Cave Clan Cave Clan

Cave Clan is a group dedicated to urban exploration much like traditional cave exploring groups in that we venture into places other people wouldn't think of going into, just to see what's there.

Cave Clan was founded on 26 January (Australia Day), 1986 by 3 Melbourne teenagers, Woody, Dougo and Sloth when they ventured out to explore the Diamond Creek Mines in the north east of Melbourne.

Alf Sadlier, a worker for the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW), is often cited as an inspiration to the Cave Clan's founders. During construction on Melbourne's drains in the 1940s and 1950s, Sadlier would leave his name and the date in tar paint before the last section of tunnel was put in place. After Sadlier was mentioned in an article in Melbourne's The Herald Sun, his sister wrote to the Cave Clan explaining that her brother was in fact a "builder of drains", and not an explorer. Another anomoly (and giggle) is the Cave Clan web site domain name is registered in the name of Alf Sadlier.

The Cave Clan started exploring mines, caves and soon included stormwater drains. These days, the Cave Clan have explored just about every type of artificial tunnel or chamber there is.

In the beginning, the Cave Clan used to meet fellow explorers by leaving messages in the drains, or purely by chance - coincidently bumping into them down below. In 1990 the Cave Clan got a post office box and that made them much more accessible to outsiders: the media, the curious, fellow explorers - people just like yourself.

Unlike traditional caving groups we don't limit ourselves to natural cavities. We will explore pretty much anything, natural or man-made. We have a vast database of explored locations that we have accumulated over the 15 years of our operation. We are a pacifist organization in that we don't go and smash things underground, we just want to see what's around. We have an impeccable safety record, not one exploration related death has occurred within the Cave Clan since it's birth. We have expanded remarkably since the 80s, we now have branches, or at least contacts, in most states of Australia and in many countries around the world.

Cave Clan has been the subject of many rumours throughout the years, such as we're a gothic band, we're a graffiti crew, we have bizarre rituals and sacrifices in drains, we live in drains and defend them to the death, we use drains as an escape after committing crimes, and so on. These are always a source of amusement. The most recent rumour is that we cut off peoples fingers if they don't advertise us - the source of this one being a joke line on one of our stickers - "If I don't put up 1000 stickers the Cave Clan will cut off my fingers"

Talk of starting a group of explorers who explore Melbourne's underground started from this day, and the name Cave Clan was chosen shortly afterwards.

Cave Clan original logo.. we quite like it..

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❊ Web Links ❊

➼ Cave Clan 

➼ www.caveclan.org

➼ www.wikipedia.org/Cave_Clan

➼ Cave Clan Videos

➼ www.facebook.com

➼ more Cave Clan Videos

❊ Also See... ❊

➼ Tunnels under Melbourne






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