Mailes Cave logbook photographs: 1982-2020 (Colo River)

[mandragara]

Hi all,

On the 27th of January 2020 I found myself at Mailes Cave just after the 2020 bushfires, but before the 2020 floods.

I decided to photograph the entire logbook for posterities sake as there was significant fire damage in the vicinity of the cave. The logbook went back almost 40 years so I thought it was worth preserving.

I had intended to do an analysis of these entries, however never got around to it. In part because I have difficulty reading cursive. A cursory analysis of the dates reveals that the cave goes through periods of more and less intense use, interest in this cave has ebbed and flowed over the years.

I have uploaded the photos here: https://imgur.com/a/1sRYwmj

Perhaps someone will get a laugh out of seeing their old entry, or feels inspired to perform their own analysis.

Of slight interest might be Andy Macqueen's entry from 1996 - there are also some records of some fairly extensive trips in there. Cudos to the people spending two weeks out in the Wollemi!

Cheers,

Richard

[Allchin09]

This is great, thanks! Maybe the logbook should be collected and placed in the state library before it is lost? There's already a fair collection their under Bushwalking NSW / Confederation of NSW Bushwalking Clubs archives. I might at least place a digital copy from what you've photographed in there

[Warin]

Log books get replaced, the old version going to archives (somewhere).
One of the pleasures of a log book is looking back over past entries, I find the new log books disappointing in that regard. It would be nice to have some copies of sample pages of the old log book/s present at the beginning of the newer log book.