Blue Light adventure centre Noorla Yo-Long has built on its facilities with the addition of a deck for caving at the Rendelsham camp courtesy of a grant from OneFortyOne Plantations valued at $3300 and around $1000 in materials donated by Bunnings Warehouse.
The construction project was delivered by volunteers and staff starting in December last year and covers a vast hole in the ground that previously presented a health and safety issue.
Once completed, caving will be run in association with the other programs the camp offers pending training aspects provided by the State Emergency Service.
Noorla Yo-Long provides youth advancement giving children healthy self-respect, the power to say no and other valuable life lessons with an excess of 60,000 students coming through the site since it started over 25 years ago.
Noorla Yo-Long camp manager and Senior Constable First Class Geoff Yates said the addition was a significant investment to the site.
“For us to run caving safely we have to have a platform built upon which we can create a frame to allow safe climbing and descent into the cave system,” he said.
“It is a vertical tube about four and a half meters deep which we need to be able to rope and ladder down our participants into the cave system.
“The foremost aspect we must maintain and manage is making sure everything is operated under the safest conditions possible which is the purpose behind this deck, without it caving is not possible.”
