Return to Junee Cave

Junee has gained a reputation for being tight, dirty, cold and sharp, with many a drysuit torn during its exploration. Junee Cave is part of the Junee-Florentine Karst system located in SW Tasmania, Australia. The cave is the main resurgence for the area and the water dropping into Growling Swallet 9km away emerges here with great force. As we'd seen on a former trip here, incredibly beautiful air chamber called 'For Your Eyes Only' divides Sump 1 and 2, with a gentle streamway meandering down 150m of passage, the roof covered in straws and stalactites, the stream punctuated by pools and waterfalls.

The permanent line in sump 1 is laid to avoid the worst of the flow and the razor sharp rocks. At times this meant going through the tightest part of the cave. The line was a great help as our cold numbed fingers (6 degree Celsius water!) made for clumsy line work, and with 8mm rope and small concrete blocks to weigh it down in places, it was a testament to the huge efforts the earlier cave divers had done to make the transit safer. The last part of the line is normally buried in a silt mound which almost touches the roof, which means swimming through some muddy water in order to emerge into the air chamber. Once you raise your head and emerge into the first chamber and move your light across the walls and roof, you realise that the cold, the sharp rocks and the gear hauling was all worth it. As you progress up through the streamway the complexity and beauty of the chamber only increases.

While the first trip in 2008 was to sightsee, this one had a more serious mission in mind. With a larger group the 2009 trip was more dedicated to pushing the cave and finding out where sump 2 went. John Dalla-Zuanna brought his Prism, Richard 'Harry' Harris his Mk 15.5, Grant Pearce had modified a Classic KISS to be sidemounted, while I chose the O2ptima. James Arundale and Liz Rogers were diving sidemount open circuit.

We arrived in lovely Maydena, the strains of banjos and creaking rocking chairs echoing across the sleepy valley and immediately drove to the resurgence to have a look at the water level. It was high but receding. On inspection we also found Dave Apperly was around as well, his gear stored at the high water mark at the start of the first sump. Over a few beers Dave gave us some invaluable information about the state of the line in the second sump, as well as the repairs he'd done on the way through.

A reconnaissance dive was the first order of the day. We knew from the first trip that it was possible to get through the first sump on backmounts, so the O2ptima would go through without a problem, but would the Mk 15.5 and the Prism get through? It turned out that yes, they would, albeit with a few scrapes and grovels.

After an afternoon dive for everyone to get a chance to get their gear in order and admire the air chamber, the next day was spent working; hauling gear into For Your Eyes Only and up the streamway to the start of the second sump. The beauty of rebreather diving for these sorts of trips is that after the stages are hauled once, they don't need to be taken in and out unless they're used for bailout. This was not much consolation at the time, because it still meant hauling half a dozen large tanks and various other bits and pieces up the streamway and various precipitous (albeit small) waterfalls. At this point the beauty of the surroundings was definitely lost on us amidst the sweating and grunting as we made our way upstream. Back at the ranch, after a short discussion it was decided that Harry and JDZ would do the first push, and Grant and I would do the second day. The next day dawned cloudless and crisp, with the stream at it's lowest for the trip. We all swam through the first sump and helped JDZ and Harry up the stream way, and waved goodbye as they disappeared into the second sump. After a restful 2 hours discussing what John and Harry would do if we drank all the tea and ate all the chocolate, they emerged looking very much the worse for wear. 20 minutes of warming their hands and lips with tea they were finally able to actually talk again. Harry said he felt worse after the 2 hour dive in Junee than he did in the 180m dive in the Pearse Resurgence, with the same temperature water. This reaffirmed the idea that even though the second sump was only a few hundred meters in and 60m down, this cave was hard work.

By the time we got back to the cabins the rain had started to gently fall, and the boys told us what they'd seen. After a flat run for a while the second sump drops to about 60m before rising to a rock collapse at 50ish. Decision time. Harry and JDZ reported that they'd laid line to the rock collapse, and could see clear water through holes in the pile. Good news! Except that the holes were definitely too small to fit a diver with gear on, even sidemounts, and most likely too small to fit a diver without gear. Added to this, the rain falling meant that there was a significant chance that the water level would rise in the next 24 hours, trapping all of the support gear we'd left in the cave. It was decided that we'd done as much as we could, and were satisfied that there wasn't enough reason to continue with the push. Our disappointment was mixed with liberal amounts of relief. On the one hand we wouldn't get the opportunity to push the cave anymore. It sounded like, at least with the gear we'd brought, that there was little point in diving it as a push dive. On the other hand we wouldn't have to spend any more time in the frigid, turbid and turbulent water.