Life begins at Forty
A Message from the President Adam Peters
The Illawarra Speleological Society as we know it started from modest beginnings 40 years ago back in April 1963. An inaugural meeting was held in February but the club didn’t really start operating at full capacity until April when the first board of members was elected, the constitution drafted and the first program penned. But before we go into that, lets rewind the clock back to the year 1944 when a group of enthusiasts from the area gathered together and started what we now enjoy. The Wollongong Speleological and Expeditionary Group as it was then known however only lasted until 1959 when due to a lull of new discoveries and a lack of interested people, the club folded.
Jump forward a few years, and as new discoveries
were coming to light in the early 60’s more people decided they wanted to be a
part of this underground phenomenon. So that brings our time machine moderately
to the 1960’s where under Bill Wilton’s Presidential guidance and with the help
of a dedicated committee, The ISS as we are here was formed. The first
Newsletter was printed during the inaugural year and a logo was drawn up
and slowly refined over the years. The ISS joined ASF and a post box rented as
well in the first year and membership topped 25 keen speleo’s.
By the end of 1963, 11 caves were visited and by the
10th year anniversary weekend held at Bungonia in April 1973, 97 trips were
recorded with Bendethera and Bungonia being the areas most visited in the first
10 years of the club, with 30 and 16 times visited respectively. A great deal
of work was done in the Bendethera area since Main Cave was relocated by our own
Lloyd Robinson in October 1960. By 1962, even before ISS was formed a
logbook was placed at the entrance of BD1. In ISS’s inaugural year work
commenced on the Efflux (at Left by Lloyd Robinson) and all through the early
sixties more caves were being rediscovered. Later in the decade a 240v DC
generator was bought in to assist in work on the efflux but it didn’t work
reliably until 1970 and was removed from Bendethera in 1972, finding a home
among the Opals of Lightening Ridge. The generator however came to good use in
its time as much progress was made on the Efflux and Main Cave was lit up by
photoflood for the first time (shown above right by John Redpath from 1978).
The work of the early seventies was mostly centered around tagging the known
caves in the area until restricted access from the land holder and developments
in other caving areas, ISS lost interest in Bendethera for a time.
Come the second
decade and with a push for membership the Illawarra Speleological Society was
going from strength to strength. With the focus now shifted away from
Bendethera work began on the Gunbarrel
Aven project in Wyanbene. Many trips were made to WY1, sometimes on consecutive
weekends to undertake the “floating camera project”. With the aid of a Helium
balloon and cotton thread, the Aven height was measured to 108.8 meters in June
1973, before the candle attached 
to the balloon burnt through the string bringing the
lot hurriedly back to earth. Then in 1975, the Diprotodon was put to use and an
RDF transmitter was set up and a surface signal found and marked above the
Gunbarrel. In June of that same year the floating camera project was started
with the aim being to photograph the upper reaches of the Aven. The equipment
was modified over the years experimenting with different flash units and
things. With still much to explore, a cross draught was found in ‘76 and the
lifting medium was changed from Helium to Hydrogen with successes in 1977
providing a stronger lift. A movie film was made in 1978 and WIN 4 television
did a piece on Scouts and Caving led by our club. An outside group lead by the
legendary Allan Warild attempted a climb of the Aven reaching approximately 50
meters until rain and fog inside the Aven proved to risky to
continue. Strain gauges were installed in November 1978 to check on rock
movements with varying results. After much exploring in WY1 the cross draught
could not be found, b
ut every inch of the cave was more or less
photographed.
The ‘70s proved
to be a very active time for ISS with members caving in Tasmania, The Kimberley
and throughout NSW. Lots of trips were made to Bungonia, Cleitmore, Cliefdon
and the odd trip was made to Tuglow to undertake some formation cleaning. In
fact we were so busy as a club that 16 trips were recorded in 1976 – that’s not
to mention all the ones that may not have even been recorded! The first Kimberley trip was run in 1977
and ISS was quite active up there until 1993, sometimes running trips on
consecutive years.
Come the 80’s and
by our 20th year in 1983 ISS was still visiting the Kimberley
regularly and the Wyanbene camera project was still in operation, until in 1985
when ISS suffered a membership decline which in conjunction with potential
litigation fears, ISS was put on hold in 1987. Needless to say not much caving
was done between 1985 and 1987. The club was eventually restarted in the early
1990’s and Bendethera was finally revisited for the first time in Easter 1993.
In 1994 BD1 survey began by ISS and GPS location of caves started. Much work
was done all through the ninety’s surveying and tagging of the known 
caves whilst still searching for the long lost ones
as well. In 1999 ISS placed a second visitors book at the entrance to Main Cave
and have recorded 1911 people visiting the cave to September 2002. Recently, ISS has started
going to the Nullarbor Karst area with the first trip being run in 1999, other
in 2001 and 2003. Wyanbene was visited and the usual trips to the other NSW
Karst areas were taking place. Trips to Cliefdon, Walli, Bungonia, Wee-Jasper,
Abercrombie, Tuglow and Jenolan just to name a few. Bendethera of course and
other Tropical Karst areas were visited and as the club started to get back up
to speed, Australia’s Biggest Corporate collapse was to leave ASF and
subsequently ISS without insurance. The club ceased to function for about 6
months until all that was sorted out with much thanks to the ASF board at the
time, and we recorded our 40th year in April 2003.
I would like to
thank all those members who have contributed to the production of this historical
“Magazine on CD” by providing photographs, articles and Trip Reports and to all
those who organised the 40th Anniversary Dinner.
Our Future for the short term looks solid as many
more trips to Bendethera are programmed and another Nullarbor trip in 2005, the
4th since 1999 is on the drawing board. Although recently we have
become a motley bunch of armchair cavers, nowhere near topping the record of
1976 for caves visited, I hope and am confident we as a club can continue on
and through to our 50th year anniversary and many more after that.
Adam Peters
President 2003