Glow Worms Caves Gold Coast

Written on the 19th of July 2009 by Tanya Westhory

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TEENSY weensy glow worms huddled in a cave on Mt Tamborine have become one of the Gold Coast's newest star attractions -- recently becoming the largest colony in the world.

Up to 350 international, interstate and local visitors are heading to the caves every day, giving local tourism a huge boost.

Tamborine Mountain Glow Worm Caves manager Geoff Warne said tourists from Japan, China and Korea were flocking to the man-made caves at Cedar Creek Vineyard to see the 4000-strong glow worm 'galaxy'.

"When we first started out we'd have 30 people come through a day. Now we are doing a minimum of 100 people and in summer we would get 350 people through every day," he said.

"Today, we've got five international tourist groups coming and I've had to get a second person on to juggle the tours through the caves.

"They talk about a recession but as far as my job goes there is no recession.

"It is just fantastic to have a natural attraction for families to be drawn up here and they can then enjoy the rest of the day on the mountain."

Glow Worm Caves managing director John Penglis said the idea to spend 'seven figures' building the man-made caves came from a park ranger who was concerned about people trampling natural glow worm colonies in national parks.

"We thought 'why not have a glow worm cave where people can see it in the day?' " he said.

The caves took 22 workers two years to build using 675 cubic metres of concrete, 100 tonnes of steel, 135 cubic metres of sand, 1km of hessian and wire, and 986 bags of cement at 40kg each.

It started out with 300 glow worms and has now grown to nearly 4000.

The colony has now surpassed the world's largest glow worm population at New Zealand's Waitomo Caves.

The Mt Tamborine caves were officially opened by Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson on Friday even though visitors have been coming through since 2005.

Mr Penglis said he built up a strong rapport with former Howard government minister Wilson Tuckey but held off on officially opening the attraction after Mr Tuckey resigned as a minister amid controversy.

"I thought I'd wait for the next change in government," said Mr Penglis, minutes after he had a 'senior moment' by forgetting John Howard's name.

Meanwhile the growth of the glow worms has created the need to catch 2000 insects a day. Without the the insects the glow worms become cannibalistic and turn on each other.

Geoff Warne flits around the Cedar Creek estate every day looking like a madman with butterfly net in hand to catch the worms their daily feed.

"I think I look a bit silly running around with the butterfly net," he said with a laugh.

"We try to catch 2000 insects a day and release them into the cave where they are attracted to the glow worms' lights and then get stuck in the spider-like silk web trap set by the glow worms. If we overfeed them, their glow turns out but if they get too hungry they turn on each other."

Mr Warne started out as an eco-tour guide at Dreamworld after a car accident ended his career in the fitness industry.

He said he now had a passion for educating visitors about the little worms that glow to attract prey -- emitting 99 per cent light and only one per cent heat.

A glow worm -- arachnocampa flava -- starts out as an egg before turning into a larval stage at which it sheds layers of skin like a snake and starts to glow.

It then goes into a cocoon and emerges as an insect, switching off its digestive system to activate its reproductive organs.

The female survives only two days, mating for 30 hours of that time and laying 130 eggs. The male survives four to six days. He said glow worms had been around for 60 million years but scientists had only just discovered how handy the glow gene could be in cancer research.

The glow gene is spliced in with a cancer cell and the glow is used to track the spread or decline of the cells.

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