drawn to relate the sections. The same scale has been used throughout for ease of comparison.

Bat Erosion in Australian Limestone Caves, 1965, Dwyer, P. D.

The clustering areas of bent-winged bats in limestone caves are frequently stained and etched. This staining is very intense, and covers large areas at breeding caves present in Palaeozoic limestones. Erosion of limestone is very conspicuous in these caves. Staining is not intense at breeding caves in Tertiary limestones, but a combination of chemical and mechanical erosion may, in part, account for the depth of dome pits in which the bats cluster. Certain caves that are characterised by extensive guano deposits and by conspicuously eroded and/or stained limestone, but which are currently without large colonies of bats, may represent ancestral breeding caves.

Notulae Orthopterologicae XXI – The Dolichopoda of France and Spain., 1966, Baccio Baccetti.

parallelism at great distance are but apparent exceptions: for instance Dolichopoda baccettii and Dolichopoda graeca. As — when there are no conditions of insularity causing a particularly remarkable differentiation specific to many entities — the geographic barriers among the elements of each group are often very scanty, we can consider possible that after the two great immigrations from the East, by which two suhgenera, one after the other, were imported during the Tertiary period (Baccetti, 1960), the phenomena of speciation were largely favoured, in the Quaternary, by the acquisition of troglophilia which has greatly hindered any possible migration.

River Cave, Cooleman Plain, Kosciusko National Park, And Its Hydrological Relationships, 1969, Jennings, J. N.

River Cave is a Zwischenhohle (between-cave) in which the active river passage is reached through a former tributary stream passage from a dry valley. Now vadose in character, it is of gentle gradient, with some normally and some temporarily water-filled reaches of shallow phreatic nature. There is only a single level of development. Water tracing has confirmed previous inferences that it is mainly fed from the South Branch watersink, that its normal flow goes to the Blue Waterholes, the main rising of the Plain, and that there is flood overflow to Murray Cave, which is shown to have been formerly the normal outflow cave of the system. In the changeover from one outflow point (Vorfluter) to another, a shorter, steeper cave and longer surface course has been replaced by a longer cave of shorter gradient. Ev's Cave, a flood inflow cave of the South Branch, may also feed River Cave and Keith's Faint Cave is inferred to be part of the link between South Branch Sink and River Cave. It has the aspect of an early stage of vadose development from phreatic conditions. Previous interpretation of Glop Pot as a true phreatic relic is maintained in the light of new facts. Evidence is lacking with which to date the caves at all reliably. Glop Pot possibly belongs to a phase of surface planation of Tertiary age whereas the other caves are likely to be consequent on Pleistocene dissection. The tributary passage of River Cave and its associated dry valley may have lost their stream in the Holocene when Murray Cave became intermittent in action also. The Murray Cave event is due to subterranean piracy associated with rejuvenation whereas the loss of the tributary stream is probably in part due to increasing warmth and less effective precipitation.

Tertiary limestone aquifer system in the southeastern states, 1971, Legrand H. E. , Stringfield V. T. ,

A Preliminary Note On A Cave In Basalt, Bunya Mountains National park, Queensland, 1971, Graham, A.

The existence of a small cave in Tertiary basalt in the Bunya Mountains, Queensland, has been known for some time, but has only recently come to the attention of speleologists. The origin of the cave is uncertain, although multi-process formation or modification of an original lava tube is suggested. The cave contains a small colony of Miniopterus schreibersii.

The Migration of Cave Arthropods Across The Nullarbor Plain, Southern Australia, 1972, Richards, Aola, M.

The Nullarbor Plain is a low plateau of Tertiary limestone covering an area of 194,175 km2 in southern Australia. It has a semi-arid climate and supports a stunted vegetation. Ninety-five species of arthropods have been recorded from 47 Nullarbor caves, and many of these species are widely distributed across the Plain. Two possible explanations for their distribution are discussed. Subterranean migration may occur through the widespread zone of small interconnecting cavities in the Nullarbor Limestone, but this has not yet been confirmed. While cave arthropods are confined to the cool, moist cave environment during the day, they have been observed at night in cave entrances, in dolines and on the surface of the Plain. Cave "breathing", similarity in cave and epigean climate at night, strong winds, occasional heavy rain and numerous animal burrows all contribute towards favourable conditions for surface migration.

Evolution of the Wellington Caves Landscape, 1973, Francis, G.

Wellington Caves, New South Wales (figure 1), have attracted scientific attention for more than a century, largely through discoveries in the cave sediments of bones from extinct animals. These bone discoveries provided impetus for a number of early speculations about the geomorphology of the caves area and its relationship to the caves. Notable among these was the conjecture of Mitchell (1839) that the valley floor sediments of the Bell River and the cave fills had been deposited during a marine transgression about one million years ago. The first systematic geomorphological work was carried out by Colditz (1943), who argued for two distinct relict erosion levels in the Bell Valley; the older level was assigned to the Lower Pliocene and the younger to the Upper Pliocene. Colditz considered that these levels provided evidence for two phases of uplift in late Tertiary times. More recently Frank (1971) made detailed studies of the cave sediments, and devoted some attention to landscape evolution. He believed that the Bell River had been captured by Catombal Creek, during the late Pliocene or early Pleistocene.

Geology and hydrogeology of the El Convento cave-spring system, Southwestern Puerto Rico., 1974, Beck Barry F.

