About Ted - Ted was for over 30 years a science teacher for NSW Department of Education.  For the first half of his Science teaching career he taught at Nepean High and during those years took students on excursion to places of interest such as the Lapstone outcrop of the ancient Nepean River gravels and to Jenolan Caves.  After leaving Nepean High he transferred to South Coast High schools for an extended period and then finally to Bowral High, from where he retired after another 6 years.   His interest regarding the Jenolan Caves goes back to his childhood.  While a student at Sydney University Ted was employed as a casual Caves Guide at Jenolan.  He continued in such a position throughout his teaching career. At retirement from teaching Ted was permanently employed by the Jenolan Caves Trust as a guide, a position which he holds to-day.

 

 

 

Jenolan Caves is an amazing place, as the photos on this page (by Ted Matthews) may give some idea of.  These are just a very small sample of the great diversity of interesting geological things which can be seen there.

Contact Ted directly for further information or enquiries, or to obtain below-mentioned items.

 

- Limestone is precipitated from (sea-) water, with much help from life forms.

- Long afterward fresh (rain) water interacts with it again.

- Reflected in it all, says Ted (in 'Limestone caves and water'), are:

-- The collected memories of brave acts of discovery, or indeed

-- The gentle ferrying of past and present souls into a world beyond.

 

Reflections in underground river (This pool is often referred to as the "Pool of Reflections).

 

 

AVAILABILITY

Below are listed the series of presentations/compilations made by Ted Matthews, a long-time guide at Jenolan Caves.

Please send all enquiries, orders of feedback direct to Ted at:

tedwin43 "at"  bigpond.net.au

Should you experience any difficulties in contact Ted directly, please then refer instead to LachlanHunter via:

john.mail "@" ozemail.com.au

or write to LachlanHunter, P.O. Box 121, Burwood, NSW 1805

 

You might also be interested to contact the Jenolan Caves Historical and Preservation Society (JCHAPS). 

 

WHAT'S AVAILABLE 

Ted at different times has written presentations or posters concerning:

* Aspects of Jenolan   ( A comprehensive long-playing video/DVD, 1.41 Gb)  

 

* Bedding in sedimentary rocks (explains what bedding is, and how it forms)

* The fossils at Jenolan Caves (fossils researched by Ted and by 'Dr Dan' Catchpole)

* Limestone caves and water (begins the consideration of cave formation mechanism)

* The Orient cave (visit by JCHAPS on the centennary of discovery - 30th July 1904/2004)

* Temple of Baal (contains many views of Jenolan's history)

* Dry Spider Connection (cave exploration description - guides Ted Matthews and Grant Commins)

 

 

The Dry Spider trip party

 

 

 Dry Spider - Spaces can be tight

 

Down, down .. till there is found, a river underground

 

 

 

* Cave Formation in Folded Limestones (204 slides)

 

 

 

 

Regarding the video "Aspects of Jenolan", this covers the area from the discovery of the caves onwards:  

 

Early guides, exploring

 

Adapting a "pickle box", supported by drums;  and Wiburd afloat, to explore underground river, the "River Styx"

   And establishing lighting

 

 And a hundred years later on - A re-enactment

 

Much of  the contents is also integrated into the single large PPT (297 Mb) presentation "Cave formation in Folded Limestones"  which is focussed on the origin of the caves at Jenolan, or caves in bedded limestones more generally.    Ted developed a theory of his own on how argillaceous interbeds and dolomitic clayey intervales might control the development of caves, particularly at Jenolan Caves.  His proposal in the presentation states that "the clay material of the interbeds has been a major facilitative factor in the creation of many limestone caves such as those in eastern Australia".

 

Jenolan's ghosts:   Believe it or not, this was once a large pelecypod (cf. giant/large clam).   (Photo: Ted Matthews)

And a 'fuzzy', yet undoubted, gastropod.   The molluscan shells of aragonite typically do not

preserve as well as the calcite shells of corals and other fossils.

 

Nautiloids

Corallum (maybe Mazaophyllum ??) in a possible rudite bed.    (Photo: Ted Matthews)

A megacrystal cavity.   One of various such features known.    (Photo: Ted Matthews)

 

Diagonal-running view of a band of brecciation.

Some coarse breccia seen in a roof view.

 

The lower and less-adorned passageways   (Photo: Ted Matthews)

 

Cave diving:   Today, the floor of The Temple of Baal at Jenolan lies some 20m above the natural water table.  The dome of that

chamber is 46m high, floor to ceiling.  Divers have reached a depth below Mammoth Cave, at Slug Lake Jenolan,

equal to twice the height of this dome.     (Photo: Ted Matthews)

 

CAYMANITE:

Caymanite mapping by Armstrong Osborne.

