In short:
Each winter, a team of Tasmania Parks and Wildlife staff take on the task of cleaning the state’s show caves.
The crew removes clothing fibres, microplastics, and dirt and spores brought in on visitors’ shoes.
What’s next?
The cleaning occurs annually, and it takes about a week to clean King Solomons Cave and about two weeks for the larger Marakoopa Cave.
Rebecca Kearns knows what it takes to wrestle a vacuum cleaner through a narrow cave.
“It’s super awkward. It takes lots of coordination, flexibility and friends,” she said.
Each winter, she and about 20 other cave-specialised Tasmania Parks and Wildlife staff take on the task of cleaning the state’s showcase caves, which include King Solomons and Marakoopa caves in the north, and the Hastings caves in the south.
Despite the work being “exhausting” and in many ways mundane, Ms Kearns says she and her colleagues enjoy it as a break from cave guiding.
“It’s nice to spend time in the cave, where you can just be in your own head, even if you’re in your own head with a scrubbing brush,” she said.
And working in the spectacular surroundings of the caves never got old, Ms Kearns admits.
“I feel like I’m lucky, like the cleaner in the Sistine Chapel must be lucky,” she says.
“Such a beautiful space to do a mundane household chore.”
Why clean a cave?
Ms Kearns, who manages King Solomons and Marakoopa caves, said Tasmania’s public access caves require cleaning annually as part of best practice in cave management.
Caves are natural environments, so all the living and non-living things that are naturally part of them should be preserved and protected as far as possible, she explained.
Marakoopa Cave, which is part of the Wilderness World Heritage area, needs particularly thorough maintenance.
Cave cleaning involves removing dirt, leaf litter and spores that come in on the feet of human visitors, and the fibres that fall from clothing, including microplastics.
“[Also] anywhere people put their hands, like handrails and walls, need to be cleaned too.”
Ms Kearns says it’s a process that benefits the animal inhabitants of the caves.
“We’ve got lots of very small, highly specialised creatures that live in caves, and we want to make sure they’ve got as natural as possible a place to exist.”
It also gives the staff who work in the cave a mental boost.
“Walking back in the next day after it’s all finished, you do see the difference that you make,” Ms Kearns said.
“You can admire your hard work … and feel houseproud.”
Welcome ‘rest’ from guiding
Ms Kearns and her colleagues spend much of their time each year guiding visitors through King Solomons and Marakoopa caves.
“I really enjoy guiding. I love people, and I love sharing this place with people,” she explains.
“[But] in summertime, when you’ve got lots of people or school holidays, it’s a really intense job,” she says.
“There’s lots of leg work, and you talk all day long, so at the end of the day, I get home and I’ve just got nothing for anyone.”
This was why, Ms Kearns says, many cave guides enjoy the slower winter period.
“That’s when we take time to do other aspects of our work, like [cave] maintenance.”
Water and elbow grease only
The processes and tools Ms Kearns and her team use for cave-cleaning are surprisingly unsophisticated, she says.
“When we clean a cave, we really take it back to the basics. So we’re looking at a [wet] vacuum cleaner, a scrubbing brush and a water bottle to wet down the concrete.
“There’s so much technology around to do things, but the only way you can clean concrete paths in a cave is to … use elbow grease.”
The team starts the clean at the far end of the cave, and works towards the entrance, rotating between the chores of scrubbing and vacuuming, and juggling gear as they go.
“There’s a negotiation among people, power cords, chunky vacuum cleaners and cave formations,” she says.
Compromises are also important when it comes to cleaning agents.
“You want to try to keep your impact as minimal as possible.
“You’re kind of limited, you don’t want to bring chemicals in here.”
Hard work with huge pay-offs
Cleaning King Solomons Cave takes five to seven days, while the larger Marakoopa Cave takes about two weeks.
And while the work is a welcome change from guiding, it is physically exhausting.
“If you’re in here for a long period of time, and you’re in the dark and you’re scrubbing, and bent over in awkward places, it’s quite fatiguing physically,” she said.
To overcome that, shifts are kept to a manageable length, and staff take micro-breaks throughout the day, stopping to stretch or examine cave creatures.
“There’s [also] been some pretty interesting singing over the years on our cave cleans,” Ms Kearns says.
Despite the exhaustion, she says staff typically love the work as it allows them to spend quiet time in cave environments.
“Caves are amazing spaces and … I still really appreciate it when I’m in here,” she said.
“We really love our caves … so if we can contribute in even a small way to keeping them healthy, then it feels good.”
“I’d rather clean the cave than my house.”
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