NSW’s Jenolan Caves is scheduled to reopen early next year, after six years of natural disasters that caused catastrophic damage to access roads, the precinct and the historic mountain retreat Caves House.
But long-term access to the site has yet to be finalised, and it is unlikely that vehicles will be allowed into the precinct again, or to enter via the Grand Arch, as they did for decades.
Before Jenolan reopens, the state government is expected to consider a range of alternate transport options including a $44 million detachable gondola, a cable car similar to the one used at Taronga Zoo in Sydney. It would transport visitors from the escarpment to the valley through 1154 metres.
Jenolan Caves Reserve Trust director Andrew Le Lievre said he was working with Transport for NSW on providing a fleet of shuttle buses that could carry hundreds of visitors from a parking lot at the top of the hill.
“Our preferred option is not to have the public driving on that road. It is very steep, it is very narrow and it’s very windy,” he said.
The member for Bathurst Paul Toole said a gondola from the Two Mile Road section of Jenolan Caves Road to Caves House was a “no-brainer solution” that would resolve financial and geographical issues.
“A gondola will add to the magical experience of Jenolan Caves and offer a new perspective as visitors glide down the valley,” Toole said.
The cost and reliability of the gondola was the preferred option in a report by consultants Riser + Gain. It was the most cost-effective and the least damaging for biodiversity and the limestone.
The report estimated that it would cost at least $150 million to fix the Five Mile section of Jenolan Caves Road. Even then it would still be vulnerable to land slips. It is still closed and Transport for NSW is expected to make a final decision on the viability of future repairs in the next few months.
Repairs to the Two Mile section of Jenolan Caves Road were estimated at more than $57 million and are expected to be completed this year, depending on weather. In future it will serve as an access road.
Victoria Pass is also currently closed on the Great Western Highway between Mount Victoria and Little Hartley, causing further delays for visitors from Sydney and the Blue Mountains.
Following upgrades and restoration works across the site, Le Lievre said visitors would be able to visit caves that hadn’t been open to the public for years. These include: the Ribbon, famous for its gravity-defying helictites; the Jubilee, with its rich crystal displays; and the River Cave, described as a “mind-bending labyrinth”.
Guides would escort visitors to give them a sense of wonder and awe that came with discovering something new to them yet older than 340 million years.
Le Lievre said: “One of our major challenges has been that people have been to the caves usually as schoolchildren and they feel that that’s the experience, only to come back with potentially children or grandchildren.”
Toole said the reopening of Jenolan Caves would provide a significant boost to local businesses, jobs and the wider regional economy. It was one of the region’s “greatest natural treasures for generations, drawing visitors from across Australia and around the world”.
The oldest open cave system in the world also has a new attraction: a chance for the public to spot one of the world’s latest discoveries, a cave cricket about the size of a coffee bean.
Known as the Jenolan Cave Cricket, it is called the Speleotettix binoomea, a reference to the traditional Indigenous name for Jenolan that means dark spaces. It is the first time a word used by the traditional Gundungurra people has been used to describe a species.
Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said the cricket’s discovery was “a powerful reminder of the area’s unique natural and cultural significance”.
After the pandemic the caves attracted fewer than 50,000 visitors a year, compared with 240,000 a year, on average, before then.
After assessing other options, including a funicular, the report recommended a mono-detachable gondola that could transport about 900 visitors per hour per direction (1800 in total), or about 500,000 a year in the short term and more if needed later.
The absence of vehicles for six years from the site, combined with National Parks’ work to remove feral animals, had helped re-establish brushed tail possums, which were on the brink of extinction in 1988. Other native animals had flourished, including the spotted-tailed quoll and a family of three platypus in the Blue Lake.
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