MT ETNA, CENTRAL QUEENSLAND – 20-30 April 2026
As a general rule, a person who’s never caved before doesn’t wake up one morning and think “I’m going to go caving” and off they go. You’re usually introduced to caving by someone who’s already been caving, like a friend or your parents. And, generally, when you take a person who has never been caving you teach them to “leave no trace” and “caving softly”. This is why, for me, when I visited Johansen’s1 Cave at Mt Etna, it was disappointing to discover the amount of graffiti and unnecessary and often incorrect navigational directions in the cave.
Graffiti removal in Johansen’s1 Cave wasn’t even on the agenda when 15 cavers from all over Australia turned up on the 20th April to survey. Whilst I had planned to survey, my plans changed and I became obsessed with this latest (and longest running) chapter in the history of Johansen’s – maybe obsessed isn’t the right word, pissed off would be more like it!
Before I detail the extent of the graffiti, for those who aren’t across the history of Mt Etna, which is just across the road from Johansen’s cave, you can Google it or read my brief synopsis here, and if you read it, you’ll see that Mt Etna itself has been hard done by. But in my opinion, Johansen’s history is just as horrifying as that of Mt Etna.
Chapter 1 for Johansen’s cave was relatively benign. Although disputed by Joself M.C. Vavryn2 , (I prefer the article that follows lol) according to the Central Queensland Herald, dated 10 April 1930, Johansen’s Cave at Mount Etna was discovered on March 11th, 1886, by teenager “Charlotte Mathison, who at 3 yrs old arrived in Queensland with her parents from Norway in 1871.” As a teenager, she lived with her parents 12 miles from Rockhampton.
Whilst out hunting with her dogs the dogs startled a kangaroo and headed off in pursuit. She headed after them and they led her to a “hilly bit of country where (she) hadn’t been before”. She “ascended to the summit of a small hill in order to sight Mt. Parnassus, which is one of the landmarks of the district by which I was accustomed to guide myself. While on the top of the hill I observed … in a little hollow a mass of craggy-looking cliffs resembling the rocks I had seen at Olsen’s Caves (now known as Capricorn Caves). It struck me at once that there might be caves there, … like those found by Mr. Olsen, and I felt anxious to begin a search for them at once. It was too late to do anything that day, though, as it was already between 3 and 4 o’clock in the afternoon, and I had no candles with me or coloured chalks such as we used when exploring any of these caves in order to mark the entrances and other points so as to be able to make sure of our way out again. Besides that, I would be none the worse for a companion on any of the adventures I might have, as I know there was always some little risk”.
(Note, this could have been the first graffiti in the cave but well done Charlotte at least you were going to use chalk rather than paint!)
“The next day, accompanied by my stepfather Mr. Johansen, (after whom the cave was named) we returned to the place. Leaving the scrubby patch we ascended the rising cliffs and after a short search … we found our first (small) cave … we lit candles and found that the floor was covered with loose white gravelly stones, and the roof and walls were covered with fine stalactites, resembling white coral. This we called Coral Roof.”
“Rising early next day … (we found) our second cave. The thing that drew our attention to it was a large circular break in the face of a perpendicular cliff, within which the ground appeared to slope steeply downward. The break looked to us like the opening of a drain, leading to the interior of the cliff. We descended about three feet. The entrance was narrow, steep, and inconvenient, and led through a mass of red, glass-like rock. … The floor was covered with bat guano. We endeavoured to test the depth of the deposit but were never able to find the bottom of it. We observed some holes in the sloping floor and noticed that the loose surface of the guano seemed to slide towards these openings and disappear through them, probably to other caves beneath. Swarms of owls, flying foxes, and bats inhabit this and the other caves. … The noise of their screams and catlike screeches and the flapping of their wings against the rocks as they pass through the entrances is very great. …The bats feed on moths and wild figs, and also on the fruit of a tree which bears a purplish plum. The wild fig and this scrub plum are the only trees which grow on those rocks. Their roots penetrate the crevices and are to be seen in the caves hundreds of feet beneath. The same day that we found the Crystal Cave we returned home, but on the Easter Monday, … we went there for a picnic, … (and) discovered a group of caves, some 35 in all.”
