ISSUES IN MANAGEMENT OF THE BUCHAN CAVES RESERVE
The Buchan Caves Reserves are administered by the Department of Crown Lands and Survey with a resident Supervisor responsible for the day to day management. An Advisory Committee chaired by the Deputy Secretary for Lands and comprised of representatives of several Government bodies directs planning and development of the Reserve.
Prior to 1973 supervision of the area was carried out by the District Inspector of Land Settlement and was in effect a part-time job being carried out by someone with no prior knowledge of caves or management of karst resources. The importance of the caves was not put into true perspective and their resource value was vastly underestimated.
Early development of the caves was carried out with a single purpose, to develop them for tourism and be able to provide Jenolan and other N.S.W. caves with keen competition.
Several of the first caves discovered, viz Moon, Kitson and Spring Creek; were "abandoned" for the more spectacular and better decorated Fairy and Royal Caves discovered at a later date. Little protection was afforded these three caves when the Fairy and Royal were developed and they were extensively vandalised over the years. The whole management approach was centred on tourism and this early management could not envisage the pressures that have developed with the great increase in tourist numbers, and no thought was given to the often fragile nature of the cave environments, their main concern being to display the cave features to their considered best advantage, even though this at times meant the destruction of some irreplaceable cave features.
In the late sixties and early seventies speleological activity increased in the area and this was perhaps the basis for the start of a new era in cave management and protection, although initially the activities of a few groups promoted a great deal of antagonism both with local cave management and with district landholders. This situation was brought about by the attitude displayed by these few, and stress few because they were in the minority, who considered they had unqualified access to enable exploration of all caves in the area whether they be on Crown or freehold land. This attitude, coupled with resistance from local management at the time to their activities, caused a barrier to develop that was to take several years to break down.
The first real step forward towards better management came in 1973 when a full time supervisor was appointed to the Reserve. This appointment took place just prior to the first Cave Conference in Jenolan, a conference that was to herald a new era in cave management throughout Australia. Cave managers from most States assembled for the first time to learn more about caves and karst areas, to compare management techniques, and discuss their many and varied problems. It was an expressed desire that more uniform management over all caves could eventually be achieved by a classification system.
In the early seventies gates were installed in the Moon Cave, Spring Creek Cave and Root Cave. These gates appeared to upset some of the early cavers, who had previously involved uninterrupted access to these caves (usually after dark), as they were continuously being broken down and were in need of constant repair. Fortunately this small pocket of apparent resistance to management soon mellowed and disappeared and it is only on rare occasions that any vandalism now occurs. Gates have recently been placed on the old Federal Cave and on 8.32 and no interference with them has been experienced. It is interesting to note here that gates installed at Murrindal years ago on the Murrindal and the Lilly Pilly Caves have never been subjected to vandalism, even though ready access to them is available.
During the last few years increase in cave visitor numbers have brought associated problems to management, not the least being how to cope with the numbers on peak days at Christmas and Easter. These numbers have increased from about 58,000 in 1968 to over 82,000 in 1982. Remembering that there are only two caves, with virtual single file access at Buchan, it is obvious during these peak periods the caves resources are placed under tremendous pressures. To assist in the relief of this pressure during these peak periods, a system method of inspection that some may say is virtually a self-guided tour, is used whereby the relevant cave information is supplied through an amplifying system at the entrance to the cave and the tourists are filtered through in groups of tiny every five minutes or so, there being guides stationed at various sections of the cave to maintain supervision and also help with any queries or questions that may arise. This system has its short comings and should only be looked at as a short term procedure, the long range policy being to consider the development of other caves in the area. We are fortunate here that we have two caves, the Murrindal Cave and the Lilly Pilly Cave, situated about 14 kilometres from Buchan, that were open to the public in the twenties but closed down because of administrative difficulties at the time.
