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Victorian Speleological Association
The Victorian Speleological Association Inc. (VSA) was created in 1967 by the merger of the Victorian Cave Exploration Society (1957) and the Sub Aqua Speleological Society (1960). It is a member of the Australian Speleological Federation (ASF) which is in turn part of the International Union of Speleology. The Association aims to explore and chart the extensive cave systems in Victoria (Australia) and elsewhere, represent the interests of Victorian cavers to the relevant authorities and to encourage the preservation of caves in their natural state. There are over 800 caves in Victoria, many of them on private property. In addition to its exploration, campaigning and conservation work the Association's members oversee recreational expeditions underground for the general public. The VSA has been actively involved with the exploration of sinkholes and caves at Nullarbor Plain. These have proved a rich source of megafauna fossils and the Association was instrumental in the discov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian Speleological Federation
Formed in 1956, the Australian Speleological Federation Inc. (ASF) is the national body representing those interested in the protection and sustainability of Australia's cave and karst environments. It has approximately 850 members across 28 constituent bodies throughout all Australian states and territories. The ASF represents Australia within the International Union of Speleology, which is linked with UNESCO. The federation is registered as an environmental organisation by the Department of the Environment and Energy, Canberra. The ASF maintains a public fund, authorised under the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 item 6.1.1, subsection 30–55(1) to receive tax-deductible donations for its environmental purposes. ASF works in environmental protection. Many members have largely recreational interests but have joined the federation to support its environmental objectives; others have primarily management, historical, scientific or academic interests in caves and karst. In all c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Union Of Speleology
International Union of Speleology (french: links=no, Union Internationale de Spéléologie, UIS) is a scientific non-governmental organization dedicated to the international promotion and coordination of cave and karst research. Founded in 1965, UIS is a member of the International Science Council in Paris and cooperates with UNESCO. In 2021-2022, UIS organized the ''International Year of Caves and Karst''. History The international speleological community, mostly Europeans, agreed in a meeting in 1949 in Valence-sur-Rhone, France, to hold international speleological congresses beginning in Paris in 1953. These efforts continued during the Cold War. At the 4th International Congress of Speleology in Postojna/Ljubljana (1965), a group of speleologists proposed to establish an association that would bring together scientists and cavers on both sides of the Iron Curtain and coordinate their activities. At the closing ceremony of this congress, the UIS was finally launched. Howe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cave
A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea caves, rock shelters, and grottos, that extend a relatively short distance into the rock and they are called ''exogene'' caves. Caves which extend further underground than the opening is wide are called ''endogene'' caves. Speleology is the science of exploration and study of all aspects of caves and the cave environment. Visiting or exploring caves for recreation may be called ''caving'', ''potholing'', or ''spelunking''. Formation types The formation and development of caves is known as ''speleogenesis''; it can occur over the course of millions of years. Caves can range widely in size, and are formed by various geological processes. These may involve a combination of chemical processes, erosion by water, tectonic forces, microorgani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in Australia (28 per km2). Victoria is bordered by New South Wales to the north and South Australia to the west, and is bounded by the Bass Strait to the south (with the exception of a small land border with Tasmania located along Boundary Islet), the Great Australian Bight portion of the Southern Ocean to the southwest, and the Tasman Sea (a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean) to the southeast. The state encompasses a range of climates and geographical features from its temperate coastal and central regions to the Victorian Alps in the northeast and the semi-arid north-west. The majority of the Victorian population is concentrated in the central-south area surrounding Port Phillip Bay, and in particular within the metropolit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caver
Caving – also known as spelunking in the United States and Canada and potholing in the United Kingdom and Ireland – is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems (as distinguished from show caves). In contrast, speleology is the scientific study of caves and the cave environment.Caving in New Zealand (from Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, Accessed 2012-11.) The challenges involved in caving vary according to the cave being visited; in addition to the total absence of light beyond the entrance, negotiating pitches, squeezes, [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nullarbor Plain
The Nullarbor Plain ( ; Latin: feminine of , 'no', and , 'tree') is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its north. It is the world's largest single exposure of limestone bedrock, and occupies an area of about . At its widest point, it stretches about from east to west across the border between South Australia and Western Australia. History Historically, the Nullarbor was seasonally occupied by Indigenous Australian people, the Mirning clans and Yinyila people. Traditionally, the area was called ''Oondiri'', which is said to mean "the waterless". The first Europeans known to have sighted and mapped the Nullarbor coast were Captain François Thijssen and Councillor of the Indies, Pieter Nuyts, on the Dutch East Indiaman '''t Gulden Zeepaert'' (the Golden Seahorse). In 1626–1627, they charted a stretch of the southern Australian coast eas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Megafauna
