Trip report
| 2014-02-22 | Caving - Mt Fairy at Mt Fairy |
| Trip report: | |
| Mount Fairy Trip Report Doug, Mary-Anne, Mark, Rod, Ron, Joan and Rick and the Paleo`s Julien from ANU and Gilbert from UQ Aim Caving and paleontological investigations, mainly showing Paleos around and helping with their work. In between times GPS`s were used to take readings for as many entrances as we could get too, to update our records and provide for NSWCR. We had all gathered by 9am and after introductions, a small delegation headed off to the Property owner to say good morning. After a few false starts (nobody seemed to be home) we were given the all clear. We took the paleos over to the Quarry area where there is a small cave that had produced material in the past. A brief inspection soon found the 2 documented sites. After crawling around for a while only a few small fragments, a very small jaw and a tooth were found. It is suspected that wombat activity has degraded one of the sites quite significantly. Nothing to interest the paleos was found and all material was left in situ. While the “boys” were engrossed in bone hunting, a few of us took the opportunity to GPS 6 or so known caves in the general area of the quarries. The area is quite “blackberried” and a few caves have succumbed under the mass of thorns. After lunch we headed off to Sandhills creek area. This area is also well and truly overgrown with blackberry. Foxhole Cave was gained after 30 minutes and many punctures worth of attacking with large sticks to create a tunnel through the thicket. Whilst everone was caving Rick scouted around and GPS`ed the local caves. The site in Foxhole was discovered but very little of it (was ever?) remains. Nothing of interest was found. The Lads moved on to Main Cave and after a false start found the correct passage and then where the site was located. No evidence of a site could be found however …either totally degraded or not marked on the map correctly. On the way back to camp Zed cave and the old mining benches were inspected. Joan and Mary-anne had a lovely day in Canberra scoffing coffee`s and muffins. Sunday saw us up at property owner No2 to let him know we were around and we set off to the last known deposit. Unfortunately nobody could actually get past a constriction and the site remained unvisited. Need one of those small helicopter things with lights and camera. While most of the group were trying to find a way in to the cave Rick again was walking around GPS`ing. Rick alerted the Paleos of another possible site found during this GPS walk which proved to have some bones of interest. A few samples were taken with the permission of the property owner and these will be duly cleaned and acid bathed to reveal the specimens and try to determine their species and age. So hopefully from the Paleo`s point of view it wasn’t a totally wasted weekend, we did manage a little bit of caving and we GPS`ed approx. 20 cave locations. All in all nice weather, nice company, equals a nice weekend. | |