Fossil Cave

Fossil Cave (5L81), formerly known as The Green Waterhole, is a cave in the Limestone Coast region of south-eastern South Australia. It is located in the gazetted locality of Tantanoola about north-west of the city of Mount Gambier, only a few metres from the Princes Highway (Route B1) between Mount Gambier and Millicent. It is popular with cave divers and is notable for being both a unique paleontological site and the "type locality" for very rare crustaceans (syncarids - Koonunga sp.) which to date have been found only in caves and Blue Lake in the Mount Gambier region.

Details

Depth
15 m
Access
Above water - public (no disabled access). Underwater - CDAA members only.
Length
70 m
Survey
FUUC, 1978Allum and Garrad, 1979SAUSS, 1987Horne, 1986-88
Geology
Oligocene coralline limestone
Hazards
silting, overhead environment
Location
Princes Highway, Tantanoola, South Australia, Australia
Difficulty
Above water - no stated difficulty Underwater - CDAA Advanced Cave grade
Other Name
The Green Waterhole, 5L81
Entrance Count
1