Wee Jasper - New South Wales' unpolished gem

By SUSAN BUCKLAND

The great thing about Wee Jasper is that it turns up people like Geoff the cave man.

Geoff is a passionate man, as I found during our afternoon encounter. It took place in a labyrinth of extraordinary limestone caves.

"You wouldn't know these caves were here," said Geoff, leading the way down rock steps.

You wouldn't know Wee Jasper (pop 100, including Geoff) was there either unless you lived in New South Wales sheep country or you loved caves or you were media baron Rupert Murdoch, who has a farm near Wee Jasper.

But none of this matters because Wee Jasper people know they live in a great little place. Palaeontologists and geologists go wild in Wee Jasper country because earthquakes over the ages have exposed all kinds of prehistoric fossils.

Canberra people go wild over Wee Jasper as a close-to-hand weekend retreat. They camp in the reserves with creeks meandering through them, or stay in style at Cooradigbee station. They like the attractive open country and the walking, canoeing, swimming and fishing in the Goodradigbee River.

And they go caving. Wee Jasper is riddled with caves. Geoff takes people on guided tours of Carey's Cave because it puts most other caves in the shade, he says.

His breath had quickened with excitement by the time we had arrived at the bottom of the rock steps. "Prepare for the earth to move under your feet _ and watch your spelunker clunker," he warned as we advanced into his subterranean world of stalactites and stalagmites.

"The mites go up and your tites come down." Thank you, Geoff.

"Now picture this," said Geoff as we moved from one dazzling sculpture to another. "The limestone rock is like your grandmother. Wrinkly on the outside, sparkling crystal inside." He snapped off his torch, leaving me to ponder my grandmother in the still darkness.

"Don't breathe," he said, with a sharp intake of breath.

Suddenly he flicked a switch and electric light flashed on a brilliant scene _ cathedrals of crystals, great organ-pipe chambers, fantastic and delicate seaweed shapes. They inspired an outpouring of cave science from Geoff.

The limestone comes from compacted coral when the area was beneath the sea 400 million years ago. The caves are formed by water seeping along cracks in the limestone, slowly dissolving the stone away to form tunnels and caverns.

This water, in turn, deposits the calcite it has dissolved to form the magnificent decorations that hang from the ceilings, flow down the walls, and rise from the floors _ your mites and tites, and other formations called helictites.

Carey's Cave was discovered in 1875 by John Carey and opened to tourists in 1968. Its striking limestone formations spread through seven principal chambers

Wee Jasper is 336km southwest of Sydney along a road of which only 5km is unsealed. Carey's Cave is 6km northwest of the Wee Jasper village, where you can have a cuppa and buy petrol and fishing gear from the general store.

For a taste of Wee Jasper country life _ in some of the best sheep-grazing country in New South Wales _ more accommodation is down the road from Carey's Caves at self-contained cottages associated with Cooradigbee station, ph (02) 6227 9628. Or at other farm-stays.

The Goodradigbee River flows through the valley into Lake Burrinjuck.

Geoff said that in summer I should take an air mattress and float down the river to the village for a cool drink.

Along the way I could wave to the locals pushing their farm gates open with their utes. And think about the wonders of Wee Jasper's underworld.