Australia Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data), CC BY 4.0, with relief shading from Copernicus WorldDEM-30
The descent
The entrance, at 86 m.
The real relief above Koonalda Cave, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
86m
Entrance altitude
published (Wikidata)
18°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
Inside and outside
18 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 18 °C here, in January and in August. In January the afternoon reaches 27 °C at the entrance, 9 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- 27°17°Jan
- 26°17°Feb
- 25°16°Mar
- 23°15°Apr
- 20°13°May
- 18°10°Jun
- 17°9°Jul
- 18°10°Aug
- 20°11°Sep
- 22°12°Oct
- 24°14°Nov
- 26°16°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
Cave in South Australia
Koonalda Cave is a cave in Australia. The entrance is at 86 m. It has an underground river.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Ceduna Airport (CED)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 371 km in a straight lineCar hire in CedunaDiscover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 1campsites within 8 kmKoonalda Homestead
- other cave entrances within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- viewpoints within 3 km
- marked hiking routes within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- car parks within 2 km
- information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- bus stops within 2 km
- hotels and guesthouses within 8 km
- restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 27 | 26 | 25 | 23 | 20 | 18 | 17 | 18 | 20 | 22 | 24 | 26 |
| Afternoon | 27 | 26 | 25 | 23 | 20 | 18 | 17 | 18 | 20 | 22 | 24 | 26 |
| Night | 17 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 13 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 14 | 16 |
| Rain (mm) | 20 | 23 | 23 | 27 | 24 | 30 | 23 | 23 | 19 | 13 | 21 | 28 |
| Rainy days | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Sun hours/day | 10.7 | 10.0 | 9.1 | 7.8 | 7.0 | 6.5 | 7.0 | 8.2 | 9.5 | 10.3 | 10.6 | 10.9 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 27 | 27 | 17 | 20 | 10.7 |
| Feb | 26 | 26 | 17 | 23 | 10.0 |
| Mar | 25 | 25 | 16 | 23 | 9.1 |
| Apr | 23 | 23 | 15 | 27 | 7.8 |
| May | 20 | 20 | 13 | 24 | 7.0 |
| Jun | 18 | 18 | 10 | 30 | 6.5 |
| Jul | 17 | 17 | 9 | 23 | 7.0 |
| Aug | 18 | 18 | 10 | 23 | 8.2 |
| Sep | 20 | 20 | 11 | 19 | 9.5 |
| Oct | 22 | 22 | 12 | 13 | 10.3 |
| Nov | 24 | 24 | 14 | 21 | 10.6 |
| Dec | 26 | 26 | 16 | 28 | 10.9 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (86 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 151% | 9% | 191% | 22% | 37% | 29% | 27% | 103% | 60% | 114% | 38% | 55% |
| 2021 | 64% | 72% | 37% | 4% | 45% | 130% | 59% | 34% | 6% | 49% | 330% | 37% |
| 2022 | 14% | 7% | 55% | 35% | 98% | 59% | 86% | 72% | 127% | 301% | 313% | 24% |
| 2023 | 62% | 24% | 56% | 76% | 27% | 37% | 33% | 30% | 6% | 7% | 65% | 58% |
| 2024 | 107% | 1% | 181% | 8% | 38% | 59% | 100% | 27% | 51% | 147% | 45% | 27% |
| 2025 | 76% | 5% | 25% | 100% | 36% | 61% | 214% | 46% | 43% | 347% | 65% | 1% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Koonalda Cave
Australia
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 86 mEntrance altitude
- 18 °CInside, all year
Abrakurrie Cave
Australia · 135 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 98 mEntrance altitude
- 18 °CInside, all year
Old Homestead Cave
Australia · 185 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 149 mEntrance altitude
- 19 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q6430667) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
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