( Caymanite at a mud tunnel section of River Cave was interpreted by Osborne et al. 2006 as palaeokarst.

In the mud tunnels the Caymanite is intersected by an outcrop of dated clay (335 Ma - sample J174.)

[ R. A. L. OSBORNE, H. ZWINGMANN, R. E. POGSON3 AND D. M. COLCHESTER, 2006.  Carboniferous clay deposits from

Jenolan Caves, New South Wales: implications for timing of speleogenesis and regional geology.  Australian Journal of

Earth Sciences (2006) 53, 337-405.  (Figure 7 (a) Detailed map and (b) section of the Mud Tunnels, River Cave

showing the location and relationships of samples J174 and J206). ]

 

"Shown is a display of the material which Osborne ’95 interpreted as ‘caymanite’. Caymanite is used by Jones ’92 to

describe marine carbonate turbidites. The name relates to carbonate rock of similar appearance

and structure found in Cayman Is. (often carved, sold for decoration)"

 

 

Photos of Caymanite (the thin-banded material).    (Photo:  Ted Matthews)

 

THE TOURIST CAVES:

Tourism:   An endless flow of tourists visit the Jenolan Caves.

 

The upper, drier, caves are extensively decorated by speleothems.

Tourist caves - The River, Imperial Cave, Chifley and Temple of Baal caves.

 

The growth of speleothems.     (Photo:  Ted Matthews)

Helictites.    (Photo:  Ted Matthews)

Perched memory of a former pool level.   (Photo:  Ted Matthews)

 

 

INCREASING FAME:

Jenolan's fame grows greater, as now the - "World's oldest caves".

 

(  "THE WORLD’S OLDEST CAVES: - HOW DID THEY SURVIVE AND WHAT CAN THEY TELL US?"

by  R.A.L. Osborne, Faculty of Education and Social work, A35, University of Sydney, NSw 2006,

Australia; e-mail: a.osborne@edfac.usyd.edu.au  - TIME in KARST, POSTOJNA 2007, 133–142. )

 

 

THE DISTRICT'S   GEOLOGY

 

Geological compilation surrounding Jenolan Caves is in great need of further work.   The area map portion at right, has had less detailed work or little advancement since the 1960s.  Map is from Brunker & Rose (1967).   The area at left has been more recently revised; by Raymond, Pogson et al. (1998).  Width of this whole area depicted is about 45 km.    Tv - Tertiary volcanics (basalt, dolerite,  microsyenite, trachyte and tinguaite). Cg - Carboniferous granite and granodiorite, Cwg - Carboniferous, Kanangra Granite (pale pink, medium grained hornblende granite), Dlg - Devonian, Gibbons Creek Sandstone of Lambie Group (thickly to thinly bedded quartz sandstone, siltstone, mudstone), Dul - Devonian, Lambie Group conglomerate, sandstone and shale.  Duv - Devonian, undifferentiated volcanics (Bindook Porphyry), Dcd - Devonian, Dunchurch Formation of Crudine Group, Skc - Silurian, Kildrummie Group. Ss - Silurian, undifferentiated sediments, volcanics and limestone. Smc - Silurian, Campbells Formation of Mumbil Group (East), Smh - Silurian, Hollanders Formation of Mumbil Group (East), Smi - Silurian, Karawina Formation of Mumbil Group (East), Qcr - Ordovician, Rockley Volcanics of Cabonne Group, Qkt - Ordovician, Triangle formation of Kenilworth Group, Qa - Ordovician, Adaminaby Group.   [This combination by Jill Rowling in 2004.]    (NB:  The SW-trending linear "tail" from the Cg intrusion to the east of Jenolan is not granite.  It is a coarse mafic intrusive known as the Budthingeroo Amphibolite.]

 

 

SOME OTHER JENOLAN MATERIALS

The Jenolan caves: an excursion in Australian wonderland (1889)

By Sam Cooke

Now fully digitised:  http://www.archive.org/details/jenolancavesexcu00cookiala

Read Online
(15 MB) PDF
(8.33 MB) B/W PDF
(244 KB) Full Text
(5.71 MB) DjVu

All Files: HTTP  (Help reading texts)

The whole 1889 book by Samuel Cooke has been digitized, and can be downloaded via above links, from the American Libraries website.  Files are large (colour PDF 15 Mb and the B& W PDF  8.33 Mb, although the full text is easily obtainable, at only 244 Kb.).