Beneath The Surface

A Natural History of Australian Caves

Caves are exciting places to visit, whether you are a tourist, a sporting caver or a scientist.

Australia’s internationally renowned caves include the huge, water-filled passages under the Nullarbor Plain (where cave divers can undertake one of the longest cave dives in the world, more than six kilometres), the country’s most visited caves complex, Jenolan, inland from Sydney, with its spectacular formations and massive limestone arches, and the cold, deep shafts of the Junee-Florentine region of Tasmania.

Beneath the Surface: A Natural History of Australia’s Caves looks at all the cave systems of Australia and how they form, cave fauna (invertebrate and vertebrate, including a whole chapter devoted to bats), fossils, Aboriginal relics and decorations in caves, and contains a history of cave exploration and cave science in Australia.

Beneath the Surface has been written for a general, non-specialist audience, and is scientifically up to date. The book’s contributors include some of Australia’s leading scientists, all of them active cavers.