Cliefden Caves
| Cliefden Caves | |
|---|---|
| Location | Canowindra, New South Wales, Australia |
| Coordinates | 33°35′00″S 148°53′44″E / 33.5834286°S 148.8954324°E |
| Discovery | 1815 – George Evans |
| Geology | Limestone |
| Managing authorities | |||||||||||||||
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| Official name | Cliefden Caves Area | ||||||||||||||
| Designated | 11 August 1987 | ||||||||||||||
| Reference no. | 000958 | ||||||||||||||
| Official name | Cliefden Caves Area | ||||||||||||||
| Designated | 30 August 1987 | ||||||||||||||
| Reference no. | 01996 | ||||||||||||||
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The Cliefden Caves Geoheritage Site is multifaceted, containing internationally significant Ordovician fossil localities, limestone caves of national significance, a warm spring and tufa dams of state significance and the historically significant site where limestone was first discovered in inland Australia. It has been ranked among the 70 most significant fossil sites in Australia by the Australian Heritage Council (2012) and as the thirteenth most significant limestone cave site in Australia by Davey. The site was nominated to the Register of the National Estate by the Geological Society of Australia in the late 1970s and registered in 1987 (Place ID 958, File # 1/07/261/004).
The outcrop of Cliefden Caves Limestone at the junction of Limestone Creek and the Belubula River was first discovered during the explorations of surveyor George Evans on 24 May 1815, only 2 years after the crossing of the Blue Mountains. A cave was recorded on the southern bank of the Belubula River as early as 1832 (Lands Department, 1832) and map from 1883 shows the location of Bushrangers Cave, The Murder Caves and Immense Cave, apparently Main Cliefden Cave (Lands Department, 1883). In 1908, Oliver Trickett (Trickett, 1909), Superintendent of Caves, reported on Cliefden Caves “in connection with their protection on the proposed resumption of the Cliefden Estate”, examined Main Cave and concluded that it was “well worth preserving”. Anderson (1924) similarly concluded that the caves were well worth preserving.
The site has been ranked among the 70 most significant fossil sites in Australia by the Australian Heritage Council and as the thirteenth most significant limestone cave site in Australia by Davey.
The first land grants, of 2460 acres each at Cliefden Springs and Cliefden, were taken up by brothers F.J. and W.M. Rothery in 1832. The barn at the homestead sports bullet holes which occurred when the Rothery family was held up by Ben Hall’s gang in the 1860s.
In the 1950's Stevens was able to show the limestone was of Ordovician age, the first recording of limestone from this period in New South Wales. Geologists around the world regard it as a superb example of an Ordovician island faunal assemblage
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