DISCLAIMER: The information on this page almost certainly does contain
errors. It is largely of DRAFT quality intended for private study, by
members of a cooperative for the study of the Lachlan/Sydney/Hunter
regions. If you would like to join this cooperation and/or contribute
information, please contact LachlanHunter at john.mail@ozemail.com.au
or telephone (Sydney) 02 9747 3701.
JANNALI
Jannali sandy clay - At Janalli railway station there is exposed an unusual deposit of off-white sandy clay. This deposit is up to 4m preserved thickness and has a rather flat base over Hawkesbury Sandstone. The clay seems totally devoid of pebbles. It has strongly developed vertical partings, and circular insect burrows in places. It could be either some sort of upland internal drainage or swampy deposit, or be of high level overbank fluviatile origin, or less likely have something to do with gradient reduction associated with stream capture/reversal as have been envisaged for sluggish underfit and seemingly defunct waterways of the Thirlmere Lakes area. The suggested alternative of it being a deeply weathered Triassic sandy shale is unlikely, as no trace of any remnant shale structure can be seen.
JENOLAN CAVES
Sources:
Jenolan Caves has risen to higher fame in recent times as the world's oldest caves. Armstrong Osborne at University of Sydney, in conjunction with the Australian Museum and others have been furthering studies of cave origins (some references below). Cave guide Ted Matthews who has facilitated finding much of the information here. Especially for information on fossils, contact Ted Matthews c/- Jenolan Caves. Other good and readily available information sources include John Dunkley's "Jenolan Caves" (2007) which brings forwards for easy accessibility much from the older publications that may now be difficult to find. Unless otherwise noted, old photos below are mostly held by the Jenolan Caves Historical & Preservation Society. Also see Dunlop's guide book, in references at end.
Ted Mathews is a good contact for multimedia on Jenolan Caves. Ask about a photographic compilation on disk, drawing on photography by those mentioned on the above photo of a favositid coral, called "Aspects of Jenolan".
Contact Jenolan guides, such as Ted, for pursuit of more information on the geology at Jenolan. Consider
joining the below mailing lilst if interested in Jenolan.
A Jenolan email list:
R.A. Whyte
A Jenolan guide, Rob Whyte, started a 'Jenolan' Yahoo Groups mailing list. This is a privately run list - not associated with the Caves Trust. It started off as a few people who worked there or belonged to the historical society. Over time more people joined. You can join at: http://members.optusnet.com.au/rawhyte/getinvolved.htm
History:
European records in the area began in 1838 with the first recorded discovery by a local pastoralist James Whalan. According to popular legend James McKeown, an ex-convict and outlaw, is reputed to have been using the caves as a hideout (this however, has been disputed as no documentary support can be found). It was not until 1866 however that the caves were brought under direct government control (Caves reserve created). In 1867, Jeremiah Wilson was appointed as "Keeper" of the "Binda", or "Fish River" Caves (the Aboriginal word Jenolan, "high mountain", not being adopted until 1884).
In the 1880s an accommodation house was constructed, and in 1887 permanent electric lighting was installed. The present day Caves House complex was constructed in 1898-1918 after fire partially destroyed original buildings.
Early days - arriving at the Caves House by stage coach.
"Anyone who has ever visited Jenolan will mysteriously one day be drawn back again, either later in life or else in death .... " - knowledge supposedly (falsely) conveyed by the mythical talking ghost giant wombat that dwells in the lower levels of the caves system (Jenolan supposedly has several ghosts, including a repeatedly reported surface-dwelling ?ghost dog that frequents the parking lots but unlike the great wombat(?diprotodon) ghost never speaks to humans).
