![]() Here's what's funny about writer-director Michael Haneke's film, a nearly identical English-language remake of his own 1997 thriller set in Austria. Meanwhile the dim bulb Mayor of Who-ville (Steve Carell) - a stand-in for poor, besieged Dubya - talks to God and knows what's best for everyone, the heck with democracy. ![]() Jim Carrey's titular elephant discovers a civilization of tiny people living on a speck of pollen, which prompts a kangaroo (Carol Burnett) - who might as well be named ACLU - to go on a rampage of indignation over such nonsense. A number of bats flitting to and fro through the gloom conjured up dramatic scenes, such as the Weird Sisters of Macbeth.”īut for all its beauty and wonder, this window into the geological past is a dangerous place to be – the rocks that continually fall from the roof could easily kill a person – so the mouth of the cave is now fenced off for public safety.Theodore Geisel's gentle plea for tolerance has been turned into far-right propaganda about how Christians are a persecuted minority and loudmouthed atheists are ruining everything. The excursionists who reached the cave were “disappointed at first but appreciated the full solemnity of the scene when they scrambled across the rocks to the extreme end and looked back, where a dim earthly light streamed through the entrance. The party then walked across the peninsula to North Avalon and around the rocks to the cave but Fr Therry had so exerted himself in getting there that he was too fatigued to conduct the promised service.Īs far as is known, no church service has ever taken place in the cave, despite popular belief. ![]() The excursionists left Sydney in the steamship Collaroy and berthed at the wharf Fr Therry had built in Pittwater. In 1862, Fr Therry organised an Easter Monday excursion to Avalon for the St Benedict’s Young Men’s Society, the high point of which was to be a church service held in the cave. The dyke is visible above the fence at the entrance to St Michael's Cave Therry was granted a total of nearly 600ha embracing all of Avalon and much more and it was he who named it St Michael’s Cave, bestowing the same saint’s name on the natural arch several hundred metres to the south that was destroyed during a storm in 1867. It would be interesting to know what significance was attached to the cave by the local Aborigines and naturally such a wondrous natural feature did not long escape the attention of the Europeans, although it is not known which of them was the first to enter the cave. The dyke still traverses the full length of the roof of the cave, at the rear of which high-pitched squeaks and the smell of guano reveal the presence of bats. ![]() The mouth of the cave is now only about 8m wide and 4m high but the cave heightens as the floor near the lip falls away until a point is reached where the cave is about 17m high, although in the centre is a large pile of debris that has fallen from the roof and remained where it fell. In earlier times, especially during those brief periods when the sea level was higher than it is now, the fallen material would have been washed away, leaving the floor of the cave clean.Īnd as the roof has continued to fall, the pile of debris now fills a large part of the mouth of the cave and the lip of the cave is now tens of metres above sea level. Not only have the sides of the cave weathered but also the roof, from which material has continued to fall to the floor of the cave. Much of the metre-wide dyke at North Avalon is mineral feldspar which, when decomposed by weathering turns to a light clay.Īnd as the dyke at North Avalon has been weathered over the eons, so too has the surrounding shales and sandstones, and a cave has formed, penetrating nearly 70m into the headland. Molten rock has forced its way through these cracks for form dolerite dykes that rise from the depths and form thin vertical sheets that punctuate the otherwise sedimentary geology.ĭolerite dykes weather more slowly on sea-level rock platforms, as can be seen at Long Reef, but dykes exposed above sea level ten to erode more quickly, as is the case with St Michael’s Cave. The entrance to St Michael's Cave is fenced to prevent entry ![]()
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