Australia Show cave
Princess Margaret Rose Cave
15 °C inside, all year.
Travellers travel photobook from Melbourne, Australia, Australia · CC BY 2.0
The descent
The entrance, at 23 m.
The real relief above Princess Margaret Rose 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.
23m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
15°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
38m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
15 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 15 °C here, in January and in August. In January the afternoon reaches 24 °C at the entrance, 10 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The wettest months are from June to August: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.
- 24°14°Jan
- 24°14°Feb
- 22°13°Mar
- 19°12°Apr
- 16°10°May
- 14°8°Jun
- 13°8°Jul
- 13°8°Aug
- 15°8°Sep
- 18°9°Oct
- 20°11°Nov
- 22°12°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 Australia
Princess Margaret Rose Cave is a show cave in Australia. The entrance is at 23 m. It has an underground river and stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors. It lies within Lower Glenelg National Park.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsUsually with a guided tour; check times and tickets on the official site.
- Parking 130 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.3 km from the entrance
- Mount Gambier Airport (MGB)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 33 km in a straight lineCar hire in Mount GambierDiscover 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.
The water
The Glenelg River runs highest from July to September.
The Glenelg River carries about 20 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from July to September. It is lowest from January to April.
- 9.0 m³/sJan
- 6.7 m³/sFeb
- 6.6 m³/sMar
- 9.4 m³/sApr
- 16 m³/sMay
- 27 m³/sJun
- 34 m³/sJul
- 38 m³/sAug
- 33 m³/sSep
- 24 m³/sOct
- 17 m³/sNov
- 12 m³/sDec
From about 6.6 m³/s in the lowest month to 38 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 13,120 km².
The Glenelg River from source to mouth on Riveryas — coming soon
Estimate: long-term flow from the HydroATLAS model (WaterGAP, 1971–2000) shaped by the monthly rain, snow and temperature of the area (NASA POWER). Dams change it. Not a forecast.
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.
- 1other cave entrances within 3 kmPrincess Margaret Rose Cave
- 5viewpoints within 3 kmRiver lookout, Glenelg Gorge Lookout and 3 more
- 1marked hiking routes within 3 kmGreat South West Walk
- 1car parks within 2 km
- 1information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 6campsites within 8 kmPrincess Margaret Rose Caves - Lower Glenelg NP, Karnkendi Campsite, Lasletts Canoe Camp and 3 more
- 1hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmNelson Hotel
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- bus stops within 2 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).
In our other atlases
What else is around Princess Margaret Rose Cave.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 24 | 24 | 22 | 19 | 16 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 15 | 18 | 20 | 22 |
| Afternoon | 24 | 24 | 22 | 19 | 16 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 15 | 18 | 20 | 22 |
| Night | 14 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 12 |
| Rain (mm) | 34 | 28 | 36 | 46 | 66 | 85 | 88 | 89 | 67 | 52 | 48 | 43 |
| Rainy days | 5 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 13 | 15 | 17 | 17 | 14 | 10 | 8 | 7 |
| Sun hours/day | 10.4 | 9.3 | 7.9 | 6.1 | 4.7 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 5.3 | 6.4 | 7.5 | 8.5 | 9.5 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 24 | 24 | 14 | 34 | 10.4 |
| Feb | 24 | 24 | 14 | 28 | 9.3 |
| Mar | 22 | 22 | 13 | 36 | 7.9 |
| Apr | 19 | 19 | 12 | 46 | 6.1 |
| May | 16 | 16 | 10 | 66 | 4.7 |
| Jun | 14 | 14 | 8 | 85 | 4.3 |
| Jul | 13 | 13 | 8 | 88 | 4.3 |
| Aug | 13 | 13 | 8 | 89 | 5.3 |
| Sep | 15 | 15 | 8 | 67 | 6.4 |
| Oct | 18 | 18 | 9 | 52 | 7.5 |
| Nov | 20 | 20 | 11 | 48 | 8.5 |
| Dec | 22 | 22 | 12 | 43 | 9.5 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (23 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
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 | 193% | 168% | 98% | 132% | 137% | 55% | 57% | 66% | 124% | 232% | 160% | 194% |
| 2021 | 171% | 73% | 126% | 62% | 64% | 92% | 150% | 63% | 67% | 182% | 84% | 24% |
| 2022 | 119% | 45% | 127% | 27% | 87% | 97% | 55% | 116% | 96% | 243% | 194% | 99% |
| 2023 | 68% | 179% | 177% | 104% | 86% | 120% | 62% | 38% | 42% | 87% | 161% | 179% |
| 2024 | 121% | 3% | 17% | 98% | 24% | 36% | 81% | 58% | 104% | 75% | 153% | 127% |
| 2025 | 26% | 41% | 66% | 63% | 39% | 105% | 110% | 74% | 99% | 116% | 126% | 74% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q7244702) · 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 |
| River flow and basin | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| 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 |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.


