1 977 Publication of the Papua New Guinea Cave Exploration
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Volume 5 Number 1 . ,.. July'· 1 977 Publication of the Papua New Guinea Cave Exploration Group ··.1 . Registered at the General Post Office, Port Moresby for transmission by post as a Qualified Publication. NIUGINI ·CAVER VOLUME 5 NUMBER 1 Niugini Caver is the pub.li.c.a.t.i.a..n... JJ..f.~~.tb,e ... .J2.apua New Guinea Cave ExploratT'Oii'Group, an informal association of persons engaged in ~peleology ~n Papua Ne~ Gwinea. " •"', <•• ~-···~ .... ~ *" c· ,,, •.• . .;,.,• .,.,~ ..• ··f• ,.... ~•• . Voiume 5 Number 1 . July, 19770 ·Quarterly . 90 toea~per issueo K3.50 per annu~. r~alcolm Pound ·p~ o. Box 3824,. Port Moresby, Nationai Capital District, PAPUA NEW GUINEA Assistant Editor Alison Pound ,. ' Prodqction of ·Malcolm and Alison Pound, Allan.and Chris This Number,__ Gqulbour,neo ____ ' . ._,<·.,,~ .. ·.•. " ... ·• '.~ ......... ~· .... ~ ....... ,..._..... ' Contents ,t:::._~~~.i-·;F•·41""~.~ .E~ Toktok Bilong Editaoo••oo'· ....... 0,,00000~00•~0•00~0000; 2 E r r a ~a t o Ni u gin i Ca v er V o 1 um e . 4 Num b er. 4 '!, •• o •• o ••• 2 The Greatest Caves of Papua New.Guinea :.as·:a.. t December, ·1976. Ra Michael .. Bourkeooooooo•• 3 Hepo·r·t of a .Brief· ReConnaissance of' the Porgera and "Mount Kaije.nde Areas" of the Enga Province 11 . Ke v a n A • tJ i 1 d e • • • • • ,, o •· ,, • • ~- " • o • • • • ,, • " ~ • • ~ " ,, • " • ., c. • • 18,.. ;.< The New' Contributor: ••• ., • .,,.o ••.• ·o ,;·." 11"'. ~- •. " •. o • ., •• • •••• · 21 Leviathan Cave - A l<enya L·av.a Tube of International Importance. ·· Jim lJ •. Simons ••. C> c·,,,, o.e "" o. <> •••• ~. o-, ~ 22 Notes on Som~ Ca~rr~'oM Buka·I~~antj. Ho Galla~6h ••• 25 Th_e · ·s.ritish New Guinea S-pe1J3ological Expedition" _1975 ; Reviewed by R. MichaEil Bdurke ·.,.;,,.;,'~000000000000_0 27' The Caving Scene ••••••oooo,oo~oooooooooocioooooocioo 29 . ... ' . ' ... •'•" ·.·~ .........,.. ,.,.._ ..,-·, 4·-· 7•·,•·····~~'""""~..... ,,,.,;.~.,,...,r·-·"4•~- ,,,.; ._. .. ··;.:,, . ..., .. ~ .... ,,..,,,._,. ·,, ·•..;,•... ,,,-,,,.,. ~. ,,.,~~~ •' •''!',.,,.~, . ..... ·•;:!+ ......, ..... ,.,. ~.~ .... ,,,_.,.~ Cover Photo9rash• . Lookir1·9 str·aiGht down into· the giant doline near Tuke V.illage, East New Britain. The white winding line at the bottom of the do~ine "Ts ci large streamo The dolirie has never bee·n descended but is· est'frnated .to be 200.,.300 m deep~ Far further information on this dOT'iri'e, ·r.efer the ·article by R. M· •. Bourke in thi·s. · issue (p~ge 3) and the article by C; JC> Borough (Niu~ini Caver 1 ( 2) ~ 2 5..., 2 6' ~ , • , ,_ I . ~ - " . •, Photograph by Ro M~ ··ffourke. 2 NIUGINI CAVER VOLUME 5 NUMBER 1 NIUGINI CAVER VOLUME 5 NUMBER 1 3 I TOKTOK BILDNG EDITA THE GREATEST CAVE_..S OJ _PA.f2.. UA _NElJ_GUI.. NEA AS AT o~c.~~~BE.. R, _1976 Ro· Michael Bourke * This is the first issue of NiuQini Cavpr to ~e prod~ced by the Pounds in Port Moresby. However, you will still notice a lot of At the request of the Commission of the Greatest Caves of the Bourke work in it and this will continue for some time as he International Urilon of Speleology, I have prepared lists of Papua writes up the results of his cave studies. We hope th~ standard New Guinea's deepest, longest caves etco The -data is presented of produbtion is as high as in previous issues. You will have to here with soma. notes on how.these comp~re on a world wide·basis. bear with us for the first few issues as we experiment with Unless otherwise stated, all figures are ·d~~ived from surveyed data. is. up ,to date as at the end. of 1976. various means of reproducing maps, diagrams, etc. This iss~e we rt are using electtohic stencils to produce the two maps and in ·future issues we plari' to try several offset processes. I have not done a comparison with other caves of the Southern Hemisphere as I feel Papua Now Guinea's caves are into ·the big It is noted that this issue is very late in publication p_ue to a leaguo now and this comparison can be forgotten. It can be noted large number of reasons bu~ we hope to be up. t~ date by the· ehd"' ·'· how~~~r that, with one exception, P. N. G. ~olds the Southern Hemisphere record for every· 6ategory. For example, of the 1D of the year. Of course, this depends on receiving plenty.