TASMANIA – 16 February 2026
After my stopover in Hobart, I headed down to Maydena with Chrissy who had picked me up from Hotel Astor. We arrived on the Saturday afternoon and she dropped me off at the AirBnB, then I lazed around with the Cave Rescue guys for a couple of days until Brian (head honcho) suggested that he take Chrissy and me to do a short cave.
We headed over to the Junee Cave State Reserve to the Resurgence. The track weaves through moisture-loving ferns, bracken, moss and lichen. The 18,500 hectare Junee-Florentine karst system has the deepest two caves in Australia, the Tachycardia and Niggly caves both have an approximate depth of 375m (at the time the information sign was produced). Apparently other caves in the system contain well-preserved Aboriginal heritage in the form of animal bones, tools, hearths and hand stensils. We’d be going into a teeny-tiny cave LOL.
So here we are on the Junee Cave State Reserve, this nice track will take us to The Resurgence. Just the three of us, Brian, Chrissy and me.
A lot of water coming down from the cave opening.
The track is well maintained with duck-board in sections where the track may be eroded when crossing over small streams.
15 minutes later we’ve arrived at what would be the end of the road for tourists.
Chrissy at The Resurgence (they call where the water comes out of a cave a resurgence). We had to climb over the railing (back a few metres) so that we could get into the cave.
Chrissy about to lower herself into the freezing cold stream.
Brian lends a hand, crossing a fast-flowing streamway is often challenging.
Me heading upstream.
Heading upstream.
This looks like the end of the road, but we had to make our way beyond the left-hand turn. The water looks quite deep.
Brian standing for a photo op. I wasn’t really keen about getting that wet.
Particularly as he went up to his arm pits before getting into shallower water. I was about to chicken out, particularly as I had my phone with me and armpit deep for Brian is up to my neck for me. Not to be a wimp though, I put my phone on a rock and then made my way around holding onto handholds on the left-hand wall. Surprisingly, I was able to make my way around only getting wet up to the top of my thighs.
We’re at the end of the road (for us now). The way forward involves cave diving as this is a “sump”, you can only go forward by swimming under the rock here.
Nice shot by Chrissy showing the size of the chamber and the formations on the ceiling.
Making our way downstream to the exit. It was at this point that Chrissy gracefully lost her footing and was totally submerged. But, she took it like a trooper.
Back on her feet and making her way out with brian.
Back at the lookout, a cool 20 minute visit.
Final crossing of the creek at the lookout.
Downstream, really pretty part of the creek.
And looking upstream.
The Junee-Florentine area is where the “shit-hot” cavers go, far too big for me. I had the opportunity to go caving three days later, but the temperature on the day was chilly in the morning and the cave would be wet, only up to your knees, but I couldn’t bring myself to get wet and be cold for 3 or 4 hours, so gave it a miss. Sort of nice to be able to say “no” and not have massive FOMO.
Thanks Brian and Chrissy for sharing this experience.