Witchcliffe - The Caves
is an excellent one to visit. It has a small circular doline with a vertical
shaft at the bottom leading down to a rubble pile and then down to the stream.
Downstream from the entrance, the passage is low and of the 80 m of passage,
only 50 m can be comfortably traversed. From the entrance to the upstream
section, the Western Australian Museum's palaeontological dig must be walked
around and a hole negotiated to get to the lower chamber. Several other
rockpiles and crawls are passed through, including the Snowflake Passage,
before reaching the main stream passage. Moving upstream past the rapids, which
consist of gneiss bedding covered with tree roots, one comes to the Devil's
Horns. This is a helictite formed on the bottom of a straw. The next point of
interest from here is the calcified bones in the wall on the left-hand side if
proceeding upstream. Around the bend from here is the Judge's Wig. This is a
large impressive mass of crystalline formation of pure white calcite which
stands out well against a dark background. On from here is one large rockpile
and then the terminal chamber in which the world's longest straw can be seen.
Surrounding it are some equally long tree roots, making it difficult to
distinguish the straw. A soil band can be seen in the roof throughout the cave.
This is thought to be were one dune has settled and soil has been allowed to
form, and later more sand has blown over forming another dune.
Not far from Strong's Cave is Devil's Lair, situated in the Nannup doline. The
Department of Palaeontology of the W.A. Museum, under the direction of Dr
Duncan Merrilees, has performed excavations in this cave over a period of
years. The results of this dig have been extremely interesting, indicating the
presence of aborigines in the south-west for a greater time than previously
supposed. Nannup Cave itself is worth a visit, being an old abandoned stream
cave with some good formation. Also some historic graffiti can be seen on the
formation. Dingo and Mill Caves are not far away. These two caves were formed
by the same stream that carved out Strong's Cave and are separated only by
collapses. Mill Cave is upstream of Strong's Cave and the entrance pitch can be
free climbed. A shallow lake once graced the main chamber but has disappeared
as a result of the receding water table in the Leeuwin-Naturaliste area. The
large tree root in the middle of this chamber has been badly vandalised in
recent times. Two hours is ample to study the cave.
is downstream from Strong's Cave. The entrance solution pipe can be free
climbed. The Christmas Tree and some beautiful crystalline filled solution
pipes in the ceiling nearby, are two examples of the speleothems to be found in
this cave. (See if you can spot the bat partly entombed in flowstone.)
are about 3 km south of the campsite. The pipe is 23 m deep and is the best
abseil into a cave in this area. This cave is a small stream cave, 160 m in
length, terminating in a large chamber filled with rock. Voice contact has been
established here with Arumvale Cave. Two hours is quite adequate to visit this
cave. Arumvale Cave, (a locked cave) is located further up the hill. The
entrance is very unstable and several ladders are required to reach the bottom
which is at a depth of 57 m from the surface. A camera should be taken as the
formation is excellent. The total length of the cave is about 500 m, the first
200 m being dry and well decorated. The last 300 m is wet and muddy, and one
must crawl to the end of the cave in the stream. About four hours is required
to see this cave. Extreme caution must be exercised at the entrance pitch.
While stopping at the campsite, it is a must to drive through the Karri forest
to the Boranup look-out. Also, a trip to the beach is worthwhile though a four
wheel drive is advisable on the rocky road. The Boranup Sand Patch is a
recorded aboriginal site. For those who do not want to go caving, a day here is
well spent and it is near an excellent beach.
This cave is one of the few spectacular vertical entrance caves of the
South-West of Western Australia. The circular collapse doline is 35m
across falling 30m on the longer side of the sloping floor or 17m on the
short side.
The cave has suffered from its original development for tourism, which
was never effected because of a bush fire that burnt the entrance gate
and the top of the initial wooden platform.
The current use of the cave is mainly abseiling. The cave is one of the
self guiding high conservation caves within the permit system operated by
CALM in the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park. It is heavily used,
mainly by commercial operators and school groups. Maximum group size is
20 and permits are issued for AM or PM bookings.
Considerable damage has occurred at the surface take-off point and the
shorter ladder climb from the cave. Besides this damage considerable
track damage has occurred at the abseil landing point as well as on
unstable slopes in the doline and cave. One "slope" which was severely
damaged has now been identified as an owl deposit containing millions of
bones. This area has been barricaded using track markers and the deposit
brushed to remove foot prints. A full appraisal of the deposit will be
made in the near future.
Restoration work has been undertaken by CALM and volunteers. The large
flowstone formations on the walls of the main chamber (see the photo's
from the map)have been washed to
remove the dirt carried onto the flowstone by cavers thoughtless
climbing. The water pressure was not enough to remove this material -
scrubbing was required. After several hours of scrubbing and washing the
flowstones were returned to their original beauty. Barricades of fishing
line holding red track markers now clearly indicate that this is a no-go
area. A sign explains what the track markers are for.
A future program will undertake the restoration of the sand chamber at
the northern end of the cave. The staircases and platforms in this area
have been buried in a meter and a half of sand in places. These
platforms will be excavated and sensitive areas barricaded to prevent
further degradation of the soil cones within this area of the cave. A
great deal of back filling of sand excavated on one wall of the sand
chamber and beneath a large flowstone will also be undertaken. This
and track markers put in place to prevent further degradation of the
flowstone.
This cave is a locked Self Guided Class II cave which has received
heavy visitation for many years. It was developed as a tourist cave
and its impressive wooden gate is a result of that development. Many
of the old staircases rotted and were removed from the cave. A
Bicentennial project called Cavcare performed considerable restoration
to the cave formations as well as its stairways. As a result the cave
can now take relatively large groups of 15 under the permit system. If
groups remain on the marked paths damage to the cave should be minimised.
During 1994 the largest shawl in the South-West of Western Australia was
destroyed (4m long x 1m wide) by persons unknown in Golgotha Cave. This
tragedy would have been avoided if cavers had remained on the marked
trails as the shawl was some 10m from the nearest trail. It is hoped
that education will halt this destruction.
Here are three photographs of some of the smaller, but interesting
speleothems in Golgotha Cave.
 | Click on the picture for a 22Kb
JPG photo of small lightly yellow coloured calcite nodules. |
 | Click on the picture for a 49Kb JPG of
a "bleeding" flowstone - this formation looks like it has been shot and blood
is flowing from the wound. The origin of the dark red coloured flow is unknown but
occurs in several caves in the South-West. |
 | Click on the picture for a 35Kb JPG of Kevin
Beckham next to a small flowstone in the main chamber. |
