MANAGEMENT OF THREE DEVELOPED TOURIST CAVES, CHILLAGOE, NORTH QUEENSLAND, SINCE 1975
Abstract
Since 1975, the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service has been responsible for nine cave National Parks in the Chillagoe-Mungana limestone belt of North Queensland. Management of the Donna and Trezkinn tourist showcase caves and the Royal Arch partially developed wild tourist cave is discussed. Challenges of development, visitation, guiding, damage, staffing, maintenance, interpretation and biology are addressed. Increased public awareness and visitation is indicated.
Introduction
Chillagoe, a town of 200 people located some 210km west of Cairns, North Queensland, lies within a belt of cavernous tower karst limestone, approximately 35km long and two to five kilometres wide.
The Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service (QNPWS) manages nine National Parks from 1514ha to 0.65ha in this region. These parks, gazetted in 1940, contain areas of limestone caves and related woodland vegetation.
The Natural Resource
Most Chillagoe caves occur at ground level and extend up into weathered, pinnacled hills 20-60m high. The hills have formed from outcrops of Silurian-Devonian coral sediments metamorphosed to crystalline marble (tower karst). The marble is referred to as 'primary limestone' or 'country rock' and is visible as blue-grey limestone in caves. Distinctive solution features include irregularly shaped stalactites and stalagmites, dry, crusty cave coral, false floors, flowstone (often flaky), limited areas of visible calcite crystal, and red-brown iron oxide staining.
The caves vary in their state of maturity. Many display collapsed roofs forming daylight chambers in which fig trees, maidenhair ferns and mosses grow. Typically, the caves are dry for about eight to nine months of the year with limited speleothem growth during the wet season.
The three main tourist caves are representative of Chillagoe caves. Donna Cave is basically a vertical crack with four or five traversable split levels (false floors) extending in an arc from a massive entrance cavern. Access is gained through daylight holes at the ends of the cave.
Trezkinn Cave is a similar type of cave, parallel to the Donna in the same hill. The entrance, a narrow cleft high on the vertical face of the hill, leads into a large cavern. A massive boulder, once part of the wall, occupies the centre of the cavern, which has a small daylight collapse in the roof. Several passages and caverns lead to a large, collapsed daylight area on top of the bluff. This cave has a single main level with remnant false floors high up on the walls. Both caves have delicate speleothems.
The Royal Arch Cave is an older, much longer cave than the Donna or the Trezkinn, with larger caverns joined by a labyrinth of passages and many collapsed daylight chambers. Easy access to the cave is via a collapse at the base of a limestone hill. It is noted for its vast amounts of cave coral, iron oxide staining, bat maternity colony and swiftlet nesting site. Unlike the Donna Cave which has a rock floor, the Royal Arch and Trezkinn have earthen floors which turn to mud in the wet season.
Management Guidelines
The QNPWS management of Chillagoe caves began in 1975. From 1964-66, its predecessor, the Queensland Department of Forestry, appointed an honorary guide, Mr Vince Kinnear, to commence cave tours. In 1966 Mr Kinnear's appointment became permanent.
The Department of Forestry and the Kinnear family, with the Sydney Speleological Society, must be credited for much of the early systematic exploration and development of caves, together with the introduction of the present cave guiding system.
QNPWS cave management is directed by its general aims which seek to conserve representative areas of the state's flora, fauna and environments. Management involves protecting the natural resources within parks, providing development to assist with visitor use and appreciation, and educating visitors about caves and the management role of the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service.
When commencing its cave management, the Service recognised the need for a resource survey. During 1976-77, Mr Paul Wilson devised a system of classifying caves based on cave accessibility, structure, special features and use. This system is detailed in Appendix A.
Resource Management
The main guided tourist caves on National Park at the time of the survey were the Donna and Royal Arch. Electric lighting had just been installed in the Donna Cave. Tours of the Royal Arch were being conducted with hand-held carbide lights. Concrete paths had been laid in both caves and galvanised pipe handrails installed. Guided tours were also occasionally conducted to the Ryan Imperial Cave.
