CAREYS CAVE - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
(Mr Carey sent his paper as a tape recording which was played to the delegates at the Conference)
It is regretted that I and my cave guide cannot attend this Conference. I attended the first Conference at Jenolan Caves in 1973 and realised the helpful information gained by meeting and listening to the more experienced people in the cave tourism field.
I would like to tell you about Careys Cave and its progress since it was discovered just over 100 years ago. Careys Cave was discovered by John Carey, my grandfather, in 1875 and opened as a tourist attraction in October 1968 by the Goodradigbee Shire Council in conjunction with the Carey family. All tours from 1875 to 1968 went through under candle and torchlight. Signatures dating back one hundred years have been found in the cave.
The cave is situated in the Wee Jasper Valley on the backwaters of Burrinjuck Dam 100 kilometres from Canberra, 60 kilometres from Yass and 16 kilometres by boat from Burrinjuck State Recreation Area. The cave tour is approximately 400 metres long and takes about one hour; at this stage there is only one tour. The Cave is lit by 360 feature lights - all white lights - so the colours seen are natural. The first few years under Council management were quite successful but in 1973/74 figures dropped about 30%, mainly due to lack of advertisement and lack of interest by Council generally. In July 1975 the cave became the property of the Department of Lands with the Council as Trustees, and the Department agreed to lease the cave and assets to me on a long term lease to run as a private business. In 1975/76 by brochure, radio and newspaper advertisement I have picked up the 30% lost in 73/74. At this stage the figures are a slight improvement on last year so at last we might be getting somewhere. The figures for last year were just on 5,000 for one tour and the cave only opens on Sundays and public holidays. As the visitor figures slowly increase the next thing is to open up another tour in the cave to try to give visitors more than one hour in our area.
I have applied to the Department of Lands for a grant to make this tour possible. Funds are required mainly for lighting as the track areas are being prepared by me at this stage.
I consider it an advantage to run a cave on a private basis: you do it the way you want or the way that works best but I will admit that I still take a lead from the bigger cave areas on tour methods. I find that a more personal contact at this stage in advertisement is helpful. I think figures show that it is working much better now than in the past years under Council management. Disadvantages do crop up from time to time; I feel the biggest of all will be grants for development. That third party is still there as it seems my application has taken twelve months to pass through Council to the Department of Lands. This is one area where change may have to take place again.
I would like to ask the Conference three questions; they reflect two other problems I encounter :
1. Why are Government tourist attractions, caves or otherwise, allowed directional signs on highways and not private attractions? Jenolan and Wombeyan Caves etc, have their signs but Careys Cave's application was regarded as advertisement. I might add I have no ill-feeling towards the other areas over this, but it appears the Department of Main Roads has two sets of rules on road signs; why?
2. I also have trouble getting Government tourist information centres to handle private cave literature: why?
3. Do the managers of Government tourist caves have any objection to privately run caves; if so, why?
Only recently at Yass, our nearest town, a tourist information centre has been opened. I feel with support from this centre, an added tour, the road improvements promised in the area, some advertisements in the right places and hopefully a sign on the highway, I can expect a big rise in visitors to Careys Cave.
For a short period we had a directional sign on the highway, an illegal sign I was told, but the response from this during the period it was there was quite evident; so to me a directional sign is important.
In closing, I would like to thank you for your time and congratulate the organisers of this conference; I feel it can only help tourism. I trust it is successful and that all attending delegates enjoy it and learn something from it as I did in 1973.
FOOTNOTES
The Conference discussed the questions raised by Mr Carey, It was generally agreed that there should be suitable signs indicating interesting geographical features and tourist attractions, whatever their ownership, The matter of suitable signs appears, however, to be one for resolution between Mr Carey, the Council and the responsible Government authority. The Conference saw no reason why tourist information centres should be reluctant to handle private cave literature. The representatives of Government authorities which operate caves who were present expressed no objection to the private operation of some caves.
Editor