AusEmade: Yarrangobilly Information and Attractions, New South Wales, Australia

As water soaks through the ground, it combines with carbon dioxide to form a weak acid solution that dissolves limestone. This acidic water flows through cracks in the rock and widens them. Eventually the cracks develop into a system of tubes and chambers called ‘caves’.

Cave decorations

When the solution containing dissolved limestone reaches a cave, carbon dioxide is release and a mineral, calcite is deposited. Calcite is usually white or clear, but if it picks up iron from the soil, it changes colour, usually orange, yellow or reddish brown. These deposits are known as formations or decorations, although the technical term is ‘speleothems’. There are many different types of speleothems including stalactites, stalagmites, shawls and flowstones.

Cave life

Some of the spiders, insects and other animals living in the caves at Yarrangobilly are found nowhere else. An unusual feature of these caves is that very few are used by bats. There are no bats in the caves that are open for inspection.

Underground streams

Dry valleys are common in limestone cave areas, because water often flows underground through caves. These streams have been ‘captured’ and the point through which they enter the ground is called a sink hole or swallet.

Dolines

Large circular depressions, such as those in the picnic area besides Rules Creek, are ‘dolines’. As water removes the underlying rock the surface material subsides and sometimes collapses into caves.

It is now generally understood that the quality of water entering caves must be protected. In the past, however, dolines were often used as rubbish pits.

Source: NSW Parks & Wildlife Service

Yarrangobilly Caves Other Links

• Yarrangobilly Caves Community/Local Government Links

NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service

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