Karst, caves and management in Tasmania: an overview for ACKMA

Abstract

Tasmania has some of Australia's deepest, longest and most spectacularly decorated karst caves, and it has been common over the years to refer to Tasmania as having a karst estate that is abundant in comparison to much of Australia. Founded on the testimony from Junee Florentine, Mt Anne, Ida Bay, Mole Creek and elsewhere, this reputation arose before the true extent of potentially karstic rocks elsewhere in Tasmania was fully realised, or in the rest of Australia for that matter (Jennings 1975, Smith 1988). It also pre-empted any assessment of the actual density of caves and other karst phenomena in some of these rock units, for in reality, while most limestones exhibit some sort of karst phenomena to at least some degree, far from all the limestone in Tasmania is significantly cavernous, including extensive areas of the limestone within some of our better known karsts such as JuneeFlorentine. The limited number of researchers and cavers and the relatively reconaissance standard of geological mapping available for much of the island mean that it is still not fully possible to evaluate Tasmania's karst estate. However, the data base has improved immeasureably over the last couple of decades.