CLUB HONOURS RAULEIGH WEBB

On Saturday evening, 8 September, WASG members old and new gathered for a convivial meal at the Santa Fe restaurant in Subiaco. The food was tasty and the company good, and the traditional clay stove blazing away in the corner warmed the atmosphere still further.

After dinner, the primary purpose of the evening was revealed. We had come together to honour a club member and former President who for many years has worked passionately and tirelessly in the service of caves and caving – Rauleigh Webb. Though some of the details of Jay’s presentation speech were lost in the general bustle of the restaurant, everyone was happy to see Rauleigh accept his certificate of Honorary Life Membership of WASG. He was also presented with a framed, original cave drawing by Frances Loveday.

Rauleigh holding his framed Honorary Life Membership Certificate

In Jay’s words, “Rauleigh’s contribution to caving and conservation in WA cannot be calculated”. To give some idea, however, I reprint below the synopsis which was prepared by the committee in recommending the honorary life membership, which needless to say was overwhelmingly accepted by the club. Congratulations, Rauleigh.

Having organised the function, the committee took the opportunity (inspired by the excellent example of SRG) to present some further club awards at the same time. WASG has not previously had annual awards – or at least not in the recent history of which I am aware – so we had a little catching up to do, as can be seen by the titles of some of the awards! The awards were decided by a secret ballot at the September general meeting, and each winner also received a book or other gift appropriate to the particular award. The recipients were:

Surveyor of the Millennium: Barry Loveday

Explorer of the Decade:
Lex Bastian, Darren Brooks (joint winners)

Surveyor of the Year: Ian Collette

Conservation Caver of the Year:
Jay Anderson, Rauleigh Webb (joint winners)

Caver of the Year: Lex Bastian

This has been a vintage year for Lex Bastian, who was voted Caver of the Year by both WASG and SRG.

RAULEIGH’S CAVING CAREER AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Rauleigh has been an “active” caver for a long time (over 25 years now). By “active” we not only mean “caving lots”, but also being involved in other aspects such as assisting in the organisation of WASG and the ASF and being a member of groups of people committed to all aspects of caving and who meet regularly. Rauleigh started caving in 1976 and became a Trip Leader in 1978. He has, at all times, had the interest of the caves at heart. This is often in complete, selfless disregard to what other people would think of his actions or opinion.

Rauleigh has served on many committees that include the ASF, the WASG committee and CAC (Caves Access Committee), and has been active in advocating the conservation of caves and karst at all times. He joined ACKMA (Australasian Cave & Karst Management Association) years ago because he saw the need to get involved in management of caves and to educate landowners and cave managers. He was a WASG representative on various committees involved in the management of caves, such as the CMAC (Caves Management Advisory Committee) in Margaret River. Rauleigh developed the Minimal Impact Caving Code when he saw a need for cavers to be aware of the impact that caving causes. He has been the ASF Conservation Co-Convenor for WA for over 13 years. This has involved coordination of a number of conservation projects and writing reports to the government and the annual reports to the ASF.

Rauleigh has been involved in numerous projects – for example, the Quinninup Lake Cave Jigsaw project that rehabilitated broken stalagmites and cave formations by piecing them back together. He has been an active advocate for caves and the need for trackmarking and routemarking and other Minimal Impact Caving methods. Rauleigh was also strongly involved with the Australian Bicentennial project, where a grant was received for improving the area around Brides and Calgardup entrances. He has significantly contributed to the rehabilitation work inside many caves such as Golgotha cave.

In more recent years, Rauleigh developed a great website called “Western Australia Speleology”, as well as the “OZCAVERS” email list, both of which foster communication between cavers on a national and even international scale. For many years now, Rauleigh has hosted the WASG web pages on his own site at little or no cost to WASG. He developed the WASG member database system for free, and this system was then adopted for the ASF membership database. Rauleigh also developed the current database for the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park cave permit system which currently operates in the south of WA.

Rauleigh has worked with numerous other bodies (other caving clubs, scouts etc) to help their members visit caves and learn how to cave in a careful and safe way. In his role as a WASG Trip Leader, he has assisted in educating and training many members of caving groups within Australia. Rauleigh also helped, along with several other experienced Perth cavers, to develop a training system for cave leaders.

Rauleigh has been called a “Cave Surveyor Extraordinaire”. He has mapped many caves in Australia and overseas, thus contributing to the combined knowledge of caves in a variety of karst areas. These areas include the south-west of WA and the Nullarbor. He has been the WA coordinator for the Australian Karst Index, an ASF position involving liaison with the ASF and WA caving clubs with regard to cave information – a massive job in itself. In addition to this, Rauleigh has been the State Cave Recorder and Map Curator for numerous years. Basically he is the WASG Map Library custodian, which has recently involved a lot of work to set up an inventory system where the maps are catalogued and categorised for easy reference.

More recently, members would be aware of the Exmouth court case (mining application by Learmonth Limestone) that the ASF and WA caving clubs have been involved in. Rauleigh has been the primary organiser behind this important project. He has spent countless hours of his time researching, meeting with lawyers and preparing the case for court. Rauleigh then spent many days of his time away from work and in court to support the case. As this case has not yet been completed, there is still more work that is being done on an ongoing basis that Rauleigh is involved in.

Here is a list of some of Rauleigh’s achievements. It is as much as we could find out from various members, and it is highly likely that we have missed something out. The list is varied and shows his depth of knowledge and experience that has been gained over many years caving.

Committee Positions:

President of WASG in 1981, 1987, 1988

Secretary of WASG in 1991 and 1996

Vice President of WASG from 1983-1984, SRGWA in 1980, and the ASF from 1983-1984, 1987-1991

Co-ordination Officer of WASG in 1978 and 1994

Editor of the “Western Caver” from 1979 to 1981

Convenor of the ASF Commission on Conservation in 1983-1984 and 1987-2000

Member of the Cave Working Group (Department of Conservation & Environment) 1980-1992

Member of the Cave Management Advisory Committee for WASG (CALM in the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park) from 1990-1997

Conservation Council Delegate for WASG from 1981-1989

Caves Access Committee Member for WASG from 1980 - 1983

State Cave Recorder and WASG Map Curator from 1982 to current

Member of the organising committee for the ASF Conference in WA in 1978 - WACCON

Chairman of the organising committee for the ASF Conference in WA in 1991- Cave Leeuwin

Caving Trips:

Member of 1982 Expedition to Muller Range, New Guinea for 2 months

Leader – Expedition to Cape Range 1980

Leader – Expedition to Christmas Island 1987

Leader – Expedition to China in 1992

Leader – Expedition to the caves of the Pilbara region of WA in 1996

Conducted study tour - Adventure Caves in Sarawak, Malaysia in 1988

Conducted study tour - Adventure and Tourist Cave Management, USA for 3 months in 1989

Participated in over 15 Expeditions to the caves and karst of the Nullarbor Plain over 24 years including the study of the slow flowing “lakes” of the Nullarbor Karst.

ASF Positions:

Appointed Convenor of the ASF Commission on Conservation (“Conservation Commissioner”) in 1983-1984 and 1987 to 2000

Vice President of the ASF from 1983 to 1984, 1987 to 1991

Conservation/Cave Management:

Attended his first Cave Management Conference Yallingup 1978

Attended 7 conferences conducted biennially by ACKMA in Australia and 2 in New Zealand

Developed the Minimal Impact Caving Code for the ASF, adopted in 1995

Produced Cave Management Recommendations for Cape Range in 1995

Examination of Karst in Central Kalimantan in 1997

Cave and Karst Management Plan study group member to Christmas Island in 1998