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The Cliefden Caves Geoheritage Site is multifaceted, containing internationally significant Ordovician fossil localities, limestone caves of national significance, a warm spring and tufa dams of state significance and the historically significant site where limestone was first discovered in inland Australia. It has been ranked among the 70 most significant fossil sites in Australia by the Australian Heritage Council (2012〔Australian Heritage Council. 2012. Australia's Fossil Heritage: a catalogue of important Australian fossil Sites. Collingwood: CSIRO Publishing〕) and as the thirteenth most significant limestone cave site in Australia by Davey.〔DAVEY, A.G. 1984. Evaluation criteria for the cave and karst heritage of Australia-Report of the Australian Speleological Federation National Heritage Assessment Study. Helictite 15(2): 3-40〕 The site was nominated to the Register of the National Estate by the Geological Society of Australia in the late 1970s and registered in 1987 (Place ID 958, File # 1/07/261/004). == History == The outcrop of Cliefden Caves Limestone at the junction of Limestone Creek and the Belubula River was first discovered during the explorations of surveyor George Evans on 24 May 1815, only 2 years after the crossing of the Blue Mountains. A cave was recorded on the southern bank of the Belubula River as early as 1832 (Lands Department, 1832) and map from 1883 shows the location of Bushrangers Cave, The Murder Caves and Immense Cave, apparently Main Cliefden Cave (Lands Department, 1883). In 1908, Oliver Trickett (Trickett, 1909), Superintendent of Caves, reported on Cliefden Caves “in connection with their protection on the proposed resumption of the Cliefden Estate”, examined Main Cave and concluded that it was “well worth preserving”. Anderson (1924) similarly concluded that the caves were well worth preserving. The Site has been ranked among the 70 most significant fossil sites in Australia by the Australian Heritage Council〔Australian Heritage Council. 2012. Australia's Fossil Heritage: a catalogue of important Australian fossil Sites. Collingwood: CSIRO Publishing|Date=2012〕 and as the thirteenth most significant limestone cave site in Australia by Davey.〔 The first land grants, of 2460 acres each at Cliefden Springs and Cliefden, were taken up by brothers F.J. and W.M. Rothery in 1832.〔 The barn at the homestead sports bullet holes which occurred when the Rothery family was held up by Ben Hall’s gang in the 1860s. In the 1950's Stevens〔Proceeding of the Linnean Society of NSW,Vol77 1952 p114〕 was able to show the limestone was of Ordovician age, the first recording of limestone from this period in New South Wales. Geologists around the world regard it as a superb example of an Ordovician island faunal assemblage〔Australia's fossil heritage: a catalogue of important Australian fossil sites; Australian Heritage Council, published by CSIRO Publishing 2012〕 The area is particularly rich in fossil material and has become known as one of the best documented Late Ordovician successions in Australia. The book "Australia's fossil heritage" states that "The site is unusual because of the well exposed, diverse faunas showing the progression from near-shore to deep water marine environments. It contains abundant examples of some of the earliest shell beds in the geological record and the earliest rugose corals known. More than 180 species have been recorded from the Cliefden Caves Limestone Group and the Malongulli Formation. The Cliefden Caves - Belubula River Valley sites contain the best exposures of Late Ordovician island marine invertebrate fossil assemblages in Australia. The sites include the type localities for over 100 species." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cliefden Caves」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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