Hordes Of Sightseers Make Tunnel A No-glow Area
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday June 14, 1993
The glow-worm tunnels of Newnes have become a major tourist attraction -but the tramp of feet is taking the shine off the worms.
Yesterday, hundreds of people made the 35-kilometre trek off the main highway to the disused tunnels in the Wollemi National Park, amid the striking sandstone formations of the western side of the Blue Mountains.
Despite its isolation, the closest one can get to the major tunnel by car is one kilometre. And at times the tunnel was so crowded it started to seem more like the Harbour Tunnel than a remote hole in the Blue Mountains.
The situation is reaching the point where authorities are considering limiting access to them, or at least making sure that tourist activities don't actually harm the glow-worms.
Bells Grotto, more commonly known as the Glow-worm Tunnel, was built to serve the Newnes shale oil industry, and saw its first locomotive in 1907. The sharp curves and steep grades produced a marvel of engineering for the time, but the tracks were not to stay in use for long. By 1912, the Commonwealth Oil Corporation, which extracted the oil from the shale, had gone into liquidation.
Since then the tunnel has become the home of Arachnocampa richardsae, or glow-worm - the larvae of a midge.
The glow or bioluminescence of the larvae, which reach a length of four centimetres, is the result of a reaction between body products and oxygen in the enlarged tips of the insects' four excretory tubes. The worms spin threads of silk which insects, attracted by the light, become trapped in.
But at the weekend, with noisy groups of sightseers trooping up and down the tunnel flashing torches, there was barely a glow-worm in sight.
Many who made the trip were disappointed at the lack of the glow-worms, not realising they needed to turn off their torches and remain quiet for a period to fully appreciate them.
The Mayor of Lithgow, Alderman Gerard Martin, said the council was launching an investigation to see what needed to be done to protect the glow-worms.
"They have been taken for granted by the locals, who have grown up with glow-worm tunnels and assumed they were indestructible," he said.
The National Parks and Wildlife's district manager for the Blue Mountains, Mr Gregor Manson, said the worst effect on the glow-worms was from people prodding and squashing them.
© 1993 Sydney Morning Herald
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