Grill Cave

In a break for usual practice, you’re going to get told all about Grill Cave.

First up: GRILL CAVE IS A HAZARDROUS CAVE! It contains lethal concentrations of foul air at ALL times of the year. There are also slippery rocks, unstable areas of rockpile, and big drops. Enter at your own risk, and please, please take appropriate precautions!

What you will need: NUCC does not encourage caving outside of clubs, and we would strongly suggest you join your local caving club so that you can experience caves safely with people who know them well. However, if you would like an adventure and wish to explore Grill Cave, you will need:

A FEW MATES: never go caving alone, and 4-5 people is an optimal group size
A butane cigarette lighter (IMPORTANT!!!)
Some (clean) building or gardening gloves
3 independent sources of light per a person, at least one of which must be mounted on your head (ie, a headtorch). Make sure they’re charged and have plenty of power before you go!
A helmet with a chinstrap, so that if you fall over it stays on your head. Preferably brimless, as a brim can injure you in a fall. Other headgear can work, but is significantly less safe! If you don’t have a helmet but are set on going, a thick beanie with a big bobble on top is your best bet. The thick beanie will at least provide your noggin some padding, and the bobble will warn you when your head is close to being knocked against something!
Grippy, enclosed shoes (hiking boots and gumboots are fantastic)
Kneepads and elbowpads will make your life more pleasant. With kneepads or elbowpads, soft fabric ones are more comfortable to wear caving than hard plastic ones,
CLEAN overalls if you have them. You want full-body, standard work overalls, not bib-and-brace style ones (or fashion overalls)
Wear loose fitting, comfortable old clothes you don’t mind being damaged
A waterbottle (you may be underground for some time!)
Some snacks, but please be considerate towards the cave and bring snacks that aren’t crumbly or messy, and take any rubbish out with you
A camera or your phone to take photos (remember though, caves are unforgiving places of technology, so it might get damaged or lost)
A first aid kit; you might not normally carry one, but if you get injured or lost in a cave, it’ll be a while until help comes! I’d suggest a space blanket, a candle (to warm the air under the space blanket), lighter (always carry a spare), a jumper, some bandaids, Betadine, painkillers, and two snakebite bandages.
A small pack to put all this in (not your mates though, they won’t fit even if you try and cram them in)
And, lastly, but not least, a spare change of clothes and shoes in your car to wear once your out of the cave!

Before you go: Make sure you tell someone you trust where you are going, who you are going with, what vehicles you will be in, when you expect to get back, and a time at which they should call for help if you’ve not contacted them by. They are your ‘call-out’, and you’re relying on them to raise the alarm if you don’t come back out of the cave! Give them a conservative time by which you expect to be back and have contacted them by. Make sure they know that if they don’t have any contact from you, they need to call 000, ask for the Police, and inform the Police that there is a party overdue in Grill Cave. If possible, give all the details and instructions to them in writing, so they know exactly what you want them to do!

Having a call-out person is a critical safety precaution that all cavers take on almost all trips! However, it only works if your call-out person understands what’s expected of them, and you MUST contact them once you’re out to let them know you’re ok. If you’re overdue, and a rescue get put into motion, DON’T PANIC! Everyone will be overjoyed by the outcome that you’ve gotten out safe and sound.

How to get there: Follow the instructions on the Bungonia page on this website to get to Bungonia National Park (https://nucc.caves.org.au/locations/bungonia/). As you enter the park, you’ll see the Rangers Station on your left. You must stop here and sign yourself in at the activity register- that way if a call-out is initiated for you, rescuers know where to look! Once you’ve done this, keep driving along the road to The Lookdown. You’ll pass a firetrail on your right (where the Green Track crosses the road), and then the roads to Adams Lookout immediately on your left. Stay on the road to The Lookdown. Immediately after this is a carpark and picnic area on your left- this is the . Pull into this, and find a carpark.

There are two tracks leading out of this carpark- one at the northern (Lookdown) end, and one at the southern (rangers station) end. You want the southern track, which will take you to Grill Cave. It’s well made, but make sure you stick on it and don’t veer off on to the Green Track, which it crosses shortly after leaving the carpark.

The other track leaving the carpark is the Orange Track; it goes out to a nice lookout with a 2.3km return walk.

It is only about 350m along the walking track to Grill Cave from the carpark to the cave. You’ll know you’re there, because you’ll drop down into a depression, and the walking track ends at a cave entrance with a disused, unlocked old gate on it. This is exactly where maps generally show it is, as -34.80889, 150.01283. Don’t drop all the way down into the bottom of the depression, as while it does enter Grill Cave, it’s an awkward climb-down that is often abseiled.

The cave: You will be standing in a small-moderate sized chamber. I won’t give you too much in the way of a route description, as much of the joy in caving is exploration. But once you find the ladder, you’ve found the way on.

However there is one VERY important thing to keep in mind about Grill Cave: the cave ALWAYS has what cavers call 'foul air' in it! What is foul air? It's air that has a mixture of gasses in it that can make you ill, and potentially kill you in high enough concentration.

In Grill Cave, there is not enough oxygen and too much carbon dioxide in the air in parts of the cave- to the extent that visiting parts of Grill Cave would kill you! Unfortunately, both gasses have no smell, taste, colour, or feel that would allow you to identify them when you are entering a section of cave with a deadly concentration of gas. While some people physically react to the foul air, you cannot rely on this as not everyone reacts to the presence of the foul air, and many of the signs are masked by those of physical exertion (moving through a cave is hard work!), so they can be difficult to spot.

However, there is once simple way you can keep an eye out for foul air: the ’naked flame test’ using that lighter! When the foul air gets to a concentration that would be lethal at prolonged exposure, the lighter will have ceased to work, as the flame needs oxygen to burn. This boundary may happen gradually, or it can be very sudden, going from safe to lethal in the space of centimetres. So you need to test that lighter regularly as you descend Grill Cave, and if it stops working, you need to turn around and head back to the surface. NEVER climb down something you can’t easily get back up, as high concentrations of foul air make physical exertion harder. The foul air is usually worse (higher in the cave) in summer, and better (lower in the cave) in mid-late winter. Lethal concentrations of foul air around the base of the second ladder is not uncommon, especially in summer!

Now the next important thing to keep in mind: caves are a 3D labyrinth. Please never leave objects in a cave for routefinding, and never damage or move rocks or the walls to mark the way on. However, at regular points make sure you stop and look behind you, to help you remember the way back- the cave often looks very different from the opposite direction!