Our Caving Club is one of the largest caving clubs in Australia, and has been nationally and internationally recognised for our member activities, and high standard of our caving publications.
The Club had its inaugural meeting on April 23rd, 1973, with 16 persons present – many of whom are still associated with the Club. The intention of forming the Club was to bring together the active cavers already in the area, to enable them to share their knowledge, expertise and equipment, and to foster caving as a sport and science – particularly in the Chillagoe area.
We became an Associate of the Australian Speleological Federation not long after the Club was formed, and became a Corporate Member in 1995. The Club is incorporated under the Queensland Associations Incorporation Act (1981).
Over the years, the members of the Club have carried out thousands of hours of research into cave formation, karst management, flora and fauna and many other fields either as a sole Club project or in conjunction with visiting researchers. It has always been one of the tenets of the Club that this information needs to be passed on to the younger generations so that not only will the skills involved not be lost, but also that the research will continue in the future as the older cavers become “armchair cavers”.
The Club maintains a most happy relationship with the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service, who are also involved with caves in Chillagoe – they operate daily tours of selected show caves for which no special equipment is required.
The Club has an established Clubhouse in Chillagoe which is used as a meeting place, a tackle centre, and is available for accommodation for members.
Cavers are adventurers, explorers, scientists, palaeontologists, geologists, surveyors and many others that like the challenge of finding something that no one has ever seen before. Chillagoe Caving Club is a focal point for these people to meet, share information, socialise and go caving together.
