Editors note: I wrote this page when i was about 16 and have kept it alive out of nostalgia. please don't go caving without the appropriate equipment and experience. The info below is given for information but is not sufficient on its own to guarantee your safety etc etc. warp to 21st century website

The Blue Waterholes
Cave Page

This page will eventually list and describe most of the caves on the Cooleman plain. For the moment it just gives a description and location of some of the most significant ones.

• Many caves are quite wet and the water at Blue Waterholes is very cold. Don't go off and die from hypothermia.
• Always have a few spare torches/bulbs/batteries. Caves are very dark.
• Wear something on your head. A beanie is the best thing if you don't have a helmet.
• Don't do anything dangerous because it's hard to get you out if you break yourself.
• Tell someone where you're going to be caving so if any of the above happen they'll find you before you decompose too much (common courtesy).
• Cave in groups, not alone. 3-5 people is a good number
• Please be nice to the cave. It is much older than you. Dont touch any formations. Don't write your name on the wall. Don't leave any junk in the cave. Don't do a wee in your swimmers to warm the water up (doesn't work).

Not all of the caves at Blue Waterholes are open to the public. If you want to enter any other cave, beyond a few meters of the entrance, you MUST have a permit from the NPWS. Some of the caves at Blue Waterholes have features which must not be disturbed (like bat roosts, or delecate formations, or ancient bone deposits) and some are dangerously unstable.

You will be glad to know however that most of the more interesting and accesable caves are open to the public.

Below is a map showing the locations of some of the larger caves at Blue Waterholes. The locations shown here are only aproximate. The map itself is not perfect either (It is a snipped version of the one at the Guide to Blue Waterholes and The Cooleman Plain). For more exact cave locations, use the grid reference given with the cave description.

Cave Location Map

All the caves at Blue Waterholes should have a small metal tag nailed to the rock near the cave entrance. This will have on it a 3-digit code that is the cave's number. All the cave numbers on the Cooleman Plains start with CP. This can obviously be useful to help you work out if you have found the right entrance or not.
Anyway, into the descriptions:

Cave Descriptions

Contents...

Caves with a star are open to the public
Cooleman Cave*
Right Cooleman Cave*
Murray Cave*
Barbers Cave*
White Fish Cave

CP1 - Cooleman Cave
Location: GR 520561r
Along the dry bed of Cave creek. Very obvious entrance.
Length 380m, Vertical range 10m
This cave is connected to Cooleman Right cave via a very thin section, which most people will not even want to try to negotiate. The cave itself is fairly large (the entrance is quite noticable), but there's not much formation, and it can be fairly muddy after rain.

CP2 - Cooleman Right
Location: GR 522561r
Along the dry bed of Cave Creek, about 200m east of CP1. Obvious entrance.

Most people probably give up after the first ten meters of this cave as it gets quite low, but after that it is more spacious. Like CP1 it can be very muddy in places. Anyway the cave progresses nicely for a few hundred meters before narrowing down to the thin connection that it makes with CP1.

CP3 - Murray Cave
Location: GR 511555r
Further along the dry creekbed. Just keep walking till you find it - entrance is on the south bank and very obvious - a till thin slit. Probably about 30-40mins walk from the camping area.
Length: 784m
This is the largest cave at Blue Waterholes. For most of its length it is an airy long passage which you can stroll down. There is some very nice formation, but much of it was vandalised early in the century. The cave passage is blocked by an impassable siphon about halfway along. Only during a large drought does the water level drop sufficiently to enable one to pass. This has happened about 3 times this century.

CP14,15,16,17 - Barbers Cave
Location:GR 533562r - 532561r
This cave has four main entrances. One is located at river level, and can be seen from the track which runs through here. You will probably not want to enter this way however, as it is low and a small stream runs out of it. The next entrance can be found by following a faint track heading SW from the lower entrance, up the hill side. It is about 30m along this track, on your left - medium sized and dry. You may want to exit this way however, as there is a climb shortly inside which is easier to ascend. The best entrance to use can be found by following the track about 200m as it winds up a small shallow valley, then turns left. The entrance (CP14) is in a depression. The final entrance is about 100m east of the last one. A small stream flows into it.
Length: 335m Vertical range: 25m
This cave is one of my favourites. It is a little complex in spots but you're in no real danger of getting lost at all. The cave is composed of two main diverging branches, which meet up in the middle. One is mostly dry - you travel down this from the entrance No. CP14. The other branch is generally narrower, and has a small stream running along it. The cave has many features including some nice flowstone, large chambers (for Blue Waterholes), tight passages with plenty of opportunity to get wet, and a nice, though small, aven (see if you can find it).

If you haven't already been there, I suggest you have a look at the Guide to Blue Waterholes and the Cooleman Plain. It has good general info about the area, though with more of a tilt toward bushwalking.

If you have any comments about this page, feel free to email me.

---

Blue Waterholes Cave Page /Written by Alex Watt / revised March 1997