A mere 6 years later in 1892, Chapter 2 was unfolding. “A report regarding the feasibility of mining guano from Olsens and Johansen’s Caves was prepared by the assistant Government geologist, Mt William H Rands … and guano had been removed.3”
It took a while for the mining to take off, The Gympie Times (7 March 1914) headline “Mount Etna Guano Deposits” detailed what may not have been the first mining of guano in the Mount Etna Caves, but it certainly records the leap in production. “The “Chronicle” has received information to the effect that a deposit that exists in the vicinity of Rockhampton. The deposits of guano which are to be (extracted) … are found in the limestone caves at a place called Mt Etna, about, fifteen miles outside or Rockhampton. The fertiliser, is said to be of exceptionally good quality”.
“… the syndicate intends to make the guano industry a very big thing for Queensland. … the guano can … be got into the Rockhampton port at a mini cost as there is a railway in close proximity. When in Rockhampton several weeks ago Dr. Jones and Mr. Inglis had the good fortune to meet the Minister for Agriculture, Mr. White (who) … was particularly interested in the project. … Dr. Jones (also) mentioned (the) beauty of the limestone caves in which the guano deposits are found. The caves, it is stated, provide unlimited opportunities for scientific research, and it is quite ‘on the cards’ that some … of the scientists who are to visit Australia shortly, will be tasked to make time to visit these remarkable caverns.”
The mining started in 1914 and continued until 1939 when super phosphate was found to be cheaper, more effective and easier to produce. However, evidence of the guano mining still remains in the cave’s chambers, massive ring bolts in the rock, wooden trestles which would facilitate the guano being taken out of the caves, and “guano level” evidence of exactly how much guano had been removed (there are what I think are brown “guano levels” all through the cave, some just a metre high, but others up much higher.
A metal bar, roughly 20cm long at head height, must have been part of transporting the guano through the cave.
More infrastructure, near the current main entrance chamber, these wooden poles are approximately 1m high.
More poles, these ones are about 40cm high.
This is the remains of what would have been a “train line”, the infrastructure would have come from the hole in the distance and the trestles would have taken the line across this depression, from there the floor of the cave had been flattened so that the load could be transferred to Chamber A, approximately 100 – 200m of passageway. All of this infrastructure is now considered of historical value so will remain in the cave until it rots.
During the mining of the guano, the miners found the “flying foxes” to be of particular annoyance (Chapter 3). There is no written confirmation that this event occurred but we were told that during the mining of the guano, the miners decided that they would solve the “problem” of the “flying foxes” and they took drums of Sulphur into the caves and burned it resulting in a mound of (probably) 200 “flying foxes” which were actually ghost bats.
They are quite big, the size of a fruit bat but definitely cuter than a fruit bat. Fruit bats don’t usually hang out in caves, but back when the guano miners were around, they probably wouldn’t have known that.
The Qld ghost bat population extends from northern Qld with the southern most population being at Mt Etna. What was probably the largest southern colony of ghost bats now totals 26 (the Mt Etna population in 2012 was 254). They are very slow reproductively and only produce 1 juvenile at most (out of the whole colony) per year. National Parks now lock the gate of Johansen’s from November to May so that the bats are not disturbed (young are delivered between September and November). Locking the gate at the main entrance of the cave is all well and good, but apparently there are numerous ungated entrances and despite CCTV to record those who are breaking the law and continuing to disturb the bats, people are still entering … what part of “no entering the cave” do they not understand?
This gate at the main entrance, when closed would surely be a clue to even the dumbest person that you are not supposed to enter the cave. There’s also a large sign explaining why!
Concurrent with Chapter 2, Chapter 4 saw the mining of limestone from 1925 to 2004, apparently starting at Limestone Ridge, and there is evidence that some mining occurred at Johansen’s cave probably due to its easy proximity to the road. We’ve been told that it may have been found to be uneconomical so the quarrying was moved to Mt Etna, but the damage had already been done.
And here we are at Chapter 5 (took a long time to get through my ranting didn’t it!) – the graffiti. Noel, our local contact (along with Clive), took us though a familiarization tour of Johansen’s so that the surveyors had an idea of what was in store for them. We were all gob-smacked by the amount of graffiti in the cave. The survey teams seemed to have more than enough surveyors in each team so I suggested that I might remove6 some of the graffiti. Six days later, I’ve recorded 66 items (with before and after photos) – plus I have another 80 odd photos that I can’t match up (can’t match a “before” with an after “shot”). Here’s more of my ranting!
This was probably the second piece of graffiti we saw, quite close to the main entrance. The pink paint was difficult to get off, and I had to work particularly hard to eliminate that blue penis. Who does graffiti of a penis, if the cave was able to speak it would be laughing at you!