'Diprotodon' has been a name also given to magnesium flares used as a source of wider enlightenment in caverns. The 'Hairy Diprotodon' was the in house name given by cavers to the underground river cave section that should or might exist between Imperial Cave and Mammoth Cave to the north. The Keeper Jeremiah Wilson reported to the Mines Department in 1895 of his discovery of an apparent way down to this underground river cave system (which is largely inaccessible). Wilson's route was later lost but re-discovered in the 1950s --- and in 2007, skeletal remains of the real giant wombat (Diprotodon) were found in one of the caves at Jenolan. Tasmanian Devil skeletal remains have also been found (and are on display in the Imperial Cave).
Why are people drawn back to Jenolan Caves? Maybe because of a sense of the past, mystery and awe. The caves administration, and possibly others, have conducted visitor surveys which could contain individual answers to this question of why people so often return there(?). People have long been impressed by these caves. The Devil's Coachhouse cave was so named after a man reported having slept there and then awoke to see six large horses drawing a coach driven by no less than Satan himself (possibly anecdotal, as others attribute the name Devil's Coachhouse to James Whalan who discovered that the bushranger or absconded convict James McKeown [McKeowen] was living at the caves and had been establishing a small farm for himself there, ca. 1838).
[Better scan needed] A poor copy of the standard 1890s map of the caves by Oliver
Trickett. Level of the underground river is shown. The cave system totals 22 km
length and could exceed 50 km as further openings associated
with the underground river are discovered.
As seen in the above map and section, the limestone is a N-S trending wall and the Grand Arch is a transverse
(W-elongate) cavity where underground within-limestone drainages from the N, S and W amalgamate and exit eastwards to the Blue Lake (Jenolan River). The usual road approach is from the east, passing through the Grand Arch.
Left shows road emerging from the Grand Arch at the western side of the limestone, and the buildings (Caves House)
in the valley there. The higher-up house was the caretaker's cottage, and that spot was called Ginkin Point.
Photo at right shows the earliest construction, at the junction of two creeks (at the position where the
most elongate, SE-trending wing of the (old) Caves House is in the left photo) .
Wilson's first accomodation house (above right) was built in 1880 after completion of a road from Oberon allowed building materials to be brought in. The guest house contained five bedrooms and a large dining room. It easily accomodated 20-25 persons. Overflow slept in tents or in the caves. The Keeper, Jeremiah Wilson, next planned to erect a bathing spa for ladies at the nearby creek, as the limestone water had been recommended by one of the finest Sydney doctors. This house was destroyed by fire in 1895. It is known from contemporary accounts that Jeremiah Wilson maintained a comprehensive collection of writings and records about the caves, but these have been lost to history.
Caves House today
Similar old view as above, looking upslope to the (old) Caves House from small building that was a
Photographer's kiosk/studio (as early parties visiting the caves liked to have their photos taken
and there was a good business in this.
Later view of Old Caves House with the newer taller building in immediate background.
Reverse direction view, showing the New Caves House.
Another view looking down from top of limestone above Grand Arch.
The present writer is one who has fulfilled words of return as above, having been back to Jenolan quite a number of times over the years, usually only for flying visits though and I have never dwelled there or even stayed overnight (some short visits were with the Sydney University Speleological Society - SUSS). As is the case for many others, I was first taken there as a child by my parents to see the caves - feeding a budding appetite for things geological. Later on, I did an Honours area study (one year studies then) of an area a little to the south of the Caves. Staying at the Caves, a place of luxurious accomodation for the most part, would have been out of the question financially (on Commonwealth Scholarship support). Instead I stayed in a nice little hut between Jenolan and Kanangra, often accompanied there by my grandfather who also liked being out in the bush. Occasionally when we needed a little civilisation or supplies we would "go to town" into Jenolan. During that year I also suggested to the manager at the Caves that maybe they could think about encouraging some geological research on the Jenolan Caves limestone itself, about how it formed, etc. He was exceedingly scathing of such an idea, declaring that there was no money in anything like that. Quite likely he was right in a purely economic sense yet I didn't agree with him and didn't appreciate his out of hand dismissive attitude to such thoughts.
