The Jewel in the ground

Chris Cummings in the Jewel Cave. Picture / Victoria Bartle

Chris Cummings usually waits until he has a group of New Zealanders in the very depths of the cavernous Jewel Cave in South West Australia before he cajoles them into singing a truly New Zealand song.

Just a few lines of Pokarekare Ana or even the national anthem will make this expatriate New Zealander's day. And, he assures visitors, the acoustics beneath the earth are "just beautiful - perfect for a melody from home".

Sometimes, Cummings says, he doesn't know if there are any New Zealanders among the tour groups he guides through the underground caverns just outside the river and seaside settlement of Augusta.

They don't always tell him where they are from, though to most, it is obvious there is Maori blood in this jovial guide - and now and then, his humour is followed by laughter reminiscent of Billy T. James.

"A singing group of four women once came into the caves when they were in Australia for a conference. They sang in here for me and boy, it was beautiful! I really missed New Zealand that day."

It's been eight years since an out-of-work Cummings first stepped down into the Jewel Cave to learn the ropes of cavern guiding, and though 35,000 to 40,000 people visit the cave each year, his guiding roster doesn't always assign him to the New Zealand tour groups.

"I love it when the Kiwis come through, and I can't resist sharing a few memories from New Zealand," he says. "I like to tell them about my days growing up in Avondale where I went to Blockhouse Bay Primary School, then on to Auckland Grammar School.

"When I left school, I was 16 years old, and I went to 'Colin Meads' Country' - Otorohanga - and later to Te Aroha, to work on farms and do my three-year Federated Farmers' Course."

Unlike the Waitomo Caves in the King Country, famous for their glistening glow worms, the caves in which Cummings works are eerily dry, quiet and very, very dark.

"A lot of New Zealanders get quite a surprise the first time they go into these caves.

"My first time in here, the first thing I asked my teacher and guide was 'where are all the glow worms?' because I couldn't see one single twinkling light, even though these caves are limestone like our caves in New Zealand.

"The other strange thing was no moisture or sound of dripping water," he remembers. "Growing up in New Zealand, I had just presumed all limestone caves had glow worms.

"As kids, we went to the Waitomo Caves, and my brother and I went on our bikes into the Waitakere Ranges in Auckland to see all the glow worms on the rocks and cliffs in the dark native bush.

"Because the caves here in Augusta are completely dry, there's no food source to sustain a glow worm population."

But, the caves have become the final resting place for a couple of wild animals, says Cummings who uses his torch-light to reveal the skeletal remains of a possum.

And under a low ceiling, far back in the darkness where his torch-light won't reach, he says the bones of the rare Tasmanian Tiger were discovered by the cave's explorers.

A scientist who once visited Augusta told Cummings about "an adult and a child who went into a cave to listen to the earth think".

"It was a nice way to explain how quiet it is in here," he says.

Cummings and his Australian-born wife, Beth, have been living in Western Australia since 1970, moving from Perth to the most south-western point of the state to be near their sons in 1997. Beth Cummings is a schoolteacher and Chris has been "working the caves" as a job and for pleasure, ever since they moved here.

The Jewel Cave was discovered in 1957 by a local hairdresser and caving enthusiast, Cliff Spackman. It was opened to the public on Boxing Day 1959, and Spackman worked as a guide there for 24 years before he died in 1984.

Jewel Cave is just one of about 100 caves along a 120km limestone ridge running between Cape Leeuwin and Cape Naturaliste. They date back to the Pleistocene Age, from 1.6 million years to 10,000 years ago.

"It's called Aeolian Calcarnite, which means 'wind-blown sand,' and it's formed on top of ancient granite-gneiss," Cummings explains.

How long did it take him to memorise all these facts? "When you went to Auckland Grammar School, not long at all," he laughs. "But really, I got the caving-bug big-time - we explore all the caves that the public are not allowed into."

The Jewel Cave is a 17m downward journey - with around 50 steps; then you can carry on down 170 steps to be 30m below the ground - deep enough to regularly deter one or two tourists who have the cave on their itinerary.

Visitors can also be guided through other caves along the Cape, such as Lake Cave and Moondyne Cave or explore Mammoth Cave with a compact disc audio guide.

* Victoria Bartle travelled to South Western Australia courtesy of Auckland-based Travelworks as part of the annual Wildflowers of Western Australia tour. She flew courtesy of Air New Zealand.

ON THE WEB

www.augusta-wa.com.au/sights.html and www.southwestlife.com.au/history0203.htm and historic photographs at: wasg.iinet.net.au/aucaves.html#jewel