The area south west of Wellington is well-known for its caves, even from early colonial times. It was already settled on by the time explorer Thomas Mitchell and his party ventured through in 1835 to trace the course of the Darling River. He was led by the local magistrate, George Rankin, to the caves, where they discovered some peculiar things. But more on that later.

The first thing you notice about the landscape is that it’s, well, lumpy. It’s what is called a karst landscape – the landscape of caves – and apart from the vegetation, it’s similar-looking everywhere you go on earth.

But the interesting things aren’t on the surface, as you might have guessed, but in a WWI phosphate mine. So let’s go underground.