CAVE MANAGEMENT IN AUSTRALASIA VII
Proceedings of the Seventh Australasian on Cave Management and Tourism Conference
New South Wales May 1987
Edited by A.P. Spate, Peter Bell & Kent Henderson
Published 1995
Typesetting, Layout & Design by Peter Bell
Australian Cave & Karst Management Association
ISSN: 0159-5415
Hosted by:
National Parks and Wildlife Service of New South Wales, PO Box 1967, Hurstville NSW 2001
Tourism Commission of New South Wales GPO Box 7050 SYDNEY, NSW 2001
and
The Australian Speleological Federation Inc, PO Box 388 BROADWAY, NSW 2007
CAVE MANAGEMENT IN AUSTRALASIA VII
Copyright on the papers comprising these proceedings is the property of the individual authors. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission.
Copies of these proceedings are available from the Australasian Cave and Karst Management Association, PO Box 36, Carleton South, Victoria, 3053
INTRODUCTION
The papers appearing in this volume were presented at the Seventh Australasian Cave Tourism and Management Conference held in New South Wales during May 1987. The Conference was co-hosted by the New South Wales Tourism Commission, the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Australian Speleological Federation Inc. All the tourist cave complexes in the State were visited as well as 'wild' caves at Wee Jasper and London Bridge, both near Canberra. Paper sessions were held at Jenolan, Wombeyan and underground in Signature and Glory Hole Caves at Wee Jasper and Yarrangobilly respectively. A business session was held at Yarrangobilly at which the Australasian Cave Management Association was formed (now the Australasian Cave and Karst Management Association).
The Conference was opened at Jenolan by Mr Paul Crombie, Commissioner and General Manager of the NSW Tourism Commission and closed at Tumut by Dr Jack Giles, Assistant Director, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
It has been said that the Seventh Conference did not have the level of intellectual content of previous meetings. Whilst this may well be so, I feel that the mobile conference exposed both the delegates and the various areas to a wide range of issues and remedies. A particular problem that became evident was the need to make managers aware of sources of information about caves, karst and management of these resources. At the conference Adrian Davey circulated a very comprehensive bibliography on cave and karst management. I intended to publish this bibliography with these proceedings but the sheer size of the material and problems with updating have prevented this. However, it will hopefully be published shortly as a stand-alone document.
A further and related problem identified by the Conference is that of the so-called 'musical ranger' policies of some management authorities. The need for broadening staff horizons and career possibilities was recognised but it was felt that staff movements are often made at the expense of the resource and may fail to recognise the individual's commitment to, and knowledge of, caves and karst resources. Karst management and interpretation is a specialised and not well understood task. This fact is being increasingly recognised by the community and management agencies and it is to be hoped that this recognition will result in personnel management policies that reflect the Conference's concern.
I am indebted for help in the organisation of the Conference to many people from the various cave management authorities, especially Ernie Holland and Mike Chalker. Others include:
At Jenolan: Malcolm Bryan (Resort Manager), Ernie Holland (Senior Guide) and his guiding staff. At Wellington: The Wellington Shire Council and their staff especially Christine Noke (Tourist Officer) and Alan McMahon (Chief Guide). At Abercrombie Caves: Mike Treharne (Superintendent) and Barry Cubit (Guide). At Wombeyan: Mike Chalker (Superintendent) and his staff.
At Yass/Wee Jasper: The Yass Shire Council, Doug Pearsall (Tourist Officer) and Adrian Carey (Chief Guide) and his guiding staff. At Tumut/Yarrangobilly: Jenny Farrell (Senior Ranger) and Neil Kell (Caves Manager). At London Bridge: Mark Butz (Project Officer). At Queanbeyan: Peter Burfitt (Regional Secretary) and Sheree Williams (Finance Officer).
Additionally thanks are due to Ernie, Mike, Steve and Ian for their bus driving efforts without which the mobile conference would have ground to a halt. Vanessa Swift and Michelle Tozer performed miracles of re-keying all of the papers here; without their efforts the preparation of these proceedings would have been of a far lower standard. The authors prepared and submitted their papers with unusual care and speed and thus made the job far easier than is often the case. However, the pressure of other work and my general slothfulness has delayed publication far beyond what might be considered reasonable. I extend my apologies to the authors for this delay which is entirely my own responsibility.
Andy Spate, Investigations Officer, Karst, NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service QUEANBEYAN NSW