MT GAMBIER, SA - POPULATION: 27,756

THURS 14 - SAT 16.5.2015: It all began one cold, chilly, I-C-Y morning at 6.00am! Sybil answers the call of nature and as per usual, opens the toilet via the handle. Okay - Sybil is now holding the plastic handle and part of the shaft in her hand. Carole woke to the grim reality - the Leylands can do without most luxuries, but the toilet is not negotiable! Headed for the Mt Gambier Jayco dealer. Too busy, too hard - indefinite wait for parts. Carole then rang a Jayco suggested Caravan Repair Shop in Millicent, followed by Jayco Mildura - no success. Drove to the Mt Gambier Showground ($20.00 per night for a powered site), to plot our course home. We work on the premise that "a problem shared is a problem halved", so there were not too many people unaware of our plight - the Showground Host Rob and his wife Marg were no exception! It has to be said that over the next three days Rob made an enormous difference in our travel lives. Each day the brain's trust would discuss the problem and determine ways to resolve it.

The solution - a wooden spoon super glued down the shaft, secured with a hose clamp and finally a screw placed through the plastic into the wooden handle. How impressed would Jamie Oliver be knowing how his trademark wooden spoon has been utilized! Big thank you to Rob and Marg for all their assistance.

Considered the Engelbrecht Caves which are remarkable because they lie beneath the streets of Mount Gambier, but having only just viewed a cave the decision was made not to visit this one.

Volcanic activity occurred in the Mount Gambier area in recent geological time. The Blue Lake crater is an explosive structure called a maar which consists of a rim of ejected material (basalt and ash), resting directly on the pre-eruption land surface. The crater which formed during two closely spaced periods of  eruption, is one of the youngest volcanoes in Australia.
Blue Lake Statistics:
Surface Area - 70 hectares
Circumference - 5 kilometres
Depth - 70 metres
Volume - 36,000 million litres
Consumption - 3,600 lillion litres annually.

In 1854 John Beswick purchased 178 acres of land which included this sinkhole. James Umpherson purchased Beswick's farm in 1868. Extensive improvements were made to the property including a grand Victorian residence and gardens. It was named The Caves. James Umpherston became a prominent citizen in the district. In 1884 Umpherston retired from active farming and began to develop the sinkhole as a 'pleasant resort in the heat of summer'. Umpherston died in 1900 aged 87.


HOW DO YOU ACCESS A
SINK HOLE?