The Nullarbor Plain is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its north. It is the world's largest single exposure of limestone bedrock, and occupies an area of about 200,000 square kilometres (77,000 sq mi). At its widest point, it stretches about 1,100 kilometres (684 mi) from east to west across the border between South Australia and Western Australia.
The Great Australian Bight is a large oceanic bight, or open bay, off the central and western portions of the southern coastline of mainland Australia.
Eyre Highway is a 1,664-kilometre (1,034 mi) highway linking Western Australia and South Australia via the Nullarbor Plain. Signed as National Highways 1 and A1, it forms part of Highway 1 and the Australian National Highway network linking Perth and Adelaide. It was named after explorer Edward John Eyre, who was the first European to cross the Nullarbor by land, in 1840–1841. Eyre Highway runs from Norseman in Western Australia, past Eucla, to the state border. Continuing to the South Australian town of Ceduna, it crosses the top of the Eyre Peninsula before reaching Port Augusta.
Caiguna is a small roadhouse community located on the Eyre Highway in Western Australia. It is the second stop east of Norseman on the journey east across the Nullarbor Plain. Between Balladonia and Caiguna is a 146.6-kilometre (91.1 mi) stretch of the highway which is one of the longest straight stretches of road in the world. The unofficial Central Western Time (CWT) starts shortly east of Caiguna, heading eastward.
Mundrabilla is in a very sparsely populated area in the far south east of Western Australia. The two significant features are Mundrabilla Roadhouse and Mundrabilla Station, which are approximately 35 kilometres (22 mi) apart. At the 2016 census, Mundrabilla had a population of 23, 32% male and 68% female. The time zone in use is UTC+08:45.
Eyre Bird Observatory is an educational, scientific and recreational facility in the Nuytsland Nature Reserve, Western Australia. Cocklebiddy is the nearest locality on the Eyre Highway, 49 km (30 mi) to the north. It is in the Hampton bioregion, which is sandwiched between the Nullarbor Plain to the north and the Great Australian Bight to the south, in one of the least populated places on the Australian continent. It was established in 1977 by Birds Australia in the disused Eyre Telegraph Station as Australia's first bird observatory, to provide a base for the study and enjoyment of the birds of the area.
Nuytsland Nature Reserve is a protected area of Western Australia in the south-eastern part of the state, on the south coast.
Hampton is an interim Australian bioregion located in southeastern coastal Western Australia, with a small portion (4%) extending into adjacent South Australia. It has an area of 1,088,198 hectares. The Hampton bioregion is part of the Coolgardie woodlands ecoregion.
The Eyre Telegraph Station is a building on the remote south coast of Western Australia, on the Great Australian Bight.
Koonalda Cave is a cave in the Australian state of South Australia, on the Nullarbor Plain. It is located within the Nullarbor Wilderness Protection Area, 99 kilometres (62 mi) west of the Nullarbor roadhouse and 97 kilometres (60 mi) north east from Eucla, Western Australia It is notable as an archeological site.
Nullarbor Links is an 18-hole par 72 golf course, said to be "the World's Longest Golf course", situated along 1,365 kilometres of the Eyre Highway along the southern coast of Australia in two states, notably crossing the Nullarbor Plain at the head of the Great Australian Bight.
The Bunda Cliffs, also known as the Nullarbor Cliffs, are a coastal scarp on the southern coast of Australia, extending from the western coast of South Australia to the south-eastern corner of Western Australia.
The Cave Divers Association of Australia (CDAA) is a cave diving organisation which was formed in September 1973 to represent the interests of recreational scuba divers who dive in water‐filled caves and sinkholes principally in the Lower South East of South Australia (SA) and secondly in other parts of Australia. Its formation occurred after a series of diving fatalities in waterfilled caves and sinkholes in the Mount Gambier region between 1969 and 1973 and in parallel to a Government of South Australia inquiry into these deaths. The CDAA's major achievement has been the dramatic reduction of fatalities via the introduction of a site rating scheme and an associated testing system which was brought in during the mid-1970s. While its major area of operation is in the Limestone Coast region of SA, it administers and supports cave diving activity in other parts of Australia including the Nullarbor Plain and Wellington, New South Wales.
Agnes Milowka was an Australian technical diver, underwater photographer, author, maritime archaeologist and cave explorer. She gained international recognition for penetrating deeper than previous explorers into cave systems across Australia and Florida, and as a public speaker and author on the subjects of diving and maritime archaeology. She died aged 29 while diving in a confined space.
Craig Challen, SC is an Australian technical diver and cave explorer who played a substantial role in the Tham Luang cave rescue. He was the recipient of the Oztek 2009 Diver of the Year award for his services to caving, and was joint winner of the 2019 Australian of the Year.
Marrawijinie Cave is cave located in the Australian state of South Australia within the gazetted locality of Nullarbor on the Nullarbor Plain.
The Roe Plains is a coastal plain in the southeastern corner of Western Australia.
Twilight Cove is situated at the end of the Baxter Cliffs on the south coast of Western Australia on the Great Australian Bight coastline. It has had other names, including Malbinya.
Richard Harris SC, OAM, is an Australian anaesthetist and cave diver who is currently the Lieutenant Governor of South Australia. Harris is best known for having played a crucial role in the Tham Luang cave rescue. He and Craig Challen were jointly awarded 2019 Australian of the Year as a result of that rescue. Harris was appointed as South Australia's Lieutenant-Governor in 2024, and was sworn in on 9 February 2024.
Cave diving is underwater diving in water-filled caves. The equipment used varies depending on the circumstances, and ranges from breath hold to surface supplied, but almost all cave diving is done using scuba equipment, often in specialised configurations with redundancies such as sidemount or backmounted twinset. Recreational cave diving is generally considered to be a type of technical diving due to the lack of a free surface during large parts of the dive, and often involves planned decompression stops. A distinction is made by recreational diver training agencies between cave diving and cavern diving, where cavern diving is deemed to be diving in those parts of a cave where the exit to open water can be seen by natural light. An arbitrary distance limit to the open water surface may also be specified. Despite the risks, water-filled caves attract scuba divers, cavers, and speleologists due to their often unexplored nature, and present divers with a technical diving challenge.