Recommendations from the survey determined that the Donna should be managed as a 'showcase' cave and that Royal Arch should continue to promote the realities of wild caving by offering visitors the chance to crawl through selected tunnels on tour.
The Service also reviewed use of the Trezkinn and Ryan Imperial Caves. Tours in the latter have since ceased. The Trezkinn is being developed as a second showcase cave. Seven other caves have been adopted as wild, self-guided caves for additional experiences. Management of tourist caves involves developing visitor facilities together with their maintenance and use with interpretive programs.
The QNPWS has responded to these challenges as follows.
RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Walkways and lighting
The Donna and Royal Arch Caves were developed almost to their present state by the time the QNPWS gained responsibility for them.
The Royal Arch has about 1000-1500m of concrete track over a mud floor, one accessible and one locked-gate entrance, galvanised pipe handrails and wooden and concrete steps.
The Donna Cave has similar walkways, but with more stairs between the levels. Access into the Donna is by a flight of 84 steps to the first chamber. Since Easter 1983, a rear exit has been used to allow a flow-through of visitors. A natural daylight collapse permits exit by a flight of spiral stairs. Electric lighting was installed between 1974 and 1976.
Construction in the Trezkinn has proceeded since 1979. A catwalk of expanded mesh steel, C channel and RHS steel was constructed to convey visitors safely over floors of wet mud and collapsed rubble.
The plan for the Trezkinn proposed a cave where visitors could guide themselves along a safe walkway, directed by lights controlled by timers or sensors. Interpretive messages were to be by tape recorders, or by illuminated plaques on handrails. A plaque system is being prepared at present. Lighting has been installed but final control of lights is being reviewed. A feature of the lighting is under-rail strip lighting and regulation by timer.
Lighting in Donna and Trezkinn Caves has been kept unobtrusive, hidden and uncoloured in response to QNPWS desire for naturalness. However, a technical problem exists in using the lights if groups follow too closely, causing a circuit overload. In a blackout, a 12 volt backup system in the Trezkinn operates automatically for 10 minutes to allow visitors to leave the cave. A backup system is being examined for the Donna. At present, candles and a torch carried by a guide can be used.
A major problem for the Donna lighting is cave flooding. Between February and April a maximum of five metres of water can lie in its entrance cavern. Floodlights and spotlights are withdrawn before flooding. Powerboxes, switches and power points, sealed with waterproof covers, are inspected by an electrician after the wet season.
Magnesium tape was phased out of cave tours in late 1980. Problems of safety and potential cave damage saw hand-held gas lights replaced by various rechargeable battery lights. Oldham and Minespot caving lights were adopted as standard early in 1986.
Maintenance and Interpretation
Following installation of visitor facilities, a program began to maintain them for use with interpretive activities. Aspects of Chillagoe tour cave maintenance and interpretation include:
Guiding
The present guiding system at Chillagoe has developed around the three aims of cave protection, efficient visitor management and efficient staff utilisation. The system is based on several points:
- cave tours are free;
- advance bookings are required for organised tour groups (to assist with staffing);
- no advance bookings for general public (number of guides and tours calculated on day to maximise staffing available for fieldwork);
- strict limits on cave tours (to protect cave);
- limited manning of office on quiet days (maximise field staff); and
- additional tours and staff as needed.
The value of guided tours as a tool for passing QNPWS messages to the public is great. Education about management challenges can in some cases reduce or eliminate problems. Many messages are conveyed on tours. These include:
- caves are a wonder of nature and worthy of preserving;
- due to their age, caves are irreplaceable;
- caves protect fauna not found in other environments;
- caves are breeding and roosting places of bats and swiftlets;
- guides are necessary in some caves;
- QNPWS must protect caves from outside pressures for use by present and future generations;
- certain behaviour in caves can ensure their protection
- not all caves are the same;
- caves follow nature's cyclic pattern of buildup and breakdown; and
- tourist guided caves are different from wild caves.
Integration of management tasks
In response to uncertainty about daily demand for guided tours, the Chillagoe guiding system is much more flexible, less structured and more informal than those adopted in other areas. It is also a response to the overall low visitation. The guiding system is also a compromise system between the QNPWS staff trying to fulfil two jobs simultaneously, park maintenance and development and interpretation, as efficiently as possible.
