Guidebook for the Australasian Cave and Karst Management Association Inc.

Abstract

The north-west region of Tasmania encompasses a wide diversity of landscapes and karst environments. Along a broad coastal hinterland between Devonport and Smithton, rolling hills with extensive basalt soils comprises one of Tasmania's most richly productive agricultural regions. Within this region, Ordovician limestones exposed in some valley floors and flanks show extensive karst development at places such as Gunns Plains and Mole Creek, where three of Tasmania's four show caves are located. Further south towards Cradle Mountain, the same Ordovician limestones outcrop in the highland Vale of Belvoir whose unique moorland landscape is one of Tasmania's few alpine karsts. On the coast at Rocky Cape, another type of cave is exemplified by raised sea caves of Last Interglacial age that were excavated by wave action in quartzite coastal cliffs; these are significant for the evidence they contain of past Aboriginal occupation of this landscape.