Serious consideration is being given to development of these caves as an additional resource and the Australian Speleological Federation has been approached with a view to having the development of these caves incorporated in an overall development plan for the whole area. It is to be sincerely hoped that this project can go ahead in the not too distant future, although this, like many other projects is dependent on finance becoming available.
Additional caves would also give us the opportunity to spell the Royal Cave or the Fairy Cave for a period of time and also enable us to instigate a cleaning programme on the lines of that being carried out at Jenolan, as both these caves have become rather grotty over the years.
Because of the saturation point now reached in the peak periods advertising of the caves is not promoted, and even though this may be disadvantageous to a few we feel that too much advertising would lead to the situation where visitation numbers would be too great for the resource to handle, particularly in holiday periods.
Early reservation of the Buchan Caves Reserves was directed at areas of land adjacent to known caves and also included the large karst area known as the "Pyramids". The result being that we have seven separate Reserves, scattered several kilometres apart, that pose further management problems.
Access to the caves in the main Reserve at Buchan is fairly restricted and there is always a guide or ranger in the area, this is not the case in the other Reserves where, because of their isolation, access is easy and supervision difficult. Although regular checks of those areas are carried out present resources do not permit satisfactory control of them.
A further problem has been presented in the 'Pot-Holes" Reserve where an Extractive Industries Licence has been issued for the quarrying of limestone immediately adjacent to this Reserve. At the time of the application for, and issue of, this licence, management raised no objections and it would appear only token objection came from the V.S.A. at the time. Stronger objections were raised at a later date, after quarrying had been commenced, but the Mines Department decided that revocation of this licence was not possible.
Management may well rue this early apathy towards the issue of this licence as any major development could present a threat to the caves and unique karst features of the "Pot-Holes".
Situated in the main reserve at Buchan and not far from the Royal Cave and Fairy Cave is a large caravan park. This brings with it associated management problems, particularly in relation to the dangers of pollution with the disposal of garbage and sewerage. When the caravan park was first established, early management, by way of convenience used a large doline in the reserve as a rubbish tip. There was no evidence of pollution occurring as the result of using this doline as a tip, but it was quite evident it was not a very desirable practice. Since 1975 all garbage has been transported to the local council tip situated some 5 kilometres from the reserve. The rubbish in the doline was burnt and then bulldozed over and there has not been any subsequent evidence of pollution from this area.
The council tip is situated towards the head waters of the Fairy Creek, and as recent as last year claims were made that the swimming pool in the reserve was exposed to contamination from this source. Following these claims, at management's request, tests were carried out on the pool water by the Latrobe Valley Water and Sewerage Board, agents for the Environment Protection Authority in this area. No evidence of any relative pollution was found in the pool water, it being declared fit enough to drink.
Sewerage disposal over the years has probably provided the greatest management problem. As the numbers both visiting the caves and camping in the reserve, increased, the sewerage system in the main camping area eventually proved inadequate in the busy seasons, and sewerage from the overflow of this system eventually ended up in the waters of the Moon Cave. Finding a suitable disposal system proved somewhat difficult, firstly because the seasonal variation in load ruled out the use of conventional treatment plant, and secondly because of the nature of the terrain a proposed maturation lagoon would be situated above the floor level of nearby caves, thus presenting the possibility of effluent seeping through into same.
After much consultation it was decided to install an Amos-Crosta type rotating Bio Disc plant at a cost of approximately $80,000. This is a simple, easy to operate plant which does not occupy a great deal of space. The unit is able to cope with high shock loads yet underloading shows no detrimental effect. This has been operating now for four years, under a discharge licence issued by the Environmental Protection Authority, and no problems have been encountered. Hopefully our pollution problems have been solved.
What then in the future?
As previously mentioned the Federation has been approached with the view to having an overall development plan drawn up for future development of the area and any such development should follow the guidelines of such a plan. With the aid of this resource and also readily available expert advice, together with the fact that present day management is more enlightened and active, future problems should not be great and therefore be able to be readily dealt with.