The small tourist caves, Cammoo, were opened for public tours on the 11 October 1966, following an official opening by the then Chairman of the Livingstone Shire Council (Mr J B Hinz) at an opening ceremony, at the caves site.

Mr Frank Rudd of Rockhampton and a syndicate had bought a run-down fruit and vegetable farm - upon which the caves were located - from a Mr Max Forster and his wife who were struggling to make a living upon this freehold area which had first been taken up by Forster's father about 1914 as a German settler, quite a number of whom had settled in The Caves and Jardine (Milman) district under the early day German Land Settlement Scheme.

These caves, which are located at the south terminating boundary of the Limestone Ridge area of the Mt Etna region, were most likely discovered by the Olsen family subsequent to the discovery of their own Grand Olsen's Caves about 1882, and a little later they were named as Mt Etna Caves - now known as Johanneson's Caves, remembering that there were no settlers at that time in the area.

Vast areas of scrub land now comprising the districts of The Caves, Barmoya, Milman, Rossmoya and Etna Creek were in those days vast bushland areas of virgin lands.

There was no railway line running north, and the only roads were the Yaamba road to the north, which then crossed Aligator Creek at what was called the Ford or Booky Crossing.

In later years the water pipe line and electricity line crossed the creek from the Yaamba pumping station, at where the water was pumped from the Fitzroy River for the Rockhampton water supply (commencing 1923) and the old Cawarral Road which joined the Yaamba Road at the Fourteen Mile Creek, traversing the countryside in a westerly direction from the then town of Cawarral which in those days was a vigorous mining centre.

Mr Max Forster, it seems, never gave a thought to opening up these small caves as a tourist possibility, evidently regarding them as being too small and lacking in attraction for visitors, and it is interesting to note how the development of these hitherto unknown caves (except to a few people) came to life.

The Cammoo Caves are located at the southern edge of Limestone Ridge, but upon the opposite side of the Ridge a mining Company was operating very vigorously - E. M. Pilkington & Co - employing quite a number of men quarrying lime for sale to industry, and it had been operating for quite a number of years prior to 1952.

Early in 1966, Mr M Forster, called upon the writer with a letter which showed that this lime mining company had applied to the Mining Wardens Court at Rockhampton for a mining lease over that section of Forster's selection which contained limestone, and which included the area where the Cammoo Caves are located.

Forster was very disturbed that that this section of 102 acres (portion 114 of his freehold territory) could thus be taken from him, and more particularly, I suppose, as the selection had been owned by his family since early years and the then owner had lived there since childhood.

He sought advice from the writer, (who operates Olsen's Caves) as to how to prevent this 'takeover'. Although the writer had not been through the caves upon Forster's property, he had knowledge of some small caves in that area, and he informed Forster that, in the writer's opinion, the only hope that he had of saving that section of his land from mining by convincing the Court that these caves were a natural asset of timeless age and in the interests of the country they should be preserved.

The Cammoo Caves Visitor Centre, 1993	Infrastructure in Chandelier Cave, 1993

At Forster's request, and in favour of the retention of any caves from destruction, the writer made a very careful detailed inspection of all the Caves there and found that although then they were difficult of access from the ordinary tourists point of view, there was just sufficient justification for giving evidence before the Wardens Court that these Caves were worth saving, and was willing to give further evidence that a tour of both caves could occupy a tourist for thirty-five minutes judged upon the manner in which tourists were conducted over the nearby Olsen's Caves, which shortest tour occupies one hour.

Incidentally, Cammoo Caves would occupy only one tenth the size of Olsen's Caves, or Johannson's Caves of Limestone Ridge and that is why in busy seasons tours are conducted each half hour to get visitors through a tour. At Olsen's Caves up to one hundred persons could be taken on tour at once.

It did not take Forster long to become active upon 'the protection of the Caves' angle, and he solicited the support of a Mr Smith, manager of the local branch of the Queensland Government Tourist Bureau, and a Mr Frank Rudd, then Manager of the Rockhampton and District Promotion Bureau - a non statutory organisation glorified as a sort of Progress Association.

Both these gentlemen subsequently inspected the Caves with a view to giving support for their preservation.

The next information came as a bomb shell when it was announced that Mr Frank Rudd had bought Forster's selection upon which the Cammoo Caves were located, and was going to open the Caves as tourist caves.

The opening occurred upon the 11 October, 1966. Little did Mr Pilkington, of E. M. Pilkington & Co, know that his attempt to take out a limestone mining lease upon Mr Forster's property had commenced a chain of events that indirectly resulted in the opening of a tourist cave section. Little did the writer know, when he gave Forster advice in good faith as to how to get out from the mining lease by concentrating upon the Caves upon his property, that he had - unwittingly - aided and abetted the opening of these little caves as tourist attractions.

And strange too, how the proprietor of the land, making all the fuss about preserving his land from a limestone mining lease, so quickly changed his direction of thought that said 'to the devil with land' and sold out to Rudd.

Frank Rudd operated the Caves, through his family and sub-managers for a few years, then leased the Caves to a Mr R Lewellen, who in turn bought the Caves, and after conducting them for a year or so, leased the business to a Mrs Gordon, who still lives in the district. The next a lease went to Mr Adolf Ziedler who had been conducting the Katherine Caves in the Northern Territory.

When the next lease of the Cammoo Caves was finalised for a Mr Suedler, they were bought by Mr Urquarht of Brisbane who took over early in 1975.