Supporting IMAX Filming Deep Beneath the Nullarbor
Can you move half a tonne of film equipment, a full suite of cave-diving gear and cameras worth hundreds of thousands of dollars nearly a kilometre underground and 90 metres beneath the surface? That was the question put to me by award-winning director and cinematographer Ash Gibb.
It was a challenge I accepted alongside Andrew Stempel, an expert speleologist with deep experience in vertical techniques. Together, we rigged a Nullarbor cave using lightweight lifting systems normally reserved for rescue operations, then carefully lowered and manoeuvred sensitive camera and electronic equipment into the depths.
Once underground, the filmmakers illuminated the chamber with professional floodlights, revealing the vast cave system in extraordinary detail.
While the underground logistics were underway, Ancient Land Tours managed a surface basecamp for twelve people over twelve days, supporting the film crew and talent and ensuring camp life ran smoothly.
With the cave lit evenly and beautifully, I applied my archaeology skills to areas that had never been properly examined. I recorded petroglyphs, tool marks, evidence of flint mining and stone arrangements. These new observations help illuminate past lifeways in remote Nullarbor country, in places of cultural significance to the Mirning First Nations people.
The Nullarbor filming was only one chapter of a much larger story, with additional sequences captured in Mexico and New Zealand. The resulting film, Caves: The Hidden Frontier, brings these underground worlds to audiences in giant-format IMAX 3D.
Watch the Caves: The Hidden Frontier teaser.
Planning a film project or scientific expedition in the region? Learn more about Ancient Land Tours’ research and specialist field support on the Nullarbor and in Far West South Australia.
