Margaret River Caves

Moondyne Cave

Useful Information

Location:	Jewel Caves Rd, Deepdene WA 6290. 8 km north of Augusta on Caves Road, in the Jewel Cave Reserve Augusta. Cadastre AU11. (-34.2734417, 115.0969569)
Open:	JUN to DEC Sat, Sun 10. Booking mandatory. [2023]
Fee:	Adults AUD 150, Children (12-16) AUD 120. [2020]
Classification:	Karst Cave
Light:	helmet and headlamp provided.
Dimension:	L=270 m, VR=26 m, T=16 °C, H=95 %.
Guided tours:	D=3 h, Max=10, MinAge=10.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:	Peter Bell (1993): Moodnyne Cave Development to Guided Adventure, Cave Management In Australasia, Proceedings of the Tenth Australasian Conference on Cave and Karst Management, Rockhampton, Queensland, May 1993, ISSN 0159-5415. online P.C. Treble, J. Chappell, M.K. Gagan, K.D. McKeegan, T.M. Harrison (2005): Moondyne Cave Modern Speleothem Stable Isotope Data, NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. DOI online
Address:	CaveWorks, 100 Bussell Highway, Margaret River WA 6285, Tel: +61-8-9757-7411, F: +61-8-9757-7421. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1879	cave discovered by Fred Grange.
1881	discovered by Joseph Bolitho Johns, who had formerly been the bushranger known as Moondyne Joe.
1911	first opened for public viewing.
26-DEC-1959	end of guided tours.
JUL-1992	Moondyne Cave was chosen to provide an adventure caving experience and the project commenced.
NOV-1992	reopened for adventure tours.
AUG-2010	Jewel Cave and Moondyne Cave closed temporarily for renovation.
2012	Moondyne Cave reopened.

Description

photography — **Joseph Bolitho Johns** or **Moondyne Joe** (*FEB-1826-✝13-AUG-1900). Public Domain.

Moondyne Cave was discovered in 1881 by Joseph Bolitho Johns (*FEB-1826-✝13-AUG-1900). He was Western Australia’s best known bushranger (Austrialian for bandid or robber) better known as Moondyne Joe, hence the name of the cave. He was from Cornwall, the son of a blacksmith, and worked as a copper miner in Cornwall and as an iron miner in Wales. He was arrested in 1848 with an associate for "stealing from the house of Richard Price, three loaves of bread, one piece of bacon, several cheeses, and other goods". The two defended themselves unexpectedly vigorously, pleading not guilty, and Johns was aggressive and "violated the customs of the court process". As a result they were sentenced to ten years, while others who pleaded guilty and showed remorse got something like three months. He was deported to Australia in 1952, the British penal colony, where he was issued with a ticket of leave on arrival. After receiving a conditional pardon, he settled in the Avon Valley, which was called Moondyne by the Aboriginals, which explains his nickname. He trapped escaped stock and horses and returned them for a reward. But when he caught an unbranded stallion and branded it with his own mark, he was arrested for horse stealing. He broke out of his cell, stole the horse, killed it and cut his brand out of the hide. As a result he received only a three-year sentence for jail-breaking, the evidence for the horse stealing was destroyed. The rest of his life was a series of periods of good behaviour punctuated by occasional minor misdemeanors and brief jail terms.

He became famous by accident. In 1869, an Irish political prisoner named John Boyle O'Reilly was working in a convict road party near Bunbury. O'Reilly escaped and was rescued by an American ship and lived then in the United States. He had heard the stories about Moondyne Joe and his numerous prison breaks, and wrote a novel about convict life called Moondyne: An Australian Tale. It’s a fictional story, and he only used some similar events for the plot, but never mentioned Joseph Bolitho Johns. But it became quite popular and in 1913 a movie entitled Moondyne was made. The legend lives and is retold now and then, but as always with such stories, does not tell the real life of Johns. The book The Legend of Moondyne Joe was written by Mark Greenwood and illustrated by Frané Lessac in 2002.

The Ballad of Moondyne Joe
In the Darling Ranges, many years ago,
There lived a daring outlaw, by the name of ‘Moondyne Joe’.
He stole the squatter’s horses, and a sheep or two or three,
He loved to roam the countryside, and swore he would be free.
The troopers said we’ll catch him, but we know it’s all in vain,
Every time we lock him up he breaks right out again.
‘Cause in he goes, and out he goes, and off again he’ll go,
There’s not a gaol in W.A. can keep in ‘Moondyne Joe’.

According to lore, the cave was discovered by Moondyne Joe in 1881, which is most likely true. However, according to Dr. Eric Watson it was actually discovered by Fred Grange in 1879, two years earlier. As there was no cadastre or registration office for caves, both discoveries went unnoticed and they both probably did not know about each other. The cave was known as Coronation Cave, and posthumous named after Moondyne Joe while it was operated as a show cave, probably to participate in his popularity.