Appointment of staff to Chillagoe to now has been primarily on the basis of a management role for maintaining Service estate including machinery, housing, camping and picnic ground facilities, woodland park maintenance, and cave development and maintenance. However, all staff are expected to be able to conduct guided cave tours even if only on a relieving basis. Thus labourers and tradesmen responsible for general park maintenance can be called on for interpretive activities. Present employees at Chillagoe are from a variety of backgrounds. No set qualifications are given for employment at Chillagoe, due to the variety of skills needed in the job, although many new QNPWS employees now hold Associate Diplomas in Rural Techniques from Queensland Agricultural College.
Cave distance from office
The QNPWS office is located in the Chillagoe township which is reasonably central for the guided tours.
Donna Cave is one and a half kilometres, and the Royal Arch seven kilometres from the office. During peak periods, up to 25 minutes can be lost in travelling from the office and distributing lights and opening gates for a tour in the Royal Arch.
The steep descents into the Donna and Trezkinn cause problems for the less agile and elderly, but do not always deter them. If visitors insist on visiting caves, QNPWS does advise against, but generally does not refuse to take such groups. Fortunately, the most difficult areas in both caves occur at the entrances, deterring most unsuitable visitors. Should medical assistance be required during a tour all guides can administer first aid until the hospital matron is contacted. Ideally elderly or handicapped visitors are advised to visit the Royal Arch for easier walking. Seats are installed at three locations in the Royal Arch to cater for these groups. However, the disadvantage of the Royal Arch tour is that visitors often wish to view delicate formations which are not abundant in this cave. Three unusual visitors have included a lady of 88, a blind man in the Donna, and a young man who disconnected both his artificial legs and walked around on his stumps in the Royal Arch!
Cave damage
The main potential problems for staff are those of visitors leaving paths, and discolouration of formations by touching. The elevated Trezkinn walkway and limy Donna floor limits most floor damage to the Royal Arch. Footprints in mud and muddy paths necessitated the installation of grids to elevate low areas and provide footwear scrapers. Scraping of tracks every February is a temporary solution.
Dust build-up was a problem in the Donna until concrete paths were made, although the natural iron oxide stainings camouflaged the problem. To avoid lime floor damage in the Donna, experimental plastic chain barricades with thin metal stands have isolated small areas from visitors.
To cope with discolouration from touching, staff mainly rely on education during tours. Staff discourage all touching but have learnt that by offering visitors the primary limestone wall to touch in preference to the delicate secondary limestone, a good compromise is reached minimising damage.
Biological management
Resource protection is a major consideration of QNPWS cave management. The Service seeks minimal disturbance to all fauna in caves. As the Royal Arch supports a maternity colony of the little bent wing bat (Miniopterus australis) in its Ballroom Chamber during the wet season, visitor access is restricted at that time.
A colony of white-rumped swiftlets (Collocalia spodiopygia (Peale)) nest in a small extension off the second last cavern from October. This area also has restricted access. Visitors are informed about these colonies and the need for restrictions.
The presence of feral cats preying on bats and swiftlets is a continuing problem. Efforts to eliminate them have brought limited success. The Service is designing special traps to catch cats. Algal growth induced by electric lighting has been observed in Trezkinn Cave recently. The extent seems limited and is being monitored.
Visitor management
Most visitors come to Chillagoe for the day with some staying overnight. They travel in private vehicles. To date Chillagoe has been relatively isolated and mostly ignored by tour groups. The last 80 km of the main road from Cairns is unsealed and becomes variously corrugated and dusty during the dry season, or washed out and slippery in the wet.
Approximately 21,000 cave visitors (for an estimated 16,000 persons) were recorded for the three developed Chillagoe Caves in 1986 (although the Trezkinn is not officially open). Visitor numbers have grown by about 20% a year since 1981. About one-tenth of visitors are brought by commercial tour operators. This proportion doubled during 1984-85. Another 12% comprise non-commercial groups such as schools. Visitation is variable but predictable in that all long weekends and school vacations will be peak periods when up to 16 tours a day may be conducted.
