BETWEEN FRIENDS

Greetings....

This second newsletter for 1994 has expanded to 4 pages to accommodate the feature article by Mick Adler, our Vice President, about the adventures of the Friends during the Melbourne Cup long weekend.

Peter Ackroyd has also kindly contributed reports on the two Friends weekends in July and September 1994, where the planting of seedlings got underway in the fenced-off re-vegetation area in The Potholes. A short article by Peter also appears on Graham Parkes departure to the Grampians.

A General Meeting of the Friends was held in Melbourne on 25th May 1994 and was attended by about 15 enthusiastic people. They managed to crowd into my lounge room and had a general discussion on the future directions of the Friends and ideas for projects. The interpretive signs project was considered, and is covered further in the report on the Friends weekend of September 1994.

A new group has started this year in western Victoria, the 'Friends of Eccles and Napier'. This is another caving area, but in volcanics rather than limestone. They are interested in carrying out various projects in the National Park reserves in cooperation with the rangers, including koala spotting, walking track repairs, flora/fauna surveys, and of course works related to the lava caves and canals. Write to PO BOX 591, Hamilton VIC 3300, or contact Colin Scott on (055) 761-174 if you are interested in finding out more about this group.

To be held at the Buchan Caves Reserve on Saturday 3rd December 1994, 6:00 PM onwards. As usual, there will be a barbeque put on by the Friends. This is to be followed by presentation of the Annual Financial Report, a copy of which is distributed with this newsletter. The election of office bearers for the coming year will then occur. Most of the current executive will be not be standing for re-election, so this is an ideal opportunity for you to become more involved in this great Friends group.

All Friends and guests are welcome; just bring your own refreshments. There will be plenty of talk and the chance to meet other Friends and Caves Reserve staff in the usual relaxed atmosphere, and to pay the $2 membership fee for 1995.

Some maintenance work will occur on the recently planted seedlings at The Potholes and in the main Caves Reserve. There have been almost no casualties since the last planting, and some of the seedlings are over 300 mm high.

by Peter Ackroyd

(Also appears in Nargun 27(3):23, September 1994)

At the end of September 1994, Graham Parkes, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DC&NR) Senior Ranger at Buchan, takes up a new position at the Grampians National Park.

When Graham was appointed to the Buchan position in early 1987, he brought a fresh approach to caver / cave manager relations. The close association that has developed through such initiatives as the Friends of Buchan Caves (formed at Graham's suggestion in November 1987) is due in no small part to Graham's friendship and enthusiasm.

29 October - 1 November 1994

by Mick Adler

Party:

Peter Ackroyd	Neil Brenton	Roger Taylor
Mick Adler	Cathie Cranston	Raia Wall
Glenn Baddeley	Erica Maggs
Kim Thomas (DC&NR, Swifts Creek)

Erica, Cathie and Mick arrived at Limestone Creek about 12:30AM Saturday morning. Glenn, Peter and Roger arrived about an hour later. The camps were set up and after a bit of a chat we all went to bed.

We woke to a bright sunny morning at about 8:30 AM, had breakfast, and waited for Neil and Raia to turn up. Kim arrived at 10:00 AM with his boss, Mark Doyle (Ranger-in-charge, Swifts Creek).

Kim had joined us for an orientation trip to see the caves and to get some ideas for future management programs. We put on our grotties and went across Limestone Creek to Sheehan's Cave (LC-5), a maze approximately 200 m long with a shallow stream running through. A low wet entrance gave access to larger chamber areas, mostly wet and muddy. There was some nice decoration but a lot of the walls had some form of graffiti on them. Because of the nature of the walls it is most unlikely that any form of restoration will be practical. Some of the party exited through LC-10E, unfortunately Mick did not fit through an awkward squeeze and had to go back through the main entrance. Rubbish, including paper, a bottle and a couple of cans were removed and the short walk was taken back to camp for lunch.

Meanwhile, Peter was pointing out the boundaries of the karst to Mark Doyle, who was looking for the best place to install a pit toilet. A spot not far from the main camp-site, but far enough off the limestone, was finally selected.

By this time Neil and Raia had joined us and had set up their camp site. After lunch there was some surveying to be done at the north end of Sheehan's Bluff, and to relocate, survey and tag LC-19. A number of holes were seen on the way. Most were known, but Cathie found a hole with a very tight vertical entrance. Peter said he would give it a try, and fitted in and disappeared. We were wondering where he had gone when he was seen walking up the hill back to us. Unknown to us, the hole was a second entrance to LC-3.

From there we headed further on towards LC-19, passing the other group who were doing a long surface survey to link the tags of LC-19 and LC-2. While Roger was tagging LC-19, Peter, Neil and Kim went in the very small vertical entrance to survey and sketch inside. When this was finished, everybody returned to camp with several detours to look into various features and some uninviting wombat holes.

