14th

 International  Symposium  on  Vulcanospeleology  

Undara,  North  Queensland,  
Australia  
12-­17  August  2010  

CAVE  TOURS

There will be three ‘standard’ cave tours and, probably, one ‘special’ (Bayliss
Cave).
The standard tours will run concurrently on the afternoons of 13, 14 and 16
August. Up to twenty people will be accommodated on each tour. People will
be assigned to tours so that everyone will see each of the caves that they book
for. We may be joined by other Undara guests on these tours.

Tour One: Wind Tunnel Complex & Kalkani Crater

This tour commences with a descent into entrance No. U45, Misplaced Arch (apparently its
location was wrongly recorded by the original surveyors).

The arch is about 20 m wide and only about as long.

One ascends from the western end into an elongated depression which is clearly the result of
the original tube collapsing. This vegetated depression leads to the next section of tube,
known as Mikoshi Cave U44. It was originally called ‘Great Expectations’ but a Japanese
member of the ‘Project Raleigh’ survey team in 1989 called it ‘Mikoshi’, meaning “a good
view”, and the name stuck. This is a straight tunnel 46.6 m long with arching entrances over
14 m wide and 10 m high, with a red clay floor pitted with drip craters. Prominent wall
linings can be seen on the base of the southern wall.

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A rockpile is ascended at the western end of Mikoshi, opening into a closed depression. At
the western end of this the obscure entrance to Inner Dome Cave U41 is passed and the tour
descends into the Wind Tunnel, U42.

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From the 11 m wide entrance a boulder slope descends to an earthen floor. The first section
of tube is 37 m long, up to 20 m wide and up to 9 m high. An opening on the left links to the
Wind Tunnel proper which experiences strong thermal winds – hence its name. The main
passage is 230 m long, up to 11 m wide and 8 m high. As elsewhere, in places the roof is
stained bright red.
This has been a nursery cave for two species of bent-wing bat (Miniopterus sp.) and a roost
for a small population of the eastern horseshoe bat, Rhinolophus megaphyllus.

After exiting Wind Tunnel, the tour group returns to the bus and travels the short distance to
the Kalkani Crater.
A graded track leads up the side of the crater and around the rim, a total distance of 2.5 km
which takes about an hour and a half to walk. This crater is only about 20,000 years old and
is not related to the Undara lava tubes. It’s no Kilauea, but gives an indication of the size
and form of the volcanoes of this region. From the rim there are views over the surrounding
lava plains.

View into Kalkani Crater from the rim.

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Tour Two: Arch Complex
This tour commences by descending the stairs in the elongated collapse which separates
Stephenson Cave from Arch Cave (parts of the same original tube). The roof of Arch Cave
is notable for being remarkably flat. It is 25 m wide and about 11 m high. It is the result of
collapse but the walls are pretty much as originally formed, as indicated by ‘dribble and
drip’ textures. The original floor is covered by metres of sediments and collapse material
from the roof.

The wall colours indicate some of the mineral content of the surrounding basalt. The basalt
here contains nearly 50% silica (which suggests that the Undara eruption was not an
explosive event) as well as about 6-8% calcium and a similar percentage of iron. Thus we
have pale deposits of calcium carbonate and reddish brown iron oxide.
Passing through the short Arch Cave (only 25 m), one enters a heavily-vegetated circular
collapsed depression. This gives access to the right and left branches of Ewamin Cave. The
shorter, right branch is not entered; it contains a semi-permanent pool which is vital to the
local wildlife in the dry season. The left branch, which is up to 20 m wide, is traversed for
about 100 m; it is home to a colony of bent-wing bats.
The metal poles on the left-hand side are to detect any movement in the roof structure.
The name of this tube derives from the Aboriginal people who formerly inhabited this area
(the Ewamin or Ewaman). The available evidence suggests there was no pre-European
human occupation of the darker parts of the tubes. However stone artefacts and food
products such as fresh water mussel shells indicate there was hunting and gathering and
possible occupation in the collapses where there was a diverse range of fauna and flora.
Some old bottle trees still display steps on their trunk, which were chopped by Aboriginal
people climbing the trees to harvest the seeds.

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Returning through Arch Cave, the tour traverses the elongated depression, north to
Stephenson Cave. This cave is 160 m long, up to 25 m wide and around 5 m high. There
are some fine tree root displays in this cave.
The terminal chamber is occasionally used by bent wing and eastern horseshoe bats.

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After heavy rains Stephenson Cave can have elevated water levels in its terminal chamber
for months, as was the case in September 2009.

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Tour Three: Barkers Cave & Road Cave
Barkers is one of the most impressive caves at Undara. The walkway leads down a boulder
slope from the vine thicket enshrouded entrance to a ropy lava floor with pronounced ditches
or gutters along its margins. The passage reaches 13.5 m in height.

About 50 m in the tube has been almost completely drained, having a near circular cross-
section. Large tree roots have broken through in one section.

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The tour normally terminates at the end of the path but we may be able to proceed on to the
lake which fills the width of the passage.

Barkers is the most important cave bat habitat in the McBride Province, supporting all five
species that occur in the region. Four of these breed in this cave. Nursery populations of up
to 200,000 bent-wing bats have been recorded. Barkers Cave has a surveyed length of 905
metres.

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The tour will then move to Road Cave, the earliest recorded cave in the region. Road Cave
is 220 m long, up to 9.4 m high and 21.2 m wide. It is the only Undara cave equipped for
wheelchair access.

A semi-permanent spring at the entrance is used by the local wildlife, was probably an
important source of water for the Aboriginal inhabitants and was used by early travellers
through the region.

Light coloured streaks on the walls are secondary deposits leached by percolation water from
above.

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Special Tour: Bayliss Cave
The long entrance scree runs into a dog-legged tunnel at least 1.3 km long (the longest lava
tube known in Australia). It has a maximum height of 11.5 m and is up to 25 m wide.

The cave slopes gently down to the 1 km mark before rising again after being joined by a
secondary tunnel from the East. The floor is of deep red clay with guano cover in places and
frequent drip craters; there is a rock fall at about 600 m in the middle of the northern bend. A
construction 'The Wall ' at the 900 m mark forms a duck-under. Secondary precipitate
(flowstone) has formed on the roof and walls in many places; the roof exhibits lava
stalactites to 6 cm in length; the roots of surface vegetation have exploited joints in the roof
and hang to capture moisture from the cave’s humid atmosphere or reach the clayey floor to
form columns. A large colony of bent wing bats (Miniopterus sp.) uses the cave as a nursery
while Rhinolophus megaphyllus use it as a roost. The cave houses one of the most diverse
specialised arthropod faunas known. The cave is subject to varying levels of carbon dioxide
which tends to increase with distance from the entrance.

Cave details derived from –

GODWIN, M.D. 1993 Undara and associated lavafields of Mc Bride Plateau: A speleological field
guide. Chillagoe Caving Club: Cairns
UNDARA EXPERIENCE n.d. [Notes on] Archway Complex

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