Whereas the North Coast Tertiary Limestones of Puerto Rico are classic karst locales, their southern counterparts are almost devoid of karst development. The El Convento Cave-Spring System is the most prominent feature of the only large scale karst area developed on the South Coast Tertiary limestones. The karst topography is localized on the middle Juana Diaz Formation, which is a reef facies limestone, apparently because of the high density and low permeability of this zone as compared to the surrounding chalks and marls. In the El Convento System a sinking ephemeral stream combines with the flow from two perennial springs inside the cave. The surface drainage has been pirated from the Rio Tallaboa to the east into El Convento's subterranean course. The climate is generally semi-arid with 125-150 cm of rain falling principally as short, intense showers during Sept., Oct., and Nov. Sinking flood waters are absorbed by a small sinkhole and appear two to three hours later in the cave. In the dry season this input is absent. The two springs within the cave have a combined inflow to the system of 1.0 m3/min at low flow but half of this leaks back to the groundwater before it reaches the resurgence. The spring waters are saturated with CaCO3 and high in CO2 (26.4 ppm). As the water flows through the open cave it first becomes supersaturated by losing CO2 and then trends back toward saturation by precipitating CaCO3.

Cavernicolous Pseudoscorpions from Macedonia., 1974, Curcic Bozidar P. M.

A cavernicolous pseudoscorpion of the genus Neobisium Chamberlin 1930 is living in Kalina Dupka cave in the Bistra Highland of western Macedonia. This pseudoscorpion clearly differs from the other members of the subgenus Blothrus Schiodte 1849, and belongs to the new species N. (B.) princeps, the principal features of which are described in this study. The nearest relatives of this species are N. (B.} spelaeum (Schiodte) 1849, and N. (B.) stygium Beier 1931, both from Slovenian and Croatian caves. From chelal dentition N. (B.) princeps may be considered as the most primitive element of the princeps-stygium-spelaeum series. This new species is in a subterranean mode of life of extreme specialization. Relating to biogeography, it belongs to the endemic pseudoscorpion fauna in Macedonia. After finding pseudoscorpions in Zmejovica cave (Porece mountainous area), we confirmed the presence of the species N. (E.) karamani (Hadli) 1929 in west Macedonia. Morphologic analysis of male specimens from that new locality enabled us to complete description of this species previously based on a single female specimen. The comparison of Hadzi’s species with N. (E.) remyi Beier 1939 from west Serbian caves, with N. (E.) brevipes (Frivaldsky) 1866 and N. (E.) leruthi Beier 1931 from Turda and Bihar caves in southern Carpathians, leads to the conclusion that these pseudoscorpions belong to a closely related species group. Judging by actual distribution of these species, the possibility exists that a wide area in the ancient Balkanic dry land had been populated by the initial form of that series. As for its preferences for habitat N. (E.) karamani is an exclusive inhabitant of subterranean environment. Relating to biogeography, it may be considered as a relic of Mediterranean Tertiary fauna and its endemic differentiation as developed under the conditions of the evolution of karst relief in southern countries of the Balkan Peninsula. In conclusion, from actual knowledge and the results of this study caves in Macedonia are inhabited by three endemic species of pseudoscorpions of genus Neobisium (Blothrus), namely: N.(B.) ohridanum Hadzi 1940,N. (B.) karamani (Hadzi) 1929, and N. (B.) princeps Curcic 1974. Judging by known blothroid pseudoscorpions, it is possible Macedonia represents one of the centres of origin and genesis for autochthonous and residual fauna of the Tertiary age.

Ecological and Faunistic Data on the Stenasellidae (Crustacea Isopoda Asellota of Subterranean Waters)., 1974, Magniez Guy

Some important morphological features, which are discussed here, point out that the Stenasellids (Crustacea Isopoda Asellota) must be considered as a true family (Stenasellidae), independent from the Asellidae. A definition and a renewed diagnosis of the Stenasellidae Dudich, 1924, are given. Their relationships must be pursued, especially in the marine Parastenetroidea and in the psammic Microcerberidae. Until 1938, the group was known only from subterranean waters of southern Europe. Now, several genera and many thermophile species from north-tropical underground waters have been discovered in Africa (5 gen., 12 sp.), Asia (1 gen., 2 sp.) and Central America (1 gen., 4 sp.). The Stenasellids are very active burrowers. Such a behaviour explains how their phyletic lines had colonized the continental underground waters, by migrations from the littoral gravels to the underflow of rivers, phreatic alluvial waters and fìnally, to the karstic waters. The typical medium for the life of the group is represented by the phreatic zones of African shields arenas. In European phyletic lines, the speciation seems to be linked with tertiary subsidences (within the Tyrrhenian area, for the line of Stenasellus virei). The European species which have survived quaternary glaciations may have diversified themselves (rising of subspecies), recolonizing newly vacant biotopes in postglacial ages.

Rapid groundwater flow in fissures in the chalk: an example from south Hampshire, 1974, Atkinson Tc, Smith Di,

Projected road improvements in south Hampshire included plans to dispose of surface drainage into soakaways to be sited near an area of swallow holes in the Chalk. An experiment was undertaken to establish if there was a direct connection between the swallow holes, located near the junction of the Chalk and the Lower Tertiary strata, and major springs used for water supply in the Havant area. As the swallow holes are dry except in periods of storm rainfall a tracer, the fluorescent dye Rhodamine WT, was injected together with a large volume of water into one of the swallow holes. Water samples were collected from the springs at Havant and analysed for Rhodamine WT using a Turner fluorometer. The tracer was found at both sets of springs sampled and the straight line velocity from input point to spring was in excess of 2 km per day. Computations based on the concentration of dye recovered from the springs show that in the event of a tanker spillage within the proposed drainage scheme severe contamination would be expected to occur at the springs. The experiment and the results obtained make it clear that extreme caution should be exercised to avoid contamination of fissure-flow within the Chalk aquifer