Capricorn Caves celebrates "Independence Day"

Capricorn Caves resounded to a different tune on 4th July as over 100 American students sang their National Anthem "The Star Spangled Banner" in honour of Independence Day.
A pivotal moment was the cutting of the cake, a large American flag.The students are part of the People to People Student Ambassador contingent that travel from Sydney to Cairns throughout June and July. Capricorn Caves has a lot of fun hosting the students and their leaders as they thoroughly enjoy their cave experience. They not only have a chance to learn about an ancient Australian landscape and its native animals and flora but also have the opportunity to get down and dirty amongst the bat......!!

Matthew Hayden visits Capricorn Caves

This week Capricorn Caves hosted a special visitor - the world famous cricketer Matthew Hayden. Matthew exchanged cricket bats for another type of bat in the caves. We hoped to put him through his paces - squeezing through "Fat Man's Misery", but unfortunately we ran out of time.

Matthew is heading promotional video team "Operation Sunshine" highlighting that Queensland is very much open for business. He also generously signed cricket memorabilia for local junior cricket teams and posed for photos with the visiting Rockhampton Grammar school students.

Well done and thank you Matthew - your visit was a highlight.

Caves' school schedule winding down!

The summer months are well and truly upon us and Christmas is just around the corner... meaning day visits and school camps to the Capricorn Caves are winding down for another year.

But what a year it's been!

2010 has seen no less than 80 school groups experience all there is to offer at the Capricorn Caves; from standards including adventure caving, cathedral tours and the high ropes course, to initiatives challenges, environment presentations and our ground breaking new geo-tour.

And if you thought it was only local schools taking advantage of our state of the
art camp and lodging facilities... think again!

This year schools from as far as Gympie and Ayr have made the trek to Capricornia and word is spreading with schools from across the border now expressing interest in a Capricorn Caves experience.

This week though it's been the sixteen students from Avondale State School, west of Agnes Water, that have kept staff on their toes.

After a hearty morning schedule of adventure caving and the always popular crate climb, the students - ranging from grades 4, 5, 6 and 7 - will have the afternoon to relax before a night tour and camp fire round out their stay at the Capricorn Caves.

80 schools down, four to go... until next year that is!

Encore! Encore!

Three performances. Three sell out shows. Hundreds of satisfied guests!

In just its third year, the Capricorn Caves' Underground Opera is fast becoming one of the real highlights on Central Queensland's social calendar.

Indeed such is the growing popularity of the show that additional seating had to be supplied to cater for all the guests during the recent November shows!

"The staff had to find room for around 40 extra chairs so that was a job in itself carrying all the extra seating into the Cathedral," Cave owner Ann Augusteyn laughed.
And For three consecutive nights there wasn't an empty seat in the house ( or cave... as it were) as crowds flocked to see such classics as 'Sweeney Todd' and the 'Barber of Seville' in a somewhat surreal limestone setting.

Staff from SKAL International Capricornia were the given the VIP treatment as special guests for the evening and judging from their response, Ann believes they'll be first in line for tickets come 2011.

"They had never seen anything like it," she said.

"The majority of the guests have seen the show every year since its inception in 2008 and they keep coming back so we must be doing something right and I'm sure we'll see them all again next year."

The concerts will return again in May.

Capricorn Caves' European Cousins!

"Believe it or not the Capricorn Caves are very similar to those in Poland around 60 or 70 million years ago."

It may sound strange, but it's this fun little fact that has prompted two of Europe's leading karst and geomorphology experts to shed the winter woollies and ply their trade right here in the tropics.

Along with Associate Professor Armstrong Osborne from Sydney University, Bojan Otonicar from the Karst Research Institute in Slovenia and Andrzey Tyc from the University of Silesia in Poland have the spent the past two weeks studying various cave and karst formations at the Capricorn Caves.

As part of a joint three year study, the trio hope to shed a little more light on exactly how these magnificent chambers were formed and indeed how they'll be shaped by the elements in the future.

Professor Osborne said they were looking for caves that boast similar landscapes and features to some European caves, but in a vastly different climatic setting.

"The caves we are looking at in Poland are about 50 degrees north while the Capricorn Caves lie on the Tropic of Capricorn... so it's fair to say that Poland and Central Queensland are quite different!" he laughed.

But here is where it really gets interesting.

"Our work is based on the theory that caves were formed from water travelling from bottom to top, rather than top to bottom rather than the other way around."

Meaning that the long held belief that the caves were formed by rain water trickling through cracks and crevices and slowly dissolving the limestone could in fact be somewhat upside down.

"That's the theory so we're looking at and measuring features that might show which direction the water moved, geological structures and things like that," Professor Osborne said.

For his European counterparts, the three week sojourn is also a chance to soak up some Central Queensland sun!

"I'm enjoying the warm temperatures," Bojan said.

"It's probably very close to zero degrees in Slovenia right now so it's nice to be able work in a t-shirt!"

The trio will continue their study in Poland next June.

15 years and counting...

In 1995 a small group of Singaporean soldiers tiptoed their way coyly through the Capricorn Caves as a novel way of relaxing after completing a three week deployment in the land of Oz.

Now some 15 years later a day trip through our limestone playground almost a rite of passage for the Singaporean military, with thousands choosing to spend their few leisurely hours relaxing underground.

Indeed 2010 has seen 650 so far enjoy the wonders of the Cathedral and co. with a further thousand more expected before year's end.

And it's no surprise that owner Ann Augusteyn couldn't be happier.

"We are the only operator in Queensland that the Singaporean military choose to visit consistently every year," she said.

"It really says a lot about the quality of our staff and our facilities."

"They really enjoy coming here to see the majesty of the caves and it is truly a joy to have them and we hope to see them for many more years to come!"

FYI

Conscription in Singapore, called National Service (NS), requires all male Singaporean citizens and second-generation permanent residents who have reached the age of 18 to enroll in the military. They serve a two-year period as Full Time National Servicemen (NSFS), either in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), Singapore Police Force (SPF), or the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).
When a conscript completes his full-time service, he is considered to be "operationally ready", and is thereafter known as an Operationally-Ready National Serviceman.
Op Ready National Servicemen are the equivalent of other militaries' reservists.
Each year, Op ready National Service men go through either a high-key training or a low-key training until they reach the age of 40 or 50, depending on their rank.
Singapore is currently among a list of countries with the longest military service exceeding 18 months, just behind Israel and South Korea.

The Caves Harness The Sun!

As the mercury rises and summer in the southern hemisphere descends, a spectacle unlike any other is brewing deep beneath the red Central Queensland soil.

And for a few select weeks every year staff at the Capricorn Caves perform the seemingly impossible... and harness the sun!

In times of old, the summer solstice - when the sun comes literally to a standstill in the sky - was a time for great celebration and though the times have changed, the festivities remain and the Caves plays host to one of the best.

Due to the Caves' location on the Tropic of Capricorn, the heaven's literally shine a light on one of Capricorn's biggest limestone chambers, 'The Belfry' from December to mid January.

Under a burning solstice sun, a brilliant sunbeam filters down through a vertical 14ft shaft , piercing the darkness below.

Much to the delight of the thousands that flock to the Caves each year, eager guides have indeed learned how to capture the power and intensity of this rare phenomenon, using mirrored balls and brightly coloured materials to illuminate the cave in a way rarely thought possible.

A sight that truly has to be seen to be believed!