During peak visitation, additional staff are rostered to guide. Although tours are free, tickets are issued to limit numbers in caves. Cave tours are shortened to one hour maximum from the usual one and a half hours. Trezkinn Cave, developed as a back-up showcase cave, functions as a supervised self-guided cave in these periods.
The main advantage of the Trezkinn is that tours are variable (15-30 minutes), much shorter than Donna tours, and able to be conducted by volunteers or QNPWS staff.
Visitation forecasts
Several factors indicate public awareness and visitation of Chillagoe Caves will increase substantially in the next few years. Indications of this are:
- increasing awareness of the value of tourism to the economies of Cairns and far north Queensland in the last four to five years (Cairns International Airport opened 1984);
- interest in commercial marble extraction at Chillagoe;
- continual upgrading of the unsealed road from near Dimbulah to Chillagoe;
- interest in open cut gold mining at Mungana (12 km west);
- possible development of a visitor centre at the old Chillagoe smelter site;
- taking up of land in the district by new residents and holiday-makers;
- active, community-conscious residents bringing local issues to media attention; and
- a trend by Australians to holiday in more remote, less developed areas.
With increased numbers of visitors, especially those on organised tours, greater demand on QNPWS staff for cave tours is anticipated. Vandalism may increase. QNPWS management resources at Chillagoe may have to be directed more towards park development and maintenance.
As visitor use levels become higher and more predictable, more staff can be expected to be involved daily with guiding, and tours will be conducted more frequently.
Acknowledgements
The author thanks Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service staff for assistance in preparing the Conference presentation.
References
WILSON, P (1977) Managing the Limestone Caves of Chillagoe and Mungana. Report for the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service (unpubl.)
CHILLAGOE CAVING CLUB (1982). Tower Karst. Chillagoe Caving Club Occasional Paper No. 4, 7th Australasian Cave Tourism and Management Conference, 1987
Appendix A
Chillagoe Cave Classification
| Availability Information | Type of access | Description | Classification |
| Freely available | Tourist-controlled (public access) | Fully developed | A1 |
| Part wild tourist | A2 | ||
| General purposes (free access with no restrictions) | Wild tourist | B1 | |
| Free access | B2 | ||
| Location confidential | Enthusiasts (member of recognised associations) | Unclassified | C1 |
| Sporting | C2 | ||
| Special value | C3 | ||
| Limited access | Especially pretty or fragile caves | D1 | |
| Special or fragile scientific features | D2 | ||
| Reference caves | D3 |
Fully Developed Tourist Caves
Caves where all the wilderness aspects have been removed by development. Caves in this class would have protective barriers, hand rails, fully formed pathways, and there would be frequent guided tours of these caves and possibly admission by ticket.
Part Wild Tourist Caves
Caves which, although not fully developed, would be used for regular guided tours. With caves in this class some of the wilderness aspects would be left as a feature. Most of the tourist caves of the Chillagoe area lend themselves to this sort of treatment, where paths, steps and hand rails are provided but tours are taken by hand held lamps.
Wild Tourist Caves
Completely undeveloped caves to which guided tours could be taken. It is expected that visitors would have sensible clothing and would be provided with helmets.
Free Access Caves
General purpose caves to which any member of the general public would not be able to cause much damage to the cave or to endanger himself.
Unclassified Caves
Caves for which no other suitable classification can be found or which are awaiting classification.
Sporting Caves
Caves left in their natural condition but open to anyone who wishes to visit them. As a matter of principle their locations would not be divulged to the casual visitor. In most cases knowledge of locations would be confined to speleological societies.
Special Value Caves
Caves which contain some features of particular interest or beauty which is not considered important enough to restrict access to the whole cave. It is expected that protective measures would be taken by the speleological societies.
Caves of Special and Delicate Scientific Features
Caves which have some feature of scientific importance such that its disturbance, damage, or destruction must be prevented by restricting access.
Reference Caves
Caves which are typical of caves in the area concerned and which are maintained as 'unspoilt' examples. Minimal human disturbance should occur.