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The following article was transcribed from the Sydney Gazette, 26th January 1830 :
“EXTRAORDINARY CAVERN. - In Argyle, 120 miles from Sydney, and 3 or 4 from Shoal Haven, there is a curious cavern, of unknown depths, and abounding with icicle petrifacations [sic]. Although it has long excited the curiosity of persons travelling in that quarter, no person has undertaken the laborious task of exploring it, until Mr. WILLIAM SHELLY, the eldest son of Mrs. SHELLY of Parramatta, lately ventured to pry into its ‘depths profound.’ He went down about 1200 feet, and would have gone farther had the rope by which he descended been long enough to admit of it. he describes the appearance as gloomy and awful in the extreme, abounding with stupendous crags, from which the petrified icicles depend in a thousand romantic forms. When he entered its mouth, the cold was so intense that the ground was covered with hoar-frost, but it grew warmer as he descended, and at the deepest point he reached, the heat was scarcely supportable. From a depth of 140 feet, he brought up several huge pieces of the petrifactions [sic], which undoubtedly broke in getting them out; we have seen one fragment, however, in the possession of Mr. GEORGE ALLEN, measuring 3 feet 2 inches. There is a similar cavern at the distance of about a quarter of mile, but not so formidable in its appearance as this. The Shoal Haven Gully, about 2 miles to the eastward, is supposed to be 1700 feet deep. Mr. SHELLY intends to resume his researches with better preparations, determined not to give up until he finds the bottom. He deserves great praise for his spirited exertions, and we would propose, as the least reward he is fairly entitled to, that the place should be named ‘SHELLY’S CAVERN.’”
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