In terrestrial zoology, the megafauna (from Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and New Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") comprises the large or giant animals of an area, habitat, or geological period, extinct and/or extant. The most common thresholds used are weight over see page 17 (i.e., having a mass comparable to or larger than a human) or over a tonne, (i.e., having a mass comparable to or larger than an ox). The first of these include many species not popularly thought of as overly large, and being the only few large animals left in a given range/area, such as white-tailed deer, Thomson's gazelle, and red kangaroo. In practice, the most common usage encountered in academic and popular writing describes land mammals roughly larger than a human that are not (solely) domesticated. The term is especially associated with the Pleistocene megafauna – the land animals often larger than their extant counterparts that are considered archetypical of the last ice age, such as mammoth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thylacoleo
''Thylacoleo'' ("pouch lion") is an extinct genus of carnivorous marsupials that lived in Australia from the late Pliocene to the late Pleistocene (2 million to 46 thousand years ago). Some of these marsupial lions were the largest mammalian predators in Australia of their time, with ''Thylacoleo carnifex'' approaching the weight of a lioness. The estimated average weight for the species ranges from . Taxonomy The genus was first published in 1859, erected to describe the type species ''Thylacoleo carnifex''. The new taxon was established in examination of fossil specimens provided to Richard Owen. The familial alliance takes its name from this description, the so-called marsupial lions of Thylacoleonidae. The colloquial name "marsupial lion" alludes to the superficial resemblance to the placental lion and its ecological niche as a large predator. ''Thylacoleo'' is not closely related to the modern lion (''Panthera leo''). Genus: ''Thylacoleo'' (''Thylacopardus'') – Australia' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bullita Cave
Bullita Cave, also known as Burkes Backyard Cave, is a cave located in Gregory National Park of the Northern Territory, Australia. It is one of the longest surveyed caves in both Australia and the world. Location and structure Bullita Cave is part of a network of caves located close together within Gregory National Park. Major caves close to it include Dingo Cave System, which is away, and Prometheus Cave System, which is away; multiple smaller caves are located near Bullita Cave as well. The cave has multiple entrances and is located underneath a field of limestone pavement which is over in length. The cave contains a large number of holes which open up at the surface, revealing daylight, and some whole sections which are completely exposed, as well as fissures within its tunnels. ''Beneath the Surface: A Natural History of Australian Caves'' describes the cave as a "complex close-spaced maze system." Exploration Operation Raleigh investigated the cave in an expedition in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gregory National Park
Judbarra National Park, formerly Gregory National Park, is a national park in the Northern Territory of Australia, 359 km south of Darwin. The park is the second largest national park in the Northern Territory, after Kakadu National Park, with an area of 13,000 km2 (1.3 million ha). Ecologically, it is in the transition between tropical and semi-arid zones. The park was formerly known as Gregory National Park, but on 21 October 2011, it was announced that under a joint management plan with the traditional owners, the park would be dual-named "Judbarra" for a period of ten years. Beginning in 2021, its official name will be Judbarra National Park.NRETAJudburra/Gregory National Park, Northern Territory Government The park consists of two geographically disjoint sections. The larger section lies to the southwest of the smaller northeastern section. Indigenous people and culture The park includes traditional lands of several Indigenous Australian groups, including Ngari ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Australia to the west (129th meridian east), South Australia to the south (26th parallel south), and Queensland to the east (138th meridian east). To the north, the territory looks out to the Timor Sea, the Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria, including Western New Guinea and other islands of the Indonesian archipelago. The NT covers , making it the third-largest Australian federal division, and List of country subdivisions by area, the 11th-largest country subdivision in the world. It is sparsely populated, with a population of only 249,000 – fewer than half as many people as in Tasmania. The largest population center is the capital city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin. The archaeological hist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buchan Caves
The Buchan Caves are a group of limestone caves that include the Royal Cave and the Fairy Cave, located south-west of , in the East Gippsland region of the Australian state of Victoria. They have a total length of between , and six entrances. The Buchan Cave Reserve has been transferred back to the Gunaikurnai Nation and is jointly managed with the state. The limestone rock at Buchan was laid down during the Devonian period about 300 – 400 million years ago. At the time, the sea covered this area of East Gippsland which was alive with shellfish and coral. Their remains were deposited in layers and over the years compacted to form limestone. The caves were formed by solution of the limestone.Visit VictoriBuchan Caves The Buchan Caves are located approximately east northeast (or six hours' drive) from Melbourne, along the Princes Highway, north of Lakes Entrance. Other caves nearby include Cloggs Cave and New Guinea II cave. Tourism The caves are a major tourist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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