Chillagoe caves, Australia

In 1988 I was living in Cairns, north Queensland, Australia. I did several caving trips to the Chillagoe area, which is in the outback, 215 km west of Cairns. Some of the caving trips were with the Chillagoe Caving Club, others I was working as a cave guide for a Cairns tour company.

Chillagoe is a small outback town, this is the post office -

Some of the caves are beautiful with many formations.

These photos are not good, as I don't have a scanner, so just took photos of the photos!


I was incredibly lucky to visit Bugrake Cave as it is normally closed, owing to the beautiful formations. The small entrance is in a hillside and starts as a 55' pitch. The cave consists of 3 beautiful chambers, with masses of stal, a pure white floor, a ceiling covered in thousands of stals, straws and some huge helictites as well as tiny ones, pools, small gours etc. It was just wonderful. The cave is in good condition and the stal is clean, the only real damage being to the floor. The cave was hot. These photos are Bugrake Cave -

This cave is CH123 Ryans Creek - A very pretty but short cave. Almost a walk in entrance over boulders then into a large passage with coral, stal, a large curtain, bats and spiders. There were some long tree roots hanging down.

 

See my article on Chillagoe in the Brunei Times 2008.