BUCHAN CAVES, VICTORIA – 10 – 20 January 2025
I have been wanting to visit Buchan caves for many years now, despite someone saying “ah there’s nothing there”. So, when the ASF Biennial Conference came around I (and 12 other MSS members) signed up for the conference. I have to say, I don’t know what that person was talking about with his “nothing there”, the caves definitely exceeded my expectations.
And the Conference was good too, lots of really good presentations, absolutely amazing food (they provided lunch, morning/afternoon tea and a couple of evening events) and the opportunity to catch up with a lot of “caving friends”.
Fairy & Royal Caves – 10/1/25 – The first caves were very good but, sadly, I forgot to take my camera (what was I thinking!). Fairy & Royal were the first two of what would be either current show caves (where tourists can go), or former Show caves. There loads of infrastructure, lights, hand railings, ladders and loads of cement walkways.
Wilson & Lillypilly – 11/1/25 – Wilson is a wild cave and open to the public, no gate, no permit needed. It’s what they classify as a beginners cave, you can take rank beginners there and let them loose, send them through squeezes and up onto balconies, they’d have to work really hard to hurt themselves.
The bonus for this cave was that I got to spend time with Western Australian Ann Marie M – she’s my hero, extremely competent.
Ann-Marie heading into a squeeze.
On the 17th January, at Wilson’s Cave, as part of the Conference, there was a Cave Rescue exercise, I didn’t take part (they already had a fake casualty, but I did take some photos – this one is everyone getting the briefing.
I set myself at the beginning of the rescue – Trish M was there participating. They’re moving the casualty across a flat area with a lot of rocks.
And then they moved him down a small incline – it was a very long, drawn-out exercise, I got bored and retired to our accommodation to have a cuppa.
Later, on the afternoon of the 11th we headed over to Lillypilly, another show cave, although probably not visited much these days.
The entrance – this is not gated so I’ve had to strip all information from each photo so that a GPS location cannot be found.
The track that has been formed through the cave.
Very nice formations start to be revealed.
And they’re getting better and better.
Stunning and I love the shades of cream in the formations.
This chocolate brown formation was interesting, it’s probably dirt that makes it way down with the ground water, turning the formations brown.
This was really cool, flowstone with pools that, when the cave is wet, would have pools of water like a waterfall going down the flowstone.
Closer view of some of the flowstone.
Looks like lots of cave pearls on the floor.
Good view of both the formations and the infrastructure that has been put in place.
Murrindal – 12/1/25 – This is definitely my idea of caving, just a couple of hours underground and great formations. Murrindal has a locked gate, easy to get to and formerly a Show Cave. Again, I’ve had to strip the GPS data to prevent being able to locate the cave.
Looking back up to the infrastructure where the metal gate has been installed, and the steps down from the entrance. It’s possible that chicken wire had been attached to the metal stakes you can see on the lh of the image.
Pretty soon we were into the nice formations.
There was a massive display here, sheltered from destruction by a chicken wire fence, I managed to hold my phone up and take this photo through the chicken wire. Stunning.
No chicken wire in front of this but well off the track so no need to go near it.
Stunning.
Bit dodgy going under the shawls here, am sure over the years there’s been some damage.
I love these formations, so fragile.
More of that “yellow” coloured formations.
We’re at the end of the main passage now and there’s a small crawl to get to a small side passage and small chamber. Not many of us took the time to crawl through, just the leader and four of us. Was worth the effort.
Photo of me at one of the formations (thanks David S).
The group shot!
I’d definitely recommend this cave to others, highly decorated and only took 3 hours but that was because we took the time to go through the small crawl. It’s a mere 200m from where you park the car too!
Honeycomb – 14/1/25 – this cave was accessed by a small abseil with a diversion (to make sure the rope didn’t rub against any sharp rocks). This is a “wild cave” not a show cave and as such had no infrastructure, other than the big cement structure surrounding the abseil. There’s no gate on it so again GPS data has been stripped from the photos.
The team before we entered the cave. (photo Onni)
I was the second person down, see the diversion to the left of me (the red sling with a carabiner on it).
Next down was Sil.
At the bottom there wasn’t too much room so each of us had to take off our abseil gear (not needed to go through the cave), and then go down the passage that Sil is in.
Jim on the descent.
Sil now moving down the passageway and I’m following her.
Nice photo of Sil and me (Onni).
Onni about to go through a small squeeze.
This lovely formation is where we stopped our forward progression through the cave.
Everyone else was going off on a side passage, with a couple of step over holes that I wasn’t keen to step over LOL so I stayed at the formation and waited for them all to return.
Group photo with us all showing that we had our gloves on (we were all wearing gloves after the “Caving Softly” presentation by David W-C although Onni may not be wearing them as he’d been setting up the photo and then raced across to be in the photo). (Photo Onni).
So, we turned around to go back to the entrance to do the prussik up. And this is where it got a little scary for me. There were a few spots that were just too difficult for me to climb (particularly with my slippery, muddy boots), and at one point I had to step first on the leader’s leg and then on his shoulders to get up (swearing all the way!). There was one other dodgy spot too but I think someone held my foot in place so I wouldn’t slip so that wasn’t too bad. I managed the prussik with no issues whatsoever, we were in the cave for about 3 hours and I’d definitely do it again, maybe with better shoes, very sporty, not so many formations but well worth doing.
Dicksons – 19/1/25 – Dicksons was the final cave for the trip, there are actually 2 caves, Dicksons A and Dicksons B. We started out with Dicksons A. Again, I’ve stripped the GPS data from these images as the wild cave isn’t gated.
The entrance, very easy to get in/out, simple walk in with a small slope.
Shortly after entering, we came across a large chamber and off to the side the remnants of garbage. This cave had been used as the garbage dump for the property (in the old days they wouldn’t have had garbage pick up, a lot of properties used “holes in the ground” to get rid of their garbage). There was a small daylight hole off to the side, very convenient.
Our first crawl.
Followed soon after by a drop down.
Garry at a small step up and crawl.
Were now standing in the largest chamber. This had many “holes” in the walls that on the way back Garry set up for a photoshoot with all of us each sitting in one of the holes. Would have made a great photo.
We headed down a slot leading off from the Chamber.
A small drop, you landed on the two dodgy rocks at the bottom of the image.
Small squeeze into another passage.
Now we’re heading up that dodgy climb down, those rocks were quite loose.
A couple of us crawled through into a small chamber, only big enough for 4 or 5 people, and one of the kids with us crawled through to see if there was anything beyond (nothing).
The only problem I had getting out was a small climb up, but I called the leader back and was able to use his foot to pull myself up, so no bit problems for me throughout the whole trip through Dicksons A.
Dicksons B was another issue, after entering the cave there was an iffy climb down which I would have attempted with my usual team, but I decided this wasn’t the day to trust people I really didn’t know, so I set myself up in the sun to wait for them all to come back.
Dicksons were definitely repeat trips, both very sporty.
So that ended my caving at the Conference. Trish and I headed back the following day heading non-stop for the Central Coast – took us 10 hours with some stops.
So, Buchan, would I go back. In a heart beat, with the exception of 1, I only did easy trips and I’d love to go back with my usual team and do some harder caves, of which there are many. So, MSS, when are we going back?
Big thanks to Trish for driving me down and to those who shared the accommodation with me, and most of all, thanks to the Conference organisers, excellent conference, well done!