N37 Intrepid explorers

This is Dick's nice slide, he had his Dad's 35mm film camera for the trip. He is at this moment copying slides with his Panasonic point n shoot, seems to work OK! We were on our way to WA where I took up a new job with the WA Geol Survey, to assist in the mapping of the Eucla Basin, and all that limestone and caves! See GSWA and WASG shots.... This Wiki article on the Eucla Basin needs updating.. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucla_Basin Now shared on Instagram #carbidelamp OCR scan then tricky edit on the acer Laptop 19-03-24 HISTORY OF MULLAMULLANG The first two references to the cave appear in Australian Speleological Federation News letter Ho.??SA (1964) In the first, 'Air Photographs of the Nullarbor'Plains Caves' by J.N. Jennings, an outline was given of his own work of stereoscopic examination of the most recent air photos of the Nullarbor and mention was made of similar work by D.C. Lowry in Western Australia. Mention was made of the proposed expeditionary activity at that time which was the subject of the second Australian Speleological Federation article, Nullarbor Expedition 1963-64'. contributed by Sydney University Speleological Society. Using the air photograph coverage made available the expedition found that one (doline) led to the Nullarbor's longest and deepest known cave. Named Mullamullang (because of the unusual quantities of dry sand found within), it comprises a single passage; about two miles long containing a number of small lakes or pools and seemingly countless 'mountains' of rocky detritus. More than 1 miles of the cave was mapped showing its deepest point to be 370 feet below the Plain. The expedition report proposed by the Sydney University Speleological Society organisers in that article has not yet appeared. The J.N, Jennings sketch maps and lists of doline occurrences including Mullamullang reached CEG(SA) as private correspondence in December 1963 and to Jennings we must attribute its discovery. Jennings' first-described location of the cave suggested, wrongly, that it was one of the Kestrel Caves found earlier in 1963 by Lowry four miles north. The error is excusable when it is appreciated that all of Jennings' air photo work to this stage had been carried out in Canberra. The credit for physically locating the cave must be given to P. Aitken of the South Australian Museum, a member of the 1963-64 Sydney University Speleological Society Expedition. On the 9th January 1964 Aitken and a ground party located the cave from the air photo reference and it was entered for the first time. The discovery has been described briefly in Walkabout (1965) and an excellent account of the visit has been written by E. Anderson in Helictite (1964) , together with a Grade 6 traverse map to White Lake (1.6 miles). The cave name 'Mullamullang' and location names up to White Lake were named by the 1963-64 Expedition. Anderson with J.N. and J.G. Jennings returned to the cave briefly in January 1965 in an attempi to continue the survey. This was abandoned for want of time and support, but J.N. Jennings was able to commence a geomorphological examination of the cave. During Easter 1965 the cave was again visited, this time by Ian Williams leading five other Western Australian Speleological Group members. At the previous terminal point, D. Hoss discovered a way on which is now known as the drop-off. Ian phoned Bill in Sydney and as he was planning a trip to Perth in May to take up a new job with the GSWA he invited John D and Dick H to accompany him to N37. We took some rope and perhaps a ladder and descended the "Drop-Off" to discoverey another mile or so of massive passageway to the end at "The Dome". discovering and naming "The Junction" and "Lake Cigalere". See diary image at the end of the comments. from the book.... Mullumullang Cave Expeditions 1966 by CEGSA A.L.Hill Occasional Papers N0.4