Fossil Cave
| Fossil Cave | |
|---|---|
| The Green Waterhole, 5L81 | |
| Location | Princes Highway, Tantanoola, South Australia, Australia |
| Coordinates | 37°43′55″S 140°31′52″E / 37.7319°S 140.5310°E |
| Depth | 15 metres (49 feet) |
| Length | 70 metres (230 feet) |
| Geology | Oligocene coralline limestone |
| Entrances | 1 |
| Difficulty | Above water - no stated difficulty Underwater - CDAA Advanced Cave grade |
| Hazards | silting, overhead environment |
| Access | Above water - public (no disabled access). Underwater - CDAA members only. |
| Cave survey | FUUC, 1978 Allum and Garrad, 1979 SAUSS, 1987 Horne, 1986-88 |
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 22 kilometres (14 miles) 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.