Caves don't usually kill people they've been there for a long time and I'll be
fair a lot longer. To the divers it's world class, to anybody's sitting on
top it's just a hole in the ground with a lot of water underneath. It's a
whole different world underground it's the closest thing you can get to outer space.
The sounds and sights of divers gearing up in the middle of a paddock
seems out of place but this sheep farm in the southeast of South Australia is
home to one of the most spectacular cave diving sites in the country.
It's a whole different world underground
It's the closest thing you can get to outer space
Kilsby's Sinkhole is renowned for its crystal clear water and rays of light
that pierce through it on a sunny day. A couple of hundred metres back into the
cave and a depth of 40 to 50 metres you can look up and still see the clouds.
So that carry of the water is amazing. The huge and dramatic cavity attracts divers
from across the globe. Some amazing big ones like massive ampitheatres that
you get into and it's like you're floating in the middle of the sky almost
it's just you're the only one there and there's walls way off in the distance is
either side yeah that's just it's real thrilling to see that, yes.
Owner Graham Kilsby says it's not always serene in the sinkhole. Back in the 70s
the Defense Department leased this site for weapons testing. They were actually
punching sonar buoys under compressed air into the water so rather than
dropping them out of a plane at a very high altitude they were actually
punching these these Sonar Buoys into the water.
Not far from the Kilsby's place is a portal into the underwater world that's so small equipment has to
be lowered in separately. But the humble entrance hidden among cows on a dairy
farm is very deceiving.
We've had people that have dived all around the world who
have come to here and I just couldn't believe the size of the room that we've
got under our feet here, in the middle of a cow paddock in the middle nowhere.
Other places they go there in the side of mountains and stuff like this but this is a
perfectly flat land pretty well around here
and you can't see water on the top of it anywhere but there's a lot under it.
This is the shaft it's the darkest and deepest recorded sinkhole in the region
dropping more than a hundred and twenty metres
It was discovered by the owners grandfather when he was plowing a
paddock and the horse put its foot through the surface. This pile of rubble
35 metres down was the family's unsuccessful attempt to fill it.
We tipped the stones down it and we really didn't have a clue how big it was
underneath and we had no hope filling it up it looks like an anthill down there
and we have a thousand tons of stones down there.
Like Graham Kilsby, owner Trevor Ashby is thankful to have ground water to grow pasture for his cows.
But while he brings the water up, he has no interest in venturing below.
There's no value to me I'm not a diver on yes of the water underneath, we make a living
out of that. To the divers it's world class, to anybody sitting on top
it's just a hole in the ground with a lot of water underneath. The excitement
it does incite in divers from across the globe is captured in a visitor's book.
But among the rave reviews is also a poignant reminder of the risks
Four Red Crosses alongside the names of the divers who died in the shaft in 1973.
Those four that did dive had no ropes or guidelines or anything that day that
when it did happen and they didn't know how big it was and that was just
unfortunate that the way the caves, made of the limestone formation, they just
got trapped coming up. There is no doubt this type of diving has a dangerous
reputation. From 1969 to 1974, eleven people died exploring caves in the
southeast of South Australia but there have been far fewer fatalities since a
national cave divers association was set up and training standards introduced.
Caves don't usually kill people. The caves aren't doing nothing, they've been there for a
long time and they'll be for a lot longer so it's the people that are
entering, whether they make a mistake or something like that, that's where the
problem comes in to it. And it's when things go wrong knowing how to cope and
deal with those issues underground that's what gets you back again.
As well as Kilsby's and the Shaft, there are around half a dozen other dive sites on
farms and some clear signs below that agriculture is the main pursuit around here.
There's an old Harvester that's just sitting on the bottom there,
that's interesting to go down there and see.
Somebody's obviously decided it was past its used by date.
There are still parts of this extensive underwater museum that haven't
been explored divers hope land holders will one day give them permission to
open those doors. The challenge of a new site is always fantastic.
To put line in and have people follow where nobody's been before.