Driving through the central west of NSW admiring the beautiful landscape, I came across the Wellington Caves. I didn’t have time to stop on my way to Orange, but I made a point of stopping on my way home and it was well worth it.
The Wellington Caves are 60 kilometres southeast of Dubbo and are famous for the Cathedral and Gaden Caves lined with stalagmites and stalactites formed by droplets of water redepositing limestone in the same spot over millions of years.
Wellington is known worldwide for the fossils found in the area particularly around the caves where fossils have been uncovered dating back 400 million years ago ranging from now extinct megafauna through to long-lived modern species.
I booked my tour of the Cathedral Cave in advance and arrived on a sunny Wednesday morning. Once all the people in the tour group arrived our guide David took us through the safety briefing.
It was short and sweet, then we were handed our helmets and set off on our adventure.
David told us about the animals that once upon a time dwelled on the ground we were walking on and to be honest, it sounded like a nightmare.
Megafauna roamed the land, such as the huge wombat-shaped Diprotodon and giant goanna Megalania. David also mentioned bats that stood as tall as the gutter of your house and were carnivores… I don’t think I would’ve survived that time in Australia’s history! The caves are the first place where Europeans found megafauna fossils in Australia.
David was a wealth of knowledge sharing stories about how the Cathedral Cave was discovered – George Ranken accidentally fell into one of the caves in 1830.
We walked down the first set of the roughly 300 stairs we’d encounter on the tour – thankfully not entering like George Ranken.
It was incredible, it’s like you’re walking into a completely different world.
The Cathedral Cave is known for its 15 metre tall limestone and crystal formation 40 metres below the surface into the cave that has formed over millions of years. It’s amazing. There were plenty of stories about that too, David shared that it was once used as an altar and there is an open bible that has now been basically fossilised after being there for so long.
We wandered around the formation and up another set of stairs into the next part of the cave. The walls of the cave hold hints of marine life, with parts of the old world fossilised into its face.
Another pathway takes us to a well in the middle of the caves with the most crystal clear water I have ever seen. It’s perfect surface only interrupted by the odd drip or two from the cave walls.
The tour takes about an hour from start to finish and it is well worth the stop. You can also tour the Gaden Cave which is the smallest of the three caves on the site. It has dazzling formations of stalagmites, stalactites and unique coral-like formations.
It’s incredible to imagine the life that was once lived in these caves, their discovery and the ecosystem it still creates to this day.
| For more info go to: https://www.wellingtoncaves.com.au/ |