These were 7 of 11 splashes of blue paint in the Trestle Chamber area, 9 of which were in a 3sqm area on varying pieces of rock. Why? this was my first experience with this kind of paint (apparently the mining industry use it for temporary road markings).
Orange paint – all in the same area near the Elephant passageway which is off E Chamber. Same type of paint as the blue paint but was marginally easier to get off, it was splashed over rock with a faint covering of dust and didn’t adhere as well as the blue paint. Also throughout the cave were similar green and purple paint splashed around.
This was all in the one chamber, obviously the same person or group of people, thankfully whatever was used was easy to take off, but really? What were you thinking? And they had to access this chamber from another entrance, so they’ve obviously been here before, you don’t just “happen upon” this chamber!
The yellow paint was the worst graffiti that I had to remove, there are at least six more that I didn’t finish. In the Trestle area, there were three of these yellow blobs (about 15cm x 15cm) within a 10m passageway – what’s that about? It’s not to show the way out, it’s a passage FFS, there’s no-where else to go? These yellow blobs where in pretty much every chamber/passageway so whoever did this is either a repeat offender or spent a whole day in the cave.
There are some items that are seen as “historical” and have not been touched, the above (eg A, B, etc) identify certain chambers for guano mining, these are roughly 30cm high and stand out.
And last but not least, the arrows. They weren’t all pointing to the way out, some were pointing into another chamber. In some locations there were at least 4 or 5 arrow, all pointing the same way. What were you thinking you dick-head, if 2 arrows weren’t enough you had to add a third?
Before anyone says “what? you’ve taken out the arrows that show the way out!” During the course of our surveying, small discrete tags which reflect light when your head torch/light is in the area. They assist navigation in the cave so there is no need for people to create any more arrows (well, that’s the hope anyway).
See this, the O and arrow have been “painted” with acetylene 5. Graffiti such as this is considered historic so I can’t remove it. The arrow shows the way out, so, WTF is that red arrow there for, it’s not even showing the way out for navigation!
And just around the edge of the rock from the acetylene abomination is this arrow. It’s pointing down … to what? Whoever did this must not have known that the ground is where his feet are, maybe he wanted to let others know that the ground was there. There’s a rock there but Blind Freddie could see that, why put a downward pointing arrow there? It’s just stupidity.
I cannot conceive that cavers from anywhere other than the Rockhampton area would do this to a cave. Nor can I conceive that a tourist passing through just happens to carry with them paint or chalk to leave their mark on the cave. The only answer that I can come up with is that locals are doing this. Here you have a cave that you have free access to for 3 months of the year and you deface it! FFS if there’s an arrow there showing you the way out, you do NOT have to put in a second, third or fourth one!
I am hopeful that the graffiti isn’t replaced, but am not confident. Fingers Crossed. Big thanks to Cathi H-H for organising this event, and to Noel for his help and support!
1 So, before anyone contacts me to tell me I’ve spelt the name wrong, contact the Queensland Government (www.qld.gov.au/nationalparks) to let them know that they’ve made a mistake on the sign at the entrance. I’ve gone with their “Johansen’s Cave”, even though I know that you don’t put an apostrophe before the “S” when you name a feature in Australian mapping. So, for those who would use Johansens, Johannsens and Johanssens, my apologies.
2 Josef M.C. Vavryn in his article “The Fight to Save Mount Etna Caves from Limestone Mining” quotes “Although no records exist at this time, the discovery of Johansens Caves by John Olsen occurred around the year 1886 (Theodore Olsen, deceased personal comment 1967). Theo Olsen, son of John Olsen, did not call the caves on Linestone Ridge “Johansens Caves” but called them Mount Etna Caves. This name also appeared on Lands Department maps.”
3 Mr William H Rands 1892
4 A review of ghost bat ecology, threats and survey requirements prepared by R.D. Bullen, May 2021 for the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment.
5 A carbide lamp or acetylene gas lamp is a simple lamp that produces and burns acetylene (C2H2), which is created by the reaction of calcium carbide (CaC2) with water (H2O). This used to be used to creates a light for cavers but in Australia is no longer used. In the early days of caving, the by-product of the reaction was often used by the cavers to write on walls in the cave – obviously this is frowned upon these days!
6When cleaning/removing graffiti in a cave, it’s essential that, when possible, water from the cave (or water from nearby without chemicals) should be used, along with towels to soak up the residue from the graffiti so that it doesn’t remain in the cave. Soft plastic bushes are recommended for formations, wire brushes should only be used if formations are not involved.