History of Publication

Helictite was first published in October 1962 by Edward A. Lane in Sydney, Australia. The founding editors were Edward A. Lane and Aola M. Richards. Issues were published quarterly for the first 11 years and then it moved to biannual publication.

The journal intended to be wide ranging in scope from the scientific study of caves and their contents, to the history of caves and cave areas and the technical aspects of cave study and exploration. The territory covered was Australasia - Australia, New Zealand, the near Pacific Islands, Papua New Guinea and surrounding areas, Indonesia and Borneo.

In 1974 the Speleological Research Council Limited agreed to support the journal with financial assistance and on 28th February 1976 acquired ownership and took over full responsibility for the production of Volumes 14 to 35.

From 1976 to 1997 the journal was edited by Julia James together with Guy Cox, Andrew Pavey, Alan Warild and Jane Dyson, and assisted by other members of the Speleological Research Council Limited.

On 11th June 1998 the Speleological Research Council Limited became the Speleological Research Council Inc. (incorporated in New South Wales) and went on to publish Volume 36, which was edited by Susan White and Ken Grimes.

The Speleological Research Council Inc. was wound up in October 2000, with the ownership of Helictite passed to the Australian Speleological Federation Inc. in accordance with a mutually signed agreement.

The Helictite Commission of ASF was formed in December 2000 with Susan White as the inaugural chairman. The initial members of the commission were Susan White and Ken Grimes (joint Editors), Glenn Baddeley (Business Manager), Grace Matts (ASF Treasurer), and John Dunkley (ASF Librarian). Stefan Eberhard joined the editorial team in January 2003.

Greg Middleton took over as Chief Editor in 2016. The accidental death of Ken Grimes in August 2016 led to further changes in editors, with Tim Moulds and Kevin Kiernan joining the commission as additional Editors.

ASF published its first issue, Volume 37 Number 1, in June 2001. ASF's tenth issue, Volume 42, was published in December 2016 and marked the 100th issue of Helictite. It was the final printed issue. From this volume the journal became fully digital, with PDF files available for download from Internet free of charge. Papers are published as they are accepted and consolidated into a volume at the end of the year.