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Jenolan Caves
Tour Guide
The Jenolan Caves are located on the in New South Wales. Take a look at the map below.
The Jenolan Caves
New South Wales
New South Wales is the oldest state in Australia. New South Wales has the most people living in it out of all of the states. The capital city of New South Wales is Sydney and is the biggest city in Australia.
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What is a built feature?
The built features of a place or the built environment includes everything that has been built by humans. It is the places humans have built to be able to live, learn and work. The built environment ranges in scale from buildings to parks.
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The local people
The Jenolan Caves were discovered in 1838, the early visitors would sleep in tents under the Grand Arch that is now the driveway entrance to the Jenolan Caves. By 1880, minimal housing areas were beginning to be built, such as a basic bedroom and a kitchen. In 1887, a two storey building was built for accommodation.
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who lived in the area of the Jenolan Caves were known as the Gundungurra tribe. Aboriginal people knew the Jenolan Caves area as Binoomea which means "dark places". The Gundungurra tribe can be traced back tens of thousands of years and is still very strong today.
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The local people who live throughout the Jenolan Caves and surrounding areas explore all the things it has to offer. The locals and tourists enjoy the many guided cave tours that are offered at Jenolan Caves. There are 9 caves that are open for tourists to take guided tours. These tours can be in a range of languages, for a range of ages, both day and night tours, easy caves walks to more difficult adventure caving and much more variety.
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These activities have resulted in many tourists coming to visit the Jenolan Caves. Currently there are 230,000 visitors each year. Although, the number of people visiting the Caves has been increasing every year. This means humans need to build and create features that will help manage the large amounts of people visiting.
Luckily the locals care for the Jenolan Caves and have built these features in a way that will care and protect the environment.
Built Features
The Jenolan Caves are a beautiful natural environment, for humans to enjoy it there have been items added to make it easier.
Continue reading to read more about them.
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CAVE SAFETY FEATURES
In the 1880's, Jenolan Caves started to become a popular tourist destination. To allow the tourists to come into the caves they needed tour guides with a strong understanding of the caves. This also meant they needed to have safe ways to explore the Jenolan Caves.
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The original explorers built features such as stairs, paths, doors and lighting which was powered by the dam. In 1887, permanent electrical lighting was installed and most of the candle lighting system was removed.
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These stairs, paths, doors and lighting were needed in the caves for visitors to safely walk through the caves and be able to see and admire the caves beauty. Before paths and stairs were built the number of people who entered the cave was very minimal. This meant that little damage was done in the exploration. With the amount of people who go through the caves today they would be destroyed if visitors could walk anywhere. This would also be very dangerous.
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Before this these features were added of the original explorers who lived near by was called every time a visitor arrived to take them on a tour by candle light.
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ACCOMODATION
As the amount of visitors each year was rising and tour guides were needed each day, the original explorers decided to build up their original accomodation facilities.
In 1880, the first set of housing was built, this included a very basic single room and kitchen. By 1887 the first two-storey accomodation with multiple apartments was built. This provided tourists a place to stay and made it easier for them to visit. This also allowed the chance for more tour guides to work and live.
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In 1895 a devastating fire burnt down many of the accomodation facilities. In 1898 they were able to rebuild better accomodation facilities. When visiting today, some of these buildings are still the buildings you will see and have the option to stay in. Since then many more accomodation facilities have been built.
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DAM
In 1889, a device known as a leffel wheel was used to create power from the flow of water in the Jenolan River. To create this power and electricity, the leffel wheel used the strong flow of water and the force of it to create electricity.
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More caves were soon discovered and opened to tourists. This meant that more electricity was needed to power the lights. To provide the increase in power a dam was built. This dam turned the Jenolan River to the Blue Lake which is still seen today. The dam holds water in order for the water to only be used as needed.
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By building the leffel wheel and the dam it has allowed the Jenolan Caves to be available for tourists and powered to have light within the caves.
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RESTAURANTS
As the amount of tourists continues to increase, the need for more facilities increases as well. Restaurants, cafe and more have opened to be able to give tourists and visitors somewhere to eat or get a coffee.
Accommodation
To visit the Jenolan Caves there are many options for accommodation. Visitors are able to stay in the Jenolan Caves or in a surrounding area and drive to the caves.
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There are many accommodation options within the Jenolan Caves. For those only wanting basic rooms you are able to get accommodation for $70 a night.
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For the people who want something more luxurious you are able to stay in the private cottages for approximately $500 a night. Choosing this option will give you other benefits including more bedrooms, a kitchen and WiFi,
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For more fun facts and photos
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