~( copy from all those people around Papua New Guinea who make 'the· ca·virg caves in the Southern Hemisphere documented as over 300 m deep, news - the subscribers of this magazine. So keep that copy ·rolling 5 are in Papua New Guinea including the deepest. The category in Remember if your trips aren't published in Niugini Caver, where Papua New Guinea will never hold the Southern·Hemi~phe~e th; sweat yo~ put into your caving exploits will 5e wasted as the record is_highest cave. Most of the high caves in the world (over 3000 m A.Sol.) are in Peru (Courbon 1972). information gained will be lost on your departure. 9 The following abbreviations are used in the Tables: The Papua New Guin~a Ca~e Exploration ·Group library is now with us in Port Mor8$by and this contains much of interest to cav~r.s,_ with a great deal of data on Papua New Gui~ea c~ves and pu~lications 1965 Star Mts. exped. 1965 Australian Star Mounta~ns from around the globe which have been received in exchange for. Expedi tio.n Niu~ini Cave~. Thi~ library is growi~g ,all ~he ~ime with mat~rial 1972~73 UQ~S N~Br~ exp~d. 1972-73 Uhiversity of Queensland sen in by cavets and all the.excha~ge publication~. Anyone is Speleological Society New Britain we 1 come to come to ou r f 1 a t a t F la t ' 3 , Lo t 4 9 S e c t. J. on 8 4 , P rut h Expedition Street, Port Mo~esby and brouse through the ~ibrary. Preferably 1 973 NSRE ring first (25 ~966b,h., 253204a,h. we are listed as C~ntral 1973 Niugini Speleological Research Surveys) in case we are out or ind).sposed ~ Cavers passing t~rough . Expedition to the Muller Ranga Moresby are pa~tically welcome a~d there is a spare bed available NG 75 Sri tish·· Speleological Expedition· as soon as we take t~e maps off it. to Papua New Guihea (1975) 1975 .NISE 1975 New Ireland Speleological Expedition ERRATA TO NIUGINI CAV~R VOLUME 4 NUMB§R 4 1976 NISE 1976 New :Ireland Speleological 'Expedition Preliminary Report on the 1976 Expedition to the Mulle..r. Range. Muller 76 1976 Muller Range Expedition . ' ' E.H.P. Kevan Wilde reports that the correct computed de~th for the . Eastern Highlands Province vertical d~op between the sink and assumed risinQ df ~he Atea is N.S.P. North Solomons Provirics now only -750 m and not -1 boo m as in· the a~ticle based on an ·soH.P. estimation by Neil Montgom~ry. Southern Hig~lands Province .. ' ~ West Sepik Province Some Rock Art Ancestral and Prehistoric Sites of the· Hind~nburg Ranges and Tifalmin Areas of ~he Telef9mi~ Sub~province; with Dee.ees~ ~a,,,,ve.s. Thers are now 24 cave~ .documented as 100 m or Brief Notes Relating to Associated Legends and Mythology. more deep (T9.-""ble 1). Exploration is ·incomplote in four of these P. 155 Sites are lis~ed from West to East and not as reported. 120 Jariws Street, Toowoomb~ 9 . Queensland, 4350• Australia~ NIUGINI CAVER VOLUME 5 NUMBER 1 NIUGINL CAVER VOLUME. 5 NUMBER 1 5 and also in Lamoragamas on New Ireland which is just under· 100 m. altitudes will not be known until more work is done on the NASA satellite photographs (J. M. James, per. comm.). Papua New Guinea's deepest, Bibim?, does~not f~ature too prominently on a world basis. Courbon and Chaoert (1J75) list 50 caves over 575 m b-..a.:i;-~e.st d ..o)ine?• Nine large dolinBs are listed iri Table 6;, dGep so come about ?Oth ,deepest. Unlike ~he cav~s, these have not b~en documented as systematically 9 B~bima ~i~ht ~n and,many other large· ones exist. There is a very large doline a few kilometres north-west of Pomio and·· another near Nutuve h,_or.i_g.,:o... 11 _ 1 ~t __e;:av~'.3. There are ca~es .rep~rted o~er ~rp. lo~g. in P·1ission ::'on ·New'· Britain · ( Bou;rke 1· 973a}., Other large dolines are Papua New Guinea (Table 2)~ OmaJ-: south-east o.f ~endi in ~he Southern 9 Highlands is also long (Van Amstel, 1973) ~ but it has not beon ·. report~~:f~om the Keriaka Plateau of Bougaihville and the Saruwaged Range· •. survoyod 0 Parker (1973} reports that Taema Cave at Lanahan, Buka Island tiis said to bo at least three miles longn so this may also Doline surveys on the ground are very difficult and will have exce.ed 1 km. to await photogrammetry for accurate measurement. ~lost dimensiorrs· Selminum Tern· is equal 36th longe~t in ~he wotld and ten couhtrias quoted in Table 6 are taken from aerial photographs. The largest have :Longer· caves according to the li.-st of C6urbon and Chabert of Papua New Guinea's dolines·are significant on a 'world basis but it is difficult to decide their ranking at this stage. ,The~e (1975)., . are ~arger uvalas than Ora in the Yugoslavian karst (J. N.' Jenni~gs? pers. co~m.)._The dolines near Koripobi Village on ~ g n 9,,E:l t :_ _p ~ ·t q 1J e s e Tw e ~ t y f iv e p i t c h e s of 5 0 m or 1 on g er ha V e no hi boon 9report13rfl'Table 3).