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A trip to the wondrous Buchan Caves in Victoria earlier this year captured my imagination and I just had to find out more about the history and geology of the place.

A good few years ago (about 300 - 400 million) the Buchan area was covered with sea, leaving behind limestone composed of the skeletons of shellfish and coral. After this the area was subjected to earth movement to the extent that the area is now part of the Snowy Mountains.As water seeped into the soft rock caves were formed. Then nature which, as that clever guy Aristotle, said “abhors a vacuum”, began to fill them in again with the speleothems. These turn the caves into magical places with names such as Fairy Cave, the Grotto and the Bridal and Jewel Chambers

We are most familiar with the dripstones: the stalactites and stalagmites (remember tights come down so the mites are the ones that hang down). These are created when droplets of water form on the roof or drip onto the floor of the caves. These release a carbon dioxide gas which leave little rings of calcite which build up, drop by drop, over thousands of years.

Another kind of speleothem are flowstones which form in sheets; some, known as ‘drapery,’ hang down like curtains. Others resemble waterfalls: caused by water flowing over ledges of rock or gravel . The calcite is white but in parts iron oxide turns it red and copper gives it a green tinge

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The caves were discovered in 1907. The bones of a giant kangaroo and a wombat the size of a horse were found on the cave floor as was the extinct Tasmanian Tiger. As I, not surprisingly, couldn’t find a photo of the 3 metre tall giant kangaroo I have done a rough reconstruction below:

Procoptodon goliah with A.afarensis

Our trip through the caves was made more interesting, if not a little spooky, by a power cut but, not wanting to miss anything, we decided to complete the trip by torchlight.