Research - Margaret River, Western Australia, accommodation, tours and comprehensive tourist information

Famous palaeontologist Dr Gavin Prideaux regularly visits Caveworks and the surrounding caves to continue his ongoing research on megafauna (giant prehistoric marsupials).

Mr Prideaux’s work was put in the international spotlight last year when he and his team discovered some of the world’s best examples of megafauna in three caves on the

Nullarbor Plain. The remains of an array of now-extinct animals including giant wombats,

short-faced kangaroos and thylacines were described as finds of the century.

Continuing this work in a secret cave in the Leeuwin Naturaliste Ridge, Mr Prideaux seeks

to uncover the unsolved mystery of exactly when and why megafauna became extinct

around 40,000 to 50,000 years ago. He believes new technology and techniques are

bringing him closer to an answer to these questions of which Charles Darwin pondered

The work that Mr Prideaux and his team are currently undertaking in the region is

providing some fascinating insights into why megafauna disappeared.

“We are excavating through a number of different sediment layers in the cave and pulling

out bones ranging from 150,000 to 50,000 years ago” he said.

“These layers are like a shutter of a camera that opens and closes, creating a time

According to Mr Prideaux, when megafauna disappeared there was no major climate

change however remains suggest that this was around the time that people entered the

region, indicating that humans could have played a role in the extinction of megafauna.

There is however at this stage, no direct evidence of this.

Hydrology relates to the study of the properties, distribution, and effects of water on the earth's surface, in the soil and underlying rocks and in the atmosphere.

Water plays an important role in the formation and development of caves. The

Margaret River region’s caves are formed through the action of water dissolving through

Rainfall and land use dramatically affect the characteristics of our caves. Mammoth

Cave has a seasonal stream dependant on winter rains while Lake Cave is fed by an

underground spring which, sadly, is in decline with Jewel losing its underground lake

To ensure protection of the caves, it is important to protect the entire water catchment

Biology is the science of life and of living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution and distribution.

Biology is an interesting area of study in caves as it focuses on a wide range of life including insects, mammals, marsupials, amphibians, crustaceans, etc.

The Lake, Mammoth and Jewel cave water systems contain unique communities of species (mostly crustaceans) which are threatened by the declining water levels. Studies have been conducted on the distributions and ecological requirements of these communities to try and protect them.

Studies on climate focus on meteorological conditions including temperature, precipitation and wind, that characteristically prevail in a particular region.

Cave formations are records of climate changes and are of great interest to the scientific community. Studying cave formations enables us to understand past rainfall patterns, soil types, vegetation, atmospheric conditions and more.