Lithgow Mercury June 8th 1898
The Jenolan Caves
The arrangement which has been come to with respect to the Jenolan Caves ought to please everybody; except perhaps those few who know most about the place and qualify their satisfactory opinion by saying "it ought to have gone a good deal farther". The accommodation at Jenolan has from the beginning of things been too much of the old colonial sort, without the old colonial freedom. The caves have been very well explored, very scientifically opened up but the accommodation has been about as proportionate and fit as half a dozen old-time coastal boats would be to the new Klondyke traffic. We move up a step by the new arrangement which places the housing and providoring of the folks in the hands of a competent victualler. We shall never get up to the height we desire because all the foundations are wrongly laid. The cave house ought to have been set on a spur of the hill. Thorough drainage and general sanitation might then have easily been arranged and a tram worked from the power house which supplies light to the interior of the hill would have taken the people up and down. And the house ought to have been and should now become a licensed house enabling visitors to obtain such supplies in all sorts as they are ordinarily accustomed to. It would be a big job to shift the foundations at Jenolan but what of that other great world magnet we have at Yarrangobilly amongst the spurs of our only great mountain. Very little has so far been done there and more even than at Jenolan is possible. The Government has by the change made at Jenolan admitted that the old primitive red tape is a failure. Is it not possible to go a peg farther and admit that the larger and scarcely touched opportunity at the other place should be niggled at no longer. Responsible men in the community would gladly undertake its development on such lines as would be followed in any other country and without asking the absolute alienation of an acre of freehold or barring in any way the perpetual right of the public to the marvellous treasure-house nature has provided - Australian State
The arrangement which has been come to with respect to the Jenolan Caves ought to please everybody; except perhaps those few who know most about the place and qualify their satisfactory opinion by saying "it ought to have gone a good deal farther". The accommodation at Jenolan has from the beginning of things been too much of the old colonial sort, without the old colonial freedom. The caves have been very well explored, very scientifically opened up but the accommodation has been about as proportionate and fit as half a dozen old-time coastal boats would be to the new Klondyke traffic. We move up a step by the new arrangement which places the housing and providoring of the folks in the hands of a competent victualler. We shall never get up to the height we desire because all the foundations are wrongly laid. The cave house ought to have been set on a spur of the hill. Thorough drainage and general sanitation might then have easily been arranged and a tram worked from the power house which supplies light to the interior of the hill would have taken the people up and down. And the house ought to have been and should now become a licensed house enabling visitors to obtain such supplies in all sorts as they are ordinarily accustomed to. It would be a big job to shift the foundations at Jenolan but what of that other great world magnet we have at Yarrangobilly amongst the spurs of our only great mountain. Very little has so far been done there and more even than at Jenolan is possible. The Government has by the change made at Jenolan admitted that the old primitive red tape is a failure. Is it not possible to go a peg farther and admit that the larger and scarcely touched opportunity at the other place should be niggled at no longer. Responsible men in the community would gladly undertake its development on such lines as would be followed in any other country and without asking the absolute alienation of an acre of freehold or barring in any way the perpetual right of the public to the marvellous treasure-house nature has provided - Australian State