[Main Event] Bungonia Palooza 2026

[Main Event] Bungonia Palooza 2026

When

03/07/2026 - 05/07/2026ย ย ย ย 
All Day
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Bookings

Bookings closed (are you logged in?)

Where

Bungonia

Event Type

Trip Leaders

UNSWOC
Your friendly neighbourhood Batpeople

YOU CANNOT SIGN UP TO THIS TRIP UNTIL YOU COMPLETE THE GENDERED VIOLENCE TRAINING. it can take up to a week for us to approve your GV training completion so if you leave it too late, you might miss signups! For any issues with the GV training, please reach out to the exec!

 

YO YO YO ITS THAT TIME OF THE YEAR MY FELLOWS! So cold, always makes me feel like CRAWLING UNDERGROUND AND EXPLORING SOME CAVES! BUNGONIA PALOOZA 2026 IS HERE!

Rock up on Friday night, for some awesome caving adventures on the weekend before heading home on Sunday evening.

Fun fact: Spelunking is NOT chucking big rocks in ponds to make cool noises! ::0 It is in fact the art/sport of exploring the inner cavities of mother Earth; CAVING! Bungonia Palooza is a weekend for cavers (and aspiring cavers) of all levels to come to hit the subterraneous wonderland of Bungonia. Think of it as a mini winter Boree Logโ€ฆ but less sunlight more crawling. It can include abseiling, ascending, crawling, squeezing, walking, scrambling, climbing, heights, confined spaces, and maybe a bit of darkness.

 

Carpooling Sheet: Link to be provided later

 

Sign Up Instructions

Due to the number of people coming to Bungonia Palooza, there are a few steps to signing up. Please read carefully in order to make sure you get what you want out of the weekend.

Bookings for the main event will open on Tuesday 16th June at 8.30am. Individual trips will be released for sign up the following week.ย 

Make sure in your booking to include the following โ€“

      1. Any previous caving / canyoning / rock climbing etc experience
      2. MOST IMPORTANTLY, if your name was a verb, what would it describe?
      3. Bungonia Palooza is in high demand and you will not be accepted unless you follow these instructions!
      4. Your SRT Skill level (refer to the table below)

Skill levels:

Beginner
What is a cave? what is a rope? You might not know but you are keen to find out! General scrambling ability is compulsory.
Intermediate
Maybe youโ€™ve been caving before. Maybe you havenโ€™t, but youโ€™ve been lead climbing or canyoning or have other rope skills and experience at heights and have done some sort of abseiling before.
Advanced
You have experience ascending ropes in caves, and passing rebelays

 

After being accepted on the main event:

Have a look at the trips offered below and your skill level and choose which trips (+ backups) you want to go on. These will be released as individual trips in about a week.

Sign up for ONE Saturday and ONE Sunday trip. If you do not get accepted on your first choice trip then you may sign up for a different one. (Same format as Boree Log!). You must be signed up to this main event to sign up to individual trips

Facebook groups will be made to organise car pooling, tent sharing, gear hauling etc.

Camping Fees: It’ll cost around $18 for camping (Friday night and Saturday night) at Bungonia National Park. Its a very good price for the amount of amenities you get (kitchen, electric bbqs, filtered water taps, bathrooms, hot showers). Payment will be taken through the website after you have been approved for Bungonia – Suds is in the process of organising this.

Pack your gear and come caving!!

 

THE TRIPS:

(Roughly in order of difficulty)

 

Grill Cave Beginner โ€“ anyone fit can come. An pretty Bungonia cave with lots of ladders and caverns filled with stalagmites and stalactites. Explore the extensive maze, and marvel at 20th century engineering. You might even get to see a magic trick!
B4-5 Cave Beginner โ€“ anyone fit can come. Previous scrambling experience preferred.
A super fun horizontal cave in Bungonia.
Very maze-like with lots of squeezes, scrambles,ย  climbs and crossroads. There’ll be some bouldering, but with handlines! Keep an eye out for some Cave Fossils as you stop over at Kings Cross on your way into Hogan’s Hole.
Blowfly Cave Intermediate โ€“ people with rope experience preferred.
Super fun cave with a good mix of some interesting squeezes, scrambles, and a bit of abseiling/ ascending amongst some unique geological features. Feel the dragon’s teeth as you slither down into the spacious aven, or choose to test yourself with the kidney squeeze!ย  You’ll have to ascend and descend several short pitches, with some rebelays in between.
Acoustic Pot Intermediate โ€“ people with rope experience preferred.
Have you ever stared into the abyss and the abyss stared back? This cavernous cave has an amazing abseil into the depths that must be seen to be believed, with some optional scrambling and crawling at the end. You’ll abseil and ascend back up a spectacular ~30m aven.
Drum
Advanced – Must have previous ascending experience
 An interesting and technical cave, you’ll be descending down the biggest single drop pitch in the Australian mainland (or so they say). Traverse down the pitches for some nice formations and chambers – you might even get to say hello to some cute cave critters. There’ll be about 80m of vertical rope work, perhaps more if you get to the extension!
Argyle
Advanced – Must have previous ascending experience
 Venture into the deepest cave at Bungonia if you dare, with over 100m of abseiling and then ascending. Be sure to pack extra flashlights and batteries, as this will be a long day. This is one will be a doozy!
CAVE EXPLORATION Intermediate โ€“ people with rope experience preferred
Youโ€™ll never know what caves you could find. Come jump into a variety of holes with varying levels of difficulty and technicality.

 

 

THE GEAR:

  1. Caving related gear will be advised on the page for each day trip (largely can be borrowed from the club)
  2. For camping, the advised gear includes:
    1. TENT (unless you want to snuggle with some possums)
    2. WARM SLEEPING BAG (Bungonia can reach sub-zero at night)
    3. SLEEPING MAT (This keeps you insulated from the cold ground!)
    4. WARM CLOTHES FOR AFTER CAVING
    5. FOOD FOR THE WEEKEND (breakfast, lunch and dinner!)
    6. IMPLEMENTS TO COOK/EAT SAID FOOD
    7. Toiletries / towel / etc
    8. There is drinking water available from the campsite, but the fountain doesn’t always work. Would recommend bringing your own water just in case.
Get keen for a weekend of cave crazy adventures, see you there!
๐Ÿฆ‡The Caving Team ๐Ÿฆ‡

Cheers to Liam for helping write this up!ย  – Cindy shamelessly copying off the 2024 BP post

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