After dinner we all gathered around the camp fire and talked and planned the next day.

On Sunday, Kim arrived again at 10:00AM and we hiked over the hills to the east into the Stony Creek valley, where there is an outcrop of limestone. We explored, tagged, photo-tagged and took G.P.S. readings on a few caves in this area. G.P.S. (Global Positioning System) is a 'black box' which uses the signals from a number of satellites to give a grid reference which can then be plotted on a map.

After following tracks, bridle paths and bush bashing, and in Mick's case almost a heart attack, we arrived at LC-8. This is the outflow of Stony Creek, the beautiful entrance complete with stream, leads into a low wet cave with little decoration, plenty of water, several other entrances and not much else. We walked up Stony Creek to LC-6 for lunch at a small abandoned marble quarry.

After lunch, time was spent trying to find a cave which Raia had seen several years ago, without any luck. Peter headed for LC-26 and LC-27, which Glenn, Roger and Raia were trying to locate up Claire Creek. Quite a bit of time was spent here tagging and documenting LC-26. Cathie and Glenn put in quite an effort opening up another entrance to the small chamber, which also has two small dirt choked leads. Return to camp was a lot easier as most of the track was down hill.

On Monday, Kim arrived at 9:30AM to travel about 12 km up the Limestone Creek track with us to Indi in New South Wales. Neil and Raia decided to ride mountain bikes and left an hour earlier. With Kim and Glenn driving, after a couple of kilometres the road started to go straight up and down steep mountain sides, with up to 1 metre high banks sloping across the track for erosion control. Coming down the second mountain to one of many river crossings, we caught up with Neil and Raia, who were making hard going on the bikes. It was decided to put the bikes in the back of Kim's Toyota ute.

Kim made a stop for Glenn to catch up, and Peter wanted to look at a stream in a small lens of limestone. While looking around Cathie spotted a shallow depression, it looked more like a wash-away into an underground stream than anything else. Cathie got Peter to have a closer look as she was sure there was a hole there, and much to her delight, there was a small hole going down a fair way. Time would not allow further exploration, Cathie was put out at not trying to enter. She has made everybody promise not to try to go in without her.

Up and down two more bigger and rougher mountains we reached the Murray River near Pilot's Point. After lunch we waded the 15 m across the shallow river. Vehicles are banned from crossing over into the wilderness area in NSW. About 200 m from the river up on a hill we found I-1. It had a low entrance, then down a couple of short drops to be confronted by a 4 m high climb. Roger and Kim scrambled up to the top using some old in-situ cord and poles. Kim tossed up his Dolphin torch, only to find it had fallen down a 4 m drop on the other side. The far side had no foot or hand holds for descent, and as we had no gear, the torch looked to be lost.

Neil, Glenn, Cathie, Erica and Mick ventured up some side passages into some small high level chambers with good decorations. Glenn and Erica followed a low crawl which started to descend. Mick followed and we ended up in a chamber on the far side of the climb, and on the ground was Kim's torch. Looking up, we saw the relieved faces of Kim and Roger looking down. Eventually everybody came around to have look at the chamber.

Leaving this cave, the party split into smaller groups to have a look for more caves. Glenn, Erica, Cathie and Mick went into I-4, a small rockfall cave at the bottom of a steep sided doline. Next we went to The Spiral Staircase (I-3), a very interesting cave with a series of spiral drops down flowstone to a 3.5 m drop into a larger chamber. Roger and Kim had free climbed down through old dirty formation, it didn't look easy.

Glenn said he had a ladder in his truck, if we wanted to go and get it. We said it was too far. We waited for Kim to struggle back up the climb. By this time, Roger had made the very tight connection to Fissure Cave (I-5E), and had come back in through the I-3 entrance to help Kim.

A few other caves were visited and photo-tagged. Erica, Cathie and Mick wandered back to the Murray River a bit earlier than the main group and took the opportunity to have a wash. "The water is F-----G FREEZING", said Erica.

The trip back was fairly uneventful, except Glenn took three tries before he was able to get up a section of the second mountain. He tossed out Raia and Erica as extra weight. The VERY steep and rocky mountain with erosion banks across the road made walking difficult, let along driving. Eventually we all got to the mountain top, reloaded and headed back to camp.

After breakfast and packing up on Tuesday (the last day), we drove to Pendergast's Cave (LC-4) for a quick look. It is a small maze cave which is heavily used by the public and was cleaned three years ago by the Friends of Buchan Caves. A cord across the cleaned area was still there, as was the "please do not enter sign". The cleaned area beyond the sign did not appeared to have been entered since 1992. We had a good look around and headed out.

