Post Bushfire Cave Impacts

Bushfires have always been part of the Australian landscape, shaping its biodiversity, the evolution of its plants and influencing cultural practices. The 2019-2020 bushfires impacted a large proportion of the caves and karst on the eastern part of Australia, destroying vegetation, wildlife, polluting waterways, with smoke and ash penetrating cave systems.

Research into the fire impacts on caves and biota that live within continues and with increasingly drier and longer summers predicted, this research is imperative.

About the project

Starting point

The project, now into its third year, will be running for another two years involving, LIDAR, cave locating and surveying, hydrological investigations, vertebrate and invertebrate fauna studies of the caves, doline vegetation studies, the use of caves by the wallaby snaring industry present on the Island from the late 1800s to the mid 1940s, and the development of a geological app for use by tourists, school groups and locals.

What's Happening

Please Donate

Any donations will go directly towards this work, such as, the purchase of data loggers, recording air temperatures, air flows, water quality.

Ladder down into post fire cave, Kangaroo Island

A Multi-disciplinary study of the caves and karst of Western Kangaroo Island.

This project is run by the SA Speleological Council in collaboration with the South Australian Friends of Parks organisation. The project includes a range of tasks including the survey and documentation of karst of Kelly Hill, West Bay, Ravine des Casoars, Flinders Chase National Park. The bush fires of 2020 burnt 38 percent of the Island. At Kelly Hill all infrastructure was lost including buildings which housed historic records holding information about the caves of the area.

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Kelly Hill show cave, Kangaroo Is. after the 2020 fires

Photo: © Clare Buswell

Cloudy silt laden water of the Tufa fFow, Kangaroo Island after bushfires 2020

Clare Buswell cleaning cave formations after bushfires

Cleaning formations in caves affected by soot and ash pollution to prevent the ash becoming embedded within formations and affecting their delicate structures.

Tufa Flow found on Kangaroo Island after the 2020 bushfires. The water is carrying silt from the surrounding valley, due to the loss of vegetation caused by the bushfires.