Several years later on Jenolan Caves was again considered as a possible geology Honours student area for someone interested in working on the Silurian. It was thought that perhaps the former science-hostile manager had moved on and the Caves people might now welcome a geologist trying to work out the ancient history of the place. For various reasons, however, this did not proceed beyond an initial evaluation visit at that time. Since then my own contact with Jenolan has grown less and less and perhaps there has been a lot more done since than is known of in this summary?
Early studies:
The caves became a government reserve and in 1867 Jeremiah Wilson was appointed the first resident Keeper. All the early keepers conducted exploration, working out from the vicinity of the Grand Arch. Geologically the caves were no doubt noted and many times visited by Professor David and associated geologists and students from Sydney in the later 1800s, and fossils noted (e.g. see annual report of the government Palaeontologist, Department of Mines and Agriculture, for 1893; and Etheridge 1892). Visiting geologists and students would have likely made and recorded various observations but the first systematic published study of the geology of the area was not until 1916 by Süssmilch and Stone (Süssmich, C.A. and Stone, W.G., 1916. Geology of the Jenolan Caves district. Royal Society of New South Wales. Journal and Proceedings, 40, 130-141).
Süssmilch and Stone's work formed a good the starting point of geology at the Caves. About the same time, or soon afterwards, workers at the Mines must have been mapping out the full extent of the outcropping limestone is considerable detail, as was published in Carne and Jones (1919). Analyses done at this time relect the dolomitic nature of the limestone.
Age of the Jenolan Caves Limestone:
The age of the limestone was recognised from its contained fossils as Silurian no doubt as early as the 1890s and possibly earlier. Of principal note in this regard was the large rounded equant brachiopod Pentamerus knightii which is very common in the Silurian limestone of New South Wales (Etheridge 1892). Fossils are not particularly outstanding in the limestone and many of those observed are not easily age-diagnostic (favositid corals, straight nautiloids, etc.).
This was followed by G. Stanivey who is 1925 produced a "preliminary" study of the Jenolan Caves Reserve area. Why the caves reserve area was totally omitted in the 1960s program of mapping the district by the University of NSW geology department students is not known. Perhaps it was due to that "science hostile" manager then at Caves House? The man who would know, Cliff McElroy, has since passed on but most likely the management at the Caves actively discouraged research in the area of the Caves. Giving support to that supposition is this statement from speleological sources ".. the present era of research at Jenolan began in the late 1980s ONLY because of our loud criticism of the disgraceful record of the then Dep't of Tourism. In our consultant report in 1988 we noted 'the management philosophy which has operated for much of the present century actively discouraged study, further exploration or research at Jenolan' " (John Dunkley, 2006).
The caves, regarded always as the best in New South Wales if not wider, have had ups and downs in their care - and in the running of the Caves House which the government built there. At one point, 2003, the Caves Trust quit and the funds allocated for maintaining Jenolan were widely cited as inadequate. Visitors fell from ca. 260,000 in 1995 to 214, 453 in 2003. The Caves were placed under an Administrator for some time after the Trust ceased and annual visitations increased to 240,000. Around the same time many people wrote of 'appalling' treatment they received at Caves House and the then management had its lease revoked by the government.
The University of New South Wales' mapping program in the area in the 1960s included the work of Honours students F. Chand. who in 1963 did and area northeast of Jenolan River, Brian Gulson who in 1963 mapped the area southeast of the Caves, and Boyd Pratt who in 1965 covered the area between Jenolan Caves and Ginkin. Since the university mapping program failed to cover the crown jewel of the area, a government geologist Leone Chalker in 1971 did a review of the limestone in the Caves area. After that the Jenolan Caves Limestone was again on and off thought about for an Honours area study topic, and in 1986 this finally came to pass with T.L. Allan's study of it at Sydney University. This was followed by W. Stewart, also at Sydney Uni, doing an area north of Jenolan Caves in 1987.