Mick, Cathie and Erica returned via Buchan, having an interesting trip with views of Mt. Kosciusko covered in snow. Back at the Buchan Caves Reserve, a long hot shower was enjoyed, and a coffee break before heading for Melbourne at about 7:00 PM. Glenn, Peter and Roger returned via Benambra, with a good look at the Octagon Book Store in Omeo.

A magic long weekend was had by all, we wish there had been time to see and do more. For those looking for a different type of caving this weekend is recommended. It is presumed the FOBC will be back at Limestone Creek again over the next Melbourne Cup weekend.

by Peter Ackroyd

(Also appears in Nargun 27(3):24, September 1994)

Over 20 people attended the first planting of seedlings in the Friend's re-vegetation area at The Potholes. Some time ago an electric fence was constructed by the Friends, using funds from 'Tree Victoria', to provide a few hectares which could be protected from depredation by the native (and not so native) wildlife. Earlier this year a gate, purchased by the Friends, was installed on a working bee weekend. A fort-night before the planting was due to commence Jim Daly and I sprayed weedicide with added dye to mark out the 1,000 or so planting sites and to give the young trees a chance to grow a bit before be overtaken by the long grass.

The planting weekend was very successful with about 50 Casuarinas (Allocasuarina sp.), 180 Yellow Box (Eucalyptus melliodora) and 180 Buchan Blue Wattles (Acacia sp.) planted out in the plot. The tiny trees were protected by plastic tree guards purchased by the Friends earlier in the month. A further 40 Buchan Blue Wattles were plant out in the Caves Reserve on Sunday, on the hill-side above the swimming pool. A very worthwhile project is now under way thanks to the Friends.

The Friends donation bins in Fairy Cave and Royal Cave netted $730, and $46 was also collected at the Caves Reserve Kiosk from sales of the Bat Pamphlets produced by the Friends.

This weekend was attended by:

Mick Adler	Eric Lenser	Ian Sebire & wife
Glenn Baddeley	Michael Lenser	Lyn Sebire & boyfriend
Neil Brenton	Erica Maggs	Roger Taylor
Cathie Cranston	Jude Matthews	Raia Wall
Jim Daly	Spot Matthews	6 Mt. Evelyn Venturers
Geoff Hammond	Ann Post

by Peter Ackroyd

Sixteen Friends we on site at the Potholes on Saturday 17 September to replace trees which had been damaged when a grass fire burnt through the Friends revegetation plot on the eastern boundary of Allotment 22A on 12 August 1994. Although early fears were held that a lot of the trees had been killed, closer examination revealed that only four weeks after the fire many of the small trees had new shoots on them. The day was spent trimming back those trees which had been damaged, replacing those which had been killed and repairing the plastic tree guards which had burnt or melted. An additional 150 trees were planted out, many replacing dead trees, but some were planted in new sites. The recent rain at Buchan will surely bring these trees on well, so that within a couple of years we should see a nice crop of young trees inside our electric fence.

In the afternoon most of us sat down with Graham Parkes (Senior Ranger at Buchan Caves Reserve of the time) to discuss our new interpretation signs project. Some basic decisions were taken such as how big they should be and where they should go. So far we've decided on six signs to cover the main subjects of interest in the Caves Reserve. Lyn Sebire is working on two of these as part of her VCE studies and I will be putting together a rough layout for the others. The six themes will be:

• Fairy and Royal Cave (Lyn)
• Moon's Hill (geology)
• Spring Creek (hydrology)
• The central camp area (landscaping history)
• Dukes Cave (karst processes)

Naturally I will be getting help from specialists for the wording of some of these. Anyone interested in helping could ring me on (03) 347 8058.

On Saturday night a barbeque, organised by the Friends to farewell Graham Parkes, was very well attended. The Friends were joined by representatives of the Australian Caves and Karst Management Association (ACKMA) and the Scout Branch Caving Council to say our good-byes to Graham and his family, who will be heading for the Grampians National Park on 30th September.

On Sunday 18th September, Jim Daly and Jack Lewendon showed the Friends the new works carried out in the low stretch of Fairy Cave beyond the King's Chamber. This section of cave (sciatica alley) was always regarded as a lost piece of cave due to the restricted passage size and low head room. However, with some judicious jack picking and careful lighting it has now become and integral part of the cave. All this work was carried out by DC&NR staff over the past few months.

Friends who attended this weekend were:

Peter Ackroyd	Geoff Hammond	Jude Matthews
Mick Adler	Marty Hawkins	Colin Maloney
Bronwyn Carter	Jack Lewendon	Ian Sebire & family
Cathie Cranston	Eric Maggs	Peter Stewart
Jim Daly	Spot Matthews