Undara Lava Tubes

Catch-up blog again, almost caught up now.  It was a matter of off the train, throw the bags into our rooms, and climb aboard a bus with hardly a minute to spare.  We were off to visit the Undara Lava Tubes.  ‘Undara’ is an Aboriginal word meaning ‘long way’. The park protects one of the longest lava tube cave systems in the world. About 190,000 years ago, a large volcano erupted violently, spewing molten lava over the surrounding landscape. The lava flowed rapidly down a dry riverbed. The top, outer-layer cooled and formed a crust, while the molten lava below drained outwards, leaving behind a series of hollow tubes.

Land owner Gerry Collins believed the best way to protect these dramatic, ancient formations for future generations lay in developing a sustainable visitor experience,to develop a tourist facility to showcase the Lava Tubes located on his family holding, Rosella Plains Station.  Working closely with regional and state government bodies, the Collins family proposed a national park should be gazetted around the caves, and tours to the lava tubes be accessed from a lodge facility managed by the family.   This venture would  lessen the environmental impact but highlight the unique ecology and geology of the cave system and protect the caves for the future.

Access to the caves is by guided tours only, and our guide led the way past an imposing Broadleaf Bottle Tree, the bare branches looking so dramatic against the clear blue sky.  And hiding away in the branches was a tiny little bird, but most of us had trouble spotting it, let along taking it's photo.

Broadleaf Bottle tree

Walking was easy on the boardwalks, although some in our group had been to the caves many years earlier and related how they had to carefully pick their way over rock falls.  The huge size of the lava tubes certainly attest to unknown amounts of lava spewing up from the bowels of the earth.

The Archway

We were all given torches to help negotiate our way through the longer darker caves.  There are various rods dotted around the cave system between the floor and the rock wall to detect movement – just in case.  There was cause for concern some time ago when one of the rods had moved  – was the wall collapsing? Thankfully not, the rod was up against a growing root in the ground which was causing it to move.

Views of the lava tubes

It was a very interesting visit indeed, and we were glad we got to experience it.  I mentioned to our guide that back home in New Zealand we don’t have lava tubes.  But a quick chat with Mr Google once we arrived back in internet range soon told me I was completely wrong.  Check out these sites:  lava cave in the backyard or this one lava tubes in NZ.  New Zealand is dotted with volcanos so no wonder there are tubes and caves hidden under the ground.  But we do wonder why our home grown lava tubes are not better known?