Jenolan Caves forms parts of the Australian UNESCO World Heritage-listed Greater Blue Mountains Area.
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Gps Coordinates / -33.8184454,150.024543
Jenolan Caves New South Wales Australia VR Tourism Locations
4655 Jenolan Caves Rd, Jenolan NSW 2790, Australia
The Jenolan Caves are limestone caves located within the Jenolan Karst Conservation Reserve in the Central Tablelands region, west of the Blue Mountains, in Jenolan, Oberon Council, New South Wales, in eastern Australia.
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The caves and conservation reserve are one of the eight protected areas that was inscribed in 2000 to form part of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Greater Blue Mountains Area.
Gps Coordinates / -33.822433,150.020431
The caves 7,620-acre reserve are situated approximately 109 miles west of Sydney, 12 miles east of Oberon and 19 miles west of Katoomba 46 miles by road.
Link Location Gps / Gps Link -33.8178403 / Gps Link -33.817997 / Gps Link -33.8188351
Gps Coordinates / -33.8178403,150.0235038 / -33.817997,150.0230408 / -33.8188351,150.022589
The caves are the most visited of several similar groups in the limestone caves of the country, and the most ancient discovered open caves in the world. They include numerous Silurian marine fossils and the calcite formations, sometimes pure white, are noted for their beauty.
Link Location Gps / Gps Link -33.8220062 / Gps Link -33.8187563 / Gps Link -33.81709
Gps Coordinates / -33.8220062,150.0203094 / -33.8187563,150.0242003 / -33.81709,150.023744
The cave network follows the course of a subterranean section of the Jenolan River. It has more than 25 miles of multi-level passages and over 300 entrances. The complex is still being explored. The caves are a tourist destination, with eleven illuminated show caves open to paying visitors.
Link Location Gps / Gps Link -33.8168911 / Gps Link -33.8068637 / Gps Link -33.8133515
Gps Coordinates / -33.8168911,150.0237771 / -33.8068637,150.0183822 / -33.8133515,150.024223
The Jenolan Karst Conservation Reserve is the most westerly of the eight protected areas within the World Heritage Site. The reserve forms part of the Great Dividing Range and was listed on the (now defunct) Register of the National Estate in 1978.
Link Location Gps / Gps Link -33.817145 / Gps Link -33.8174265 / Gps Link -33.8174671 / Gps Link -33.8177841
Gps Coordinates / -33.817145,150.0238559 / -33.8174265,150.0238709 / -33.8174671,150.0238996 / -33.8177841,150.0225203
The Jenolan Caves are listed on the Australian National Heritage List. On 25 June 2004 Jenolan Caves Reserve (excluding the caves) were listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register with the following inscription:
Jenolan Caves Reserve is of state significance for its historical, aesthetic, research and rarity values. The caves and karst landscapes developed as important scientific and tourist destinations throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries, and the Reserve is highly significant as the first public reserve set aside in NSW for the protection of a natural resource—in this case, the Jenolan Caves.
— Statement of significance, New South Wales State Heritage Register, 2004.
Gps Coordinates / -33.8186257,150.0233339
For thousands of years, the Jenolan area has been part of the culture of local indigenous peoples. The area holds significance to the Gundungurra and Wiradjuri peoples, who knew it as Binomil or Bin-oo-mur, and a variety of similar names.
A Dreamtime creation story of the Gundungurra people describes how the countryside came into being, and involves a struggle between two ancestral creator spirits – one a giant eel-like creature, Gurangatch, and the other, Mirrigan, a large native cat or quoll. The Gundungurra people penetrated the caves as far as the subterranean water, carrying sick people to be bathed in this water, which they believed to have curative powers.
