Tamborine Mountain Glow Worm Caves

Glow Worm Caves Tamborine Mountain

Useful Information

Location:	Cedar Creek Estate Vineyard and Winery. From Pacific Motorway M1, exit at Oxenford south of Brisbane, follow Hwy 95 west to Tamborine. 50 min drive from Surfers Paradise, 1 h from Brisbane CBD. (-27.937209, 153.189392)
Open:	All year daily 10-16. Closed Good Friday, 25-DEC. [2020]
Fee:	Adults AUD 15, Children (4-12) AUD 7, Children (0-3) free, Students AUD 11, Concession AUD 11. [2020]
Classification:	Cave Replica Glowworm
Light:	LED Lighting
Dimension:
Guided tours:	D=30min
Photography:	not allowed
Accessibility:	yes
Bibliography:	Claire Baker (2005): Managing An Artifically Built Glowworm Cave Ackma Journal, 58. Geoff Warne (2007): Artificial glow worm caves – taking the pressure off national parks Wildlife Tourism Australia Workshop 'Wildlife of the Scenic Rim', Beaudesert, QLD. Claire Baker (2013): Twinkle, Twinkle little fly Wildlife Australia, 50(1),10. 10-13. ISSN: 0043-5481. Robin Rowland, Julia Bruhn (2018): Can Glow-worm Ecotourism Lead to Increased Conservation Knowledge and Positive Intentions Towards Glow-worms in the Wild? Paper presented at 5th National Wildlife Tourism Australia Conference 'Wildlife Tourism Values and Challenges: balancing the needs of wildlife, tourists, tour operators and local residents', Cradle Mountain, TAS. Robin Rowland (2019): The Success of a Wildlife Corridor on Tamborine Mountain and the Value of Landcare Paper presented at Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland Wildlife Corridors Workshop 2019, Kooralbyn, QLD. Robin Rowland (2019): The Scenic Rim and Its Potential Role as an Ethical Wildlife Tourism Destination Presented at Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland workshop "The Scenic Rim as an Environmentally-Sustainable International Wildlife Destination", Kooralbyn, QLD.
Address:	Tamborine Mountain Glow Worm Caves, Cedar Creek Estate, Cnr Long and Hartley Road, 104 - 144 Hartley Road, North Tamborine QLD 4272, Tel: (07) 5545 1666. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1997	beginning of Cedar Creek Restoration Program.
2000	Cedar Creek Estate Wildlife corridor established.
2004	cave constructed.
2005	opened to the public.

Description

The Tamborine Mountain Glow Worm Caves is an artificial cave which was built to protect the local species of glowworms, Arachnocampa flava. It seems it has become a popular tourist pastime to crawls through caves in the area and disturb glowworms. This cave was intended to give the glowworms a habitat, and at the same time protect all the other caves by drawing the tourism to this place. In return it offers quite comfortable tours with well educated guides which are actually biologists. In newspeech this is called a win-win-situation.

Glowworms on New Zealand and parts of Australia are bioluminescent larvae of gnats, but there are several species. At Tamborine Mountain the species is Arachnocampa flava. The larvae produce a a thin thread with drops of a sticky slime. Then they emit light to attract flying insects, if they are caught by the sticky threads they are eaten. When the larvae are big enough they undergo a metamorphosis into an insect, small flies, and often become a victim to other larvae.

To see the glowworms it is necessary to wait some time in the dark. Any kind of light source is thus prohibited on the tour, this includes cameras and smartphones, torches, light emitting shoes and so on. You should be careful if you are not comfortable with being in dark confined places. The artificial cave is quite comfortable, the trails are level and safe, there are no narrow or low parts, but still its underground, cool and humid.

The cave is located at Cedar Creek Estate, which offers other interesting things. Frog Hollow is an exhibit featuring native frog species and some amazing local insects. There is also a Cafe and Restaurant, and a vineyard with a Wine Centre.