Allan recognised three units in the limestone, and his stratigraphy is as follows:
Age
Unit Name
Rocktypes
Thickness (m)
Siluro-Devonian
Jenolan Beds
Cleaved, purple shale and mudstone, rhyolitic ignimbrite and felsic volcaniclastic sediments.
> 1500
Late Silurian
Jenolan Caves Limestone
Bedded shaly limestone
20
Massive rudaceous limestone with coral, stromataporoid, crinoid and shell fragments
50
Massive grey muddy limestone
100
Finely bedded muddy limestone with increasing shale interbeds towards base
65
Unconformity or Disconformity
Ordovician
Rockley Volcanics
Black siliceous mudstone with radiolaria; mafic volcanilithic sandstone and local andesite
(includes Caves House Andesite)
> 1000
The plateau surface around Jenolan has been regarded as part of a general peneplain, often inferred to be Miocene, that is recognised across the Central Highlands and elsewhere. The Blue Mountains Plateau is a large remnant that is approximately at this Tertiary surface, and the basalt capping remnants there are 10-14 million years old. Indeed it is near Jenolan that the postulated former peneplain is thought to have attained its greatest elevation (1,280m) from subsequent movements (Craft, F.A., 1928. The physiography of the Cox River Basin. Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 53, 207-254). Jenolan Caves itself is 793m above sea level. With no other information, one might presume that cave formation began with such deep dissection of the peneplain and hence would be post-Miocene. However, accumulated evidence has kept pushing back the interpretated age of cave formation. Post 2006 the tourism literature generally now stresses the great age of the caves. Before then much younger ages are found discussed in the 'tourist talk', e.g. "The caves began tens of millions of years ago when the area lay beneath the ocean. Tiny coral polyps built marine cities of coral. Thousands of years later, big earth movements lifted these high into the air to form the Blue Mountains and further movements compressed and heated the coral into limestone" (in a review by someone who had visited the caves three times, and also thought the Tasmanian Devil was still being looked for but was probably extinct, confusing it with the Tasmanian Tiger). Another version told recently by a tourist: "Millions of years ago pressure in the earth caused large caves to form inside the rock. Sometimes these caves would turn into underground rivers that would work away at the rock. Eventually the water flowed out of the caves leaving these massive caverns behind" (this being reflective of the growing "thermal springs" concept for formation of dome caves - see below). Much former thinking on the age of the caves were in the range of hundreds of thousands to a few million years. Potassium argon dating on illite in cave clay, and fission track methods (on zircon) began giving ages of hundreds of millions of years, and it 2006 it was published that the caves contain Caboniferous sediment (regarded as altered volcanic ash) and must be that old or older.
Rich cave decorations at the "Egyptian Colonnades", a series of columns which
separate the Eygyptian Chamber and Persian Chamber in the Orient Cave.
(Photo: "The Jenolan Guide" newsletter by Jenolan Caves interest group,
http://members.optushome.com/melcoid )
KEYHOLE CAVE PROFILES:
Cave tunnel profile is often eliptical in vertical profile, horizontally elongate. And if the bottom of the cave is lowered further then a keyhole profile may result. Such can be seen in the following three photos.
