Ancient limestone karst caves in central western New South Wales, renowned for their fossils, Cathedral Cave, and long history of scientific exploration.
Wellington Caves
Wellington Caves are a group of limestone karst caves located about 8 kilometres south of Wellington, in central western New South Wales, Australia. The reserve is built around an outcrop of Early Devonian limestone roughly 400 million years old, part of the Garra Formation, in which water has slowly carved a network of chambers, dolines, and subterranean lakes.
The caves are best known for two things: their striking underground formations, including the massive Altar Rock stalagmite in Cathedral Cave and the delicate cave coral of Gaden Cave, and their role as one of Australia's most important Pleistocene fossil sites. Since the early 1830s, Wellington Caves have yielded a steady stream of scientifically significant remains, from the first fossil diprotodons and giant kangaroos studied in Australia to a now-extinct species of bat described from a Pliocene deposit.
Today the reserve combines an active tourist operation, with guided tours, a visitor centre, and onsite accommodation, with ongoing involvement from speleological groups such as the Sydney University Speleological Society. It remains a place where deep geological time, Indigenous association, and more than two centuries of European exploration intersect.
