OPENING ADDRESS
 

The Hon. Neil Batt, M.H.A. Minister for National Parks and Wildlife

(The conference chairman, Mr Elery Hamilton-Smith, introduced the Tasmanian Director of the National Parks and Wildlife service, Mr Peter Murrell.  Mr Murrell welcomed delegates to the conference, stressing the importance of caves to the Service and to Tasmanian tourism.  Mr Murrell introduced the Minister.)

Thank you very much for your welcome.  One of the advantages of inviting Ministers to open conferences on subjects about which they know little is the fact that you may be able to educate the Minister.  I personally see great advantages in that.

I have to confess that my knowledge of caves is very superficial. But I have been invited to open this conference and I have had to find out something about caves - the education of the Minister from time to time is a very desirable thing.

I must say that I looked at you all very cautiously when I drove up.  If you have to open a surfing function you know to expect tall, bronzed people;  I rather envisaged cave people as being thin and very pale. I am pleased the National Parks and Wildlife Service has been able to sponsor this conference.  I am also particularly pleased to be informed that Tasmania has the best caves in Australia. We have, I understand, the longest cave in Australia, Exit Cave near Lune River.  I have been somewhat involved with Exit Cave;  let me tell you the sort of problems we have come up against in trying to protect this cave.  It is wholly in a timber concession given many years ago to a private forest company.  It is also in an area that is of interest to mining because of the limestone and it is an area - at least to my knowledge - that has only recently come to our attention. Mr Skinner has been taking people into the cave and making people aware of it but at this stage it is not protected.  In fact, there is nothing in theory to prevent forestry interests going there and chopping down all the trees around and over it and there is nothing to prevent mining interests - and they are active in that area - from blasting away and bringing the whole thing tumbling down.  That, of course would mean the complete destruction of a natural asset.  We are doing everything possible to try to include this cave in a State Reserve and we are trying to establish suitable boundaries.  Some time ago the Government had a study done on this and we are trying to implement the recommendations.  I suppose Exit Cave does illustrate - and I suppose every state has a parallel experience - that an outstanding asset like this could be lost more or less by carelessness. In this case Australia's longest cave is, in theory at least, in danger.  But I am most hopeful that good sense will prevail and we will be able to give it the protection it deserves.

We have the deepest cave in Australia, which I am told is Khazad-dum Cave near Maydena in Mount Field National Park we have two of the best decorated caves in Australia, Croesus and Kubla Khan at Mole Creek and now within the enlarged southwest National Park we have a number of wilderness caves.

We, that is the State, have been in the "cave business" since the early 1900's when we opened our first tourist cave at Mole Creek.

The nature of man has been described as funny.  Some people say the state of the world is getting worse and that mankind is coming to an end.  But I am more optimistic and feel that mankind is marvellous.  For example, he has invented aeroplanes and rockets to go to outer space and he climbs every available mountain, no matter how difficult it might be, and at the same time men delve underground.  Now I find great encouragement in man's intelligence, his vitality and his enthusiasm.  It is great that we can climb mountains just because they are there and that we can go down holes just to find out where they lead.

Our present policy in Tasmania is to encourage people to visit our caves.  We do not want to lock them away from people.  But, at the same time, we want to make sure that we don't destroy an asset. One unfortunate thing about tourism is that it may destroy what people come to see.  So we have to achieve a balance.

In Tasmania we are very conscious of the tourist industry. We are anxious to have healthy economic development of the State because otherwise our young people have to leave to find jobs and our community is poorer.  Tourism is one of the vital parts of our economy and we want to develop it while at the same time ensuring that it does not destroy our basic lifestyle or heritage in the process.

One aspect of tourism development lies in caves.  We are currently investigating the possibility of new tourist cave development in the Mole Creek area and we are trying to upgrade the facilities and the access to our existing tourist caves.  We are trying too, to improve our national park system.  Although we have a relatively large percentage of the State reserved, we have proposals for new areas and some of these include caves.

I am pleased to welcome you all to Tasmania and to declare the Second Australian Conference on Cave Tourism and Management open.