(Left) The Grand Arch entrance from the western side. Not keyhole shape but the rather flat roof is
similar to horizontally elongate profiles. The light from the other side of the near vertical limestone
is just visible at the end of the tunnel, giving a good feel for the large thickness of the limestone,
which is ca. 235m thich at Caves House. (Photo: Wally and Erin)
Journeying along the Styx River in the "punt", River Cave, ca. 1920
[ The River Cave was discovered in 1903. Early visitors had to go through the River Cave to reach the Orient and Temple of Baal caves, which were discovered later. Until 1923, people crossed the Pool of Reflections on a little eight-person flat bottomed boat. for safety considerations, the River Cave is restricted to visitors aged six (6) years and above. ]
James Carvosso Wiburd
James Wiburd was a guide at Jenolan for nearly 50 years. He began as a casual guide in 1885, and became chief guide in 1903. He remained Chief Guide until 1932. Known as the “Cave’s loving guardian”, he fought to preserve natural beauty from unsympathetic construction. He was the discoverer of the River Cave, Pool of Cerberus Cave, and the very ornate Temple of Baal, Orient, and Ribbon Caves. In 1903 Wiburd and his fellow explorer Jack Edwards discovered the underground passageway of the Styx River. Jeremiah Wilson had previously located a section of this river and Wiburd hitting on it again was in a position to solve the riddle of where the river went. By a series of further exploration and diggings they discovered the exit tunnel where the River flows out of the limestone belt. Another discovery was in 1964 after John Culley and Ron Newbold had squirmed through holes beyond the free access end of River Cave and found another sizeable cavity, which they named Barralong Cave.
View from Carlotta Arch, near top of limestone, look east down onto the Jenolan River
and the main road to the Caves, from Hartley. (Source: NUCC)
View of the vertical bedded limestone formation from the eastern side, showing the
Grand Arch and the Carlotta Arch. Vertical bedding is visible at right hand side
of the close-up of the Carlotta Arch. The river pool (weir pond or 'Blue Lake') is
dammed and this was to provide fall for early hydroelectricity. Above the steps
and vertical stone wall is the road that is seen in the views below.
Close view of (eastern) entrance to the Grand Arch, showing the thick bedded nature
of the stratigraphic highest limestone at this point.
View from within the Grand Arch looking outwards, to the east.
Reverse view to the above, looking deeper into the Grand Arch cave. Note the flat-lying
partially corroded widened partings at the rear. This suggests internal sediment
but apparently (pers. comm. guide staff) is not and is only the result of the
dropping watertable.
The limestone trends N-S and the Jenolan River follows it, flowing south. The limestone outcrop belt extends for 8km and is 100-300 m wide. All but five of the ca. 320 cave entrances are genetically related, being associated with active and fossil drainage ways on about least discernable levels. There are at least three discrete perennial underground 'rivers' and some tributaries. Most side streams vanish underground almost immediately upon reaching the limestone belt. The major underground watercourse is the Jenolan River. All underground water flow converges or comes to surface a little downstream of the Grand Arch where the Blue Lake has been dammed for hydroelectricity generation. About 2.5 km north of Jenolan up the river valley is a large cleared river flat known as Rowe's Flat, with the stone chimney ruins of Joseph Rowe's hut. A little above that, at about 3 km up the valley. the main submergence of the river flow down to the level of the chief 'underground river' occurs. There are large caves present, such as Wiburd's Lake Cave which is 2 km of know passages and probably over 3000m in extent, and Mammoth Cave which has 3.5 km of passage ways.
The limestone is largely overturned slightly. In Spider Cave it dips at 70° to the west-southwest and is overturned; whereas on the surface above the cave the bedding is right way up, dipping at 80° to the east-northeast. Allan (1986) interpreted 1km wavelength, reclined, open folds to be present that have a shallow southerly plunge. An early cleavage is also folded by these folds.
News photo of August 2006 at the time of announcement that Jenolan had
become the oldest known open cave system in the world.
