Mole Creek Caves, Tasmania

Photos by Frits and Paula
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The Mole Creek Caves have always been a “must see” for locals. Now they've become a tourist attraction, with useful but unobtrusive lighting and necessary facilities nearby.

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The earliest European settlers used familiar but often wildly inaccurate names for the new creatures they saw around them; I grew up with porcupines (echidnas), badgers (wombats) and native cats (quolls). There was even mention of the hyena (thylacine), although he was said to be becoming pretty rare. Therefore I'm guessing that those early settlers saw, along the banks of this creek, small furry burrowing creatures that they dubbed “moles”. I daresay that these particular “moles” had strange bills like those of ducks and were more than adequate swimmers.

Five variously sized formations, remarkably human in shape, stand spaced evenly around a raised floor. It's tempting to compare them with the work of some renaissance master.

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Here we see an underground pool, well lit and showing the golden colour typical of these caves. At the top of the picture, a thick sheet of strongly striated white rock hangs in front of a mass of grey.

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Veils of pale-gold stalactites hang from the ceiling of this cave. Chunky masses of white rock dominate the foreground.

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A group of natural statuary stands isolated on a gently rolling golden floor.

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One huge, deep gold stalagmite that looks to be as big as a city building, although fatter. Deep clefts on its sides show where free stalactites originally hung. One could imagine a many-tiered Greek temple looking like this.

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The foreground of this picture shows four thin, whitish stalactite-stalagmite pairs. The two foremost pairs have already joined. The third pair is bifurcated, so would originally have been two pairs.

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The most arresting feature here is a slim column that looks to be jointed at short intervals. Taking this with the fringe of stalactites at the top of the picture, one can easily imagine a coconut palm.

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Two narrow passages lead off into the depths of the cave. One has been made available to visitors;the other, with its heavy overhang of dense grey rock, suggests a turtuous path to some marvellous destination.