In December, 2006 we reopened our Nettle Cave after 74 years, introducing a new digital audio tour that allows you to explore on a self-guided basis. 

 

From August 21, 2010, the commentary will be available in 11 languages – English, Italian, Arabic, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Russian, and now (for Star Trek fans) Klingon!

For families, there is also a ‘Children’s Tour’, written and recorded specifically for younger children.

Together with the adjoining Devil's Coach House, the Nettle Cave has been incorporated into a trail that you can follow using a digital handset developed by Acoustiguide Australia. The device allows you to learn about features and historical aspects in as much detail as you choose, while exploring at your own pace.

The Nettle Cave features formations like stalactites and stalagmites and is home to wildlife including Sooty Owls.The cave is also one of just a few sites in the world where stromatolites ("craybacks") grow. These enormous "craybacks" are formations that contain colonies of live cyano bacteria (blue-green algae), interacting with the crystal and enabling the formations to continue to "grow" in their distinct lobster shape. The humidity in the cave keeps the bacteria alive. There is some evidence that the craybacks at Jenolan may be between 20,000 and 100,000 years old!

Outside the cave, the Devil's Coach House is a cavernous natural archway in the mountainside, named after the ghostly vision reported by a camper, Luke White, who claimed he had seen the devil himself charge through aboard a horse-drawn coach. The roof of the arch is 57m at its highest point.

If you've walked through the Devil's Coach House in the past, this new tour, which enables you to see the massive cave from above, will leave you awestruck.

 

This "twilight" cave is quite a different experience from all our "dark" caves and features huge open caverns, appealing even to those who normally avoid enclosed spaces.

 

Another great advantage of the self-guided tour is that you can do it whenever you like.  For example, if your guided tour doesn't start for an hour or so, you can do the self-guided tour first.  Or you can do the self-guided tour in the morning, have lunch and do your scheduled guided tour in the afternoon, or vice versa.

To try the new self-guided tour of the Nettle Cave/Devil's Coach House, purchase any show cave tour or theme tour. The self-guided tour will be included on your ticket ("Jenolan Pass").

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