Although not well known until published in 2006 the existence of very old cave sediments have been suspected for some years before that. Armstrong Osborne had studied palaeokarst in NSW for many years (Osborne 1990, 1993, etc.) and had earlier postulated cave formation by exhumation of Palaeozoic palaeokarst deposits at Jenolan. He had also considered cave features as Permian karst legacy of the Sydney Basin (Osborne 1994), and for the .origin of Jenolan Caves: began a new synthesis and framework chronology (Osborne 1999). Osborne's (1990, 1993) palaeokarst work noted laminated dolomitic sediments and other internal palaeokarst in River Cave, Mud Tunnels, Cerberus Cave, Imperial Cave, Jubilee Cave and Ribbon Cave. Such are unconformable with the Jenolan Caves Limestone and it was also thought some had been dedolomitised. In the Permian karst legacy work (Osborne 1994) noted that in eastern Australia the longest cave systems occur near areas of Permo-Triassic basinal sediments, e.g. at Jenolan Caves (NSW), Exit Cave at Ida Bay and caves at Mole Creek in Tasmania. Osborne suggested that pyrite and dolomite were emplaced in buried palaeokarst deposits at low temperatures by basinal fluids from above. He suggested pyrite was emplaced between mid Permian and Late Cretaceous to Early Tertiary time, and perhaps related to hydrothermal activity during opening of the Tasman Sea (Late Cretaceous). Palaeokarst is considered to have significant effects on speleothem development, particularly favouring aragonite over calcite formation (an effect of high magnesium in the environment). In the SUSS Bulletin 38(4) special issue of 2001 on Spider Cave, it was noted that clearly visible in the Colosseum are two areas of brown dolomitic/ankeritic lithified cave fill, and also that similar material is present throughout the tourist caves and represents (?)Permian cave fill (R.A.L. Osborne pers. comm.). Once exposed to the atmosphere this palaeokarst "rusts" and breaks down more quickly than the primary limestone, which process has largely controlled the shape of the Colosseum and is responsible for the boulder pile filling the bottom half of this chamber.
Jenolan Caves area has a long history of people pondering how it all formed; the above left is an old
sketch and the text is the recent ideas of Rob Whyte, a caves guide at Jenolan. Jenolan employs
14 full time guides and has up to 30 at school holidays. Some have over 30 years experience
of Jenolan Caves. Guide Ted Matthews is one who has had a long interest in how the
caves formed. (e.g. http://www.ee.usyd.edu.au/suss/Bulls/47(1)/collinsjenolan.html )
Typical crawl tunnel with bare ("undecorated") limestone as occur at the lower levels at Jenolan,
around the underground stream level. Some of these passages are long and one is known as
the Infinite Crawl. (Photo: Michael Collins, Sydney Uni Speleological Society)
More "bare" undecorated passge. This one a bit wet. (Ted Mattews)
Another tunnel cave, Dwyers Cave, which is of less active or somewhat
"older" appearance. (Photo: David Connard, SUSS)
Even the ash in Jenolan Caves could have its different stories. The most famous ash is that which was dated as Carboniferous but fide Rob Whyte a guide (Luke) once saw the ghost of James Wiburd, pioneer guide, inside the Devil's Coach House - floating up towards the ceiling with ash trailing from his feet. Luke ran to get the other guides, but when they arrived the ghost had vanished but the ash it dropped was still scattered all over the floor [From Rob Whyte's collection of Jenolan stories].
More seriously, the area has been mapped but copy of the published map is not available here yet. The old cross section sketch above is looking south.
Allan (1986) suggested that the Early Devonian silicic volcaniclastics overlying the Jenolan Caves Limestone (in his informal "Jenolan Beds" or Jenolan volcanics) are likely to be contemporaneous with the Bindook Volcanic Complex.
Breccias Breccias of various sizes have been observed at Jenolan, possibly with little investigation as yet of their origins. The following photo is very coarse breccia:
Photo: Ted Matthews
Collapse breccia pipe (or Reef detritus breccia?) A breccia in Helictite Chamber of Spider Cave has been interpreted as rudaceous limestone with coarse fragments of reef detritus (SUSS Bulletin 38(4) special issue of 2001).
However there is little other evidence at Jenolan for reef breccia. It could be a collapse breccia.
Two examples of breccia pipes formed within limestone formations.
(Source: Sinkholes and Subsidence: Karst and Cavernous Rocks in Engineering.
By Tony Waltham, Fred Bell, Martin Culshaw - 2004 - Springer - 382 pages.
