#130 Caves Beneath the Nullarbor: Exploring Australia’s Hidden World with Andrew Stempel

Andrew Stempel is the president of the Australian Speleological Federation,. He leads a community of nearly a thousand volunteers exploring and protecting Australia’s vast underground landscapes.Formed in 1956 in Adelaide, the federation—soon to be rebranded as Caves Australia—unites 26 clubs across the nation. Every caver contributes to a growing digital archive, preserving decades of handwritten expedition reports that map the unseen beneath our feet.Andrew became president in January 2025. Originally from the United States, he moved to Australia in 2014, discovered caving in 2018, and has since spent more than 4,000 hours underground.With a background in molecular cell biology, he left the laboratory for outdoor education and now merges both worlds through citizen science. This month, he begins a PhD studying ancient DNA from the strange creatures of Australia’s caves.More Informationhttps://caves.org.au/https://citizenscience.org.au/citscioz25/About The Citizen Science Show PodcastThis episode of the Citizen Science Show podcast is coming to you from CitSciOz25 the Australian Citizen Science Association conference, in Melbourne Connect, a world-class innovation precinct at The University of Melbourne.If you enjoy this content, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you.Contact the ShowWe are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events.You can email us at: [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.