But back to the cave. The entrance to the cave is a daylight shaft or pothole (in British and Australian english). At the bottom is a 270 m long cave system with three levels of almost horizontal passages. The lowest level is 26 m below the entrance. The cave has two large chambers, the lower chamber reaches the water table. It is called Snowflake Chamber and contains a crystal pool, which is completely covered with calcite flakes. This chamber has some side extensions with fine displays of helictites, which are visited on cave trekking tours. The carbon dioxide levels are often high in this chamber. The upper chamber contains many large columns and stalagmites. There are also some very long straws. Highlight is a huge pilar called Tower of Babel which is surrounded by soda straws on the ceiling.

It is a rather old show cave, first opened in 1911 for the public under the name The Coronation Cave. At that time it was one of 12 show caves in the region, only four of them are still open to the public. The development included stairways into the shaft made of local Karri and Jarrah timbers, handrails made of galvanized piping, and barriers for the protection of decorations made of chicken wire and steel cables. But the cave never had electric light, over time various light sources were used, candles, bush flares, magnesium, kerosene and pressure lanterns. The bush flares are typical Australian, dried fronds of black boy, an Australian native plant which is also called grass tree (Xanthorrhoea preissii). The closure of the show cave in 1959 was a result of the discovery and opening as a show cave, of nearby Jewel Cave, which is much more spectacular.

The cave was vested under the control of the Augusta Margaret River Tourist Bureau. The Caves Access Committee, an independent body comprising members of both, Speleological groups and the Department of Conservation and Land Management, protected the cave by restricting access successfully. But in the early 1990s there was a beginning trend to cave trekking tours, also named as adventure caving, today often called eco tours. There is no ecological aspect, despite the name, such tours often damage undeveloped caves badly. The main problem is uneducated people entering caves, which do not know how to protect the cave and avoid damages. The responsible local institutions tried to offer an alternative, which was called cave awareness tours. Peter Bell wrote a very detailed concept for such tours which was subsequently realized. Those tours are offered since 1992 successfully, in other words for more than 30 years.

The remains of the show cave were not removed when the cave was closed. Wood tends to rot in caves and changes the habitat massively, other materials like metals oxidize and contaminate the cave. As a result, the cave was first restored and rehabilitated. Trails and railings were removed, graffiti also, unless of historic significance, and all loose material which does not belong into the cave also. Most important was the removal of all timber items. Then the cave was prepared for tours. To make sure that the participants would not accidentally enter fragile areas and destroy speleothems, a route was marked with reflective plastic arrow, also with nylon fishing line with small reflector tabs attached. The second system is a result of the fact that while cavers tend to study the floor, while cave visitors spend much of their time with eyes glued to the ceiling. The fishing line is about 40 cm above the floor, and visitors feel it when they leave the tracks. The plastic tent pegs which are holding the line are used in a colour matching the floor, so they are almost invisible and have little effect on photography.

The renovation also resulted in samples which were scientifically examined. Quite interesting was the sample of a small stalagmite which grew on the old show cave trails. The growth history is thus known in detail, it started when the trail was installed in 1911 and ended in 1992 when it was removed. Also, climate data for those years exists. This sample was used to measure oxygen and carbon isotopes, so it was possible to test speleothem climate proxies. In other words: these two methods are used to determine age and climate for any sample, as the age and climate are known for this stalagmite, it is possible to check the accuracy of the method. See the literature section for the reference. The publication and the original data are available online from the NOAA.

The cave visit is very easy, as its passages are mostly level. The entrance shaft is closed by a massive, lying, iron bar gate, and there is a ladder attached for descending. The slopes in the cave are equipped with a sort of "removable ladder", staircases which sit on top of the rocks and can easily be disassembled and removed without any harm to the cave. They have half-steps, about 30 x 40 cm, big enough for one foot and alternatively on the left and right side. They have either no railing or a simple steel rope with plastic cover on one side. Like the staircases, the few viewing platforms are optimized for low impact, with maximum security for the visitors at the same time. After the complete cave restoration Moondyne Cave reopened in 1992 for cave awareness tours.

The installations were again restored and optimized in 2012. This was a result of the major renovation at nearby Jewel Cave the year before. The construction of a new Visitor Center made the infrastructure unavailable during the renovations, and so Moondyne was also closed. They also updated Moondyne, which was a good thing after 20 years, and reopened it in 2012.

Visitors are supplied with basic caving equipment including helmet with headlamp, overalls and gloves. Wear trekking shoes, walking shoes, or gum boots. Bring clothes to change, a towel, and plastic bags for the dirty stuff. The cave is normally rather dry and more on the dusty side than on the muddy. That’s the reason why visitor caving overalls are equipped with water bottles. The tours include a regular show cave tour of Jewel Cave, and lunch at the Jewel Cave Preservation Centre. The so-called souvenir gloves, which the visitors could keep, were a nice idea, but it seems they were discontinued. We actually recommend to bring own gloves, there is a wide range of gloves available at any hardware store, and they are not expensive. This has the benefit that you can choose the best gloves in the right size.