ISBN 3540207252 )
Caymanite. Caymanite is a tough workable finely bedded impure finely banded dolomitic limestone found in internal cavities in the Oligocene-Miocene Bluff Limestone of Cayman Islands. Bands are white throught red and brown to black and pieces of it are formed into broach/necklace/bracelet jewellry, and mementoes for the tourist trade. Caymanite is mostly devoid of macrofossils although uppermost laminae in the caymanite succession may show imbricated Lepidocyclina tests.
LEFT: Polished caymanite (used for sculpture), Cayman Islands
("Caymanite epitomizes the elegant raw beauty of the Cayman Islands.")
RIGHT: Caymanite at Borenore Caves (Photo: Australian Museum)
Internal sediment of this appearance has long been known in the Palaeozoic limestones of New South Wales and Armstrong Osborne began locally popularising the name caymanite for this material probably in the 1980s. After soft sediment in Jenolan Caves was dated as Carboniferous, Osborne reasoned that because these caves intersect a system of older cavities filled with completely lithified, unfolded caymanite (which he termed "marine cave turbidites") this must be earlier Carboniferous marine sediment formed after the most recent folding, and therefore that the Kanimblan folding must be pushed back earlier, into the Early Carboniferous.
Dykes. Dark brown to black basalt dykes of likely Tertiary age have been noted at Spider Cave, Henrys Hole and Frenchmans Cave and appear to all follow the prominent east-west joint set in the limestone. A faulted mafic dyke in Wiburds Lake Cave is more likely Devonian. Basaltic dykes are also reported from Pike Lake and in Upstairs Rockpile areas. More felsic dykes, likely related to the silicic volcanics overlying the limestone, have been reported from Mammoth Cave and Serpentine Cave.
Pyritic horizons. In places the shales above the limestone may be unusually pyritic. Pyritic horizons have been observed in the strata east of the limestone on the main road from the north to the caves. Also, south of the Jenolan Caves quite large (4mm) cubes of fresh pyrite have been seen in shales thought to be younger than the limestone. The shale on the east of the limestone near Mammoth Cave is thought likely to contain fine-grained pyrite even though none has actually been observed yet. This is thought because wire ladders left in place above section of cave known as Tom's Kitchen were later found to have been strongly corroded by cave water here when they were removed some time later. Corrosion of other metallic equipment has also been noted especially in this area. The pyrite in cubes is primary but there have also been mentions of "secondary" pyrite being present at Jenolan, and certain pyrite 'concretions' have been referred to (size unknown and to be further traced who found these). Perhaps 'secondary' has been used for pyrite or presumed oxidised pyrite in cave sediment. It has been observed that many samples of Jenolan sediment have tiny oxidised cubes, and that "both on the surface and underground, some iron- or pyrite-rich palaeokarst sediments are surrounded by a ring of ironstones" (on speleonics.com webpages by Jill Rowling, an electrical engineer who has been a caver since 1988 and in 2005 did a M.Sc. thesis at University of Sydney on "Cave Aragonites of NSW".
FOSSILS AND FACIES:
Abundant pentamerid brachiopods, and possibly oncolitic facies in the foreground.
( Photo: Ted Matthews)
Closer view of pentamerid shells. (Photo: Ted Matthews)
ROOF CIRCLES:
Concentric circular cracks or ring fractures in the roof of the Temple of Baal
Similar feature at Wellington Caves drawn by Thomas Mitchell who regarded such structures
as marks of subsicence of the limestone. ("Marks of subsidence in an inner portion of the
breccia cavern". Plate 50 - Major Thomas Mitchell's THREE EXPEDITIONS INTO THE
INTERIOR OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA. Vol. 2.)
Regular circular roof hole "issuing" flowstone. (Ted Matthews)
Concentric circular cracks at roof of Orient cave, Persian Chamber.
(Photo: 3D photography by Peter Murphy at http://www.mediavr.com/flash/orientcaveflash.htm )
Former thermal water influences - In "The Jenolan Guide, Issue 17, September 2005" there is consideration of the Egyptian Chamber which contains a section of domed roof, as too does the Persian Chamber (above photo). The writer (guide Rob Whyte) states that many theories have been put forward to explain the creation of such domes. A popular version contends that this was a zone where water entered a cavity and swirling motion ensued. Another version, Rob states, was put forward by Dr Armstrong Osborne: that a thermal spring carried water upwards creating not only the domed chambers but also leaving mineral impurities in the rock which is now leaching downward, giving the cave its colour [ ... most citations are yet to be consulted in the original publications]. Osborne (2004, p.22) has generalised thus: "Cupolas appear to be most common in caves with known or suspected thermal, hydrothermal, artesian, hypogene or mixed water origins, and in caves that are thought to have complex multiphase, multiprocess origins".
MORE RECENT FEATURES:
Cave pearls ("oolites") in Barralong Cave (Source: NUCC)
REFERENCES:
Allan, T.L.,1986. Structure and Stratigraphy of Palaeozoic Rocks in the Jenolan Caves area, NSW. BSc. Hons. Thesis, Univ. of Sydney.
Byrnes, J.G., 1972. A study of biotic and palaeoenvironmental aspects of Palaeozoic limestones. New South Wales Geological Survey. Report GS 1972/451 (unpubl.).
Carne, J.E. and Jones, L.J., 1919. The Limestone Deposits of New South Wales. New South Wales Geological Survey. Mineral Resources 25. xii + 411 pp.
Caves Reserve Trust, 1996. Jenolan Caves Reserve, natural, cultural and heritage resource inventory. NEGP Report.
Chalker, L., 1971. Limestone in the Jenolan Caves area. Rec Geol Surv N.S.W. 13:53-60.
Chand, F., 1963. The Geology of the Area Northeast of Jenolan River. BSc. Hons thesis, Univ. of NSW.
Chand, Fateh - Donated to University of NSW Archive [item OH119]. "Oral history interview about student life and Australia in the 1960s. Malaysian alumnus.
Chapman, R.E., 1965. The geology of an area north- west of Kanangra Walls. BSc. Hons thesis, Univ. of NSW.
Cox, G., 1984. Phototropic stalagmites at Jenolan Caves, NSW. Helictite 22, 55-56.
Cox, G. and WELCH. B.R., 1984. Spider Cave, JenoIan - A fault controlled system. Helictite 22, 43-53.
Davidson, P.A., 2004. The social construction of Jenolan Caves: multiple meanings of a cave tourist site.
James Cook University. Ph.D. thesis.
Dunkley, J.R., 1972. Limestone outcrops north of Wiburds Lake Cave, Jenolan. A preliminary report. SUSS Bull. (7), 57-62.
Dunkley, J.R., 1976. A model of cave development. p 10 in B.R. Welch (ed.) The caves of Jenolan. Sydney University Speleological Society, Sydney 131 pp.
Dunkley, J.R., 2007. Jenolan Caves: guides, guests & grottoes. Australian Speleological Federation Inc. in conjunction with Jenolan Caves Historical and Preservation Society. 73 pp.
Dunkley, J.R. and Anderson, E.G., 1971. The exploration and speleography of Mammoth Cave, Jenolan. Speleological Research Council, Sydney. 53 pp.
Dunkley, J.R. and Wingley P., 1978. The exploration and speleogeography of Mammoth Cave, Jenolan. 2nd Edition. Published by SUSS and SRC.
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JOADJA
Map of Joadja by J.E. Carne assisted by M. Morrison, 1902 (NSW Department of Mines and Agriculture). This map shows the western and eastern limits of the oil shale (kerosene shale
or torbanite) deposit, and the area worked by that time. East and west of the torbanite lens
the same horizon is occupied by coal. Also shown is the railway (tramway) from the south
to the "Flat" where the retorts and refinery were situated, the inclines down to the flat
from the worked horizon, and the houses of the Director and the Manager.
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