Professionals Tamborine Mountain 
One of the most popular tourist attractions on all of Tamborine Mountain has to be the breathtaking experience of the Glow Worm Caves. An incredible day out for the whole family, this artificial habitat for one of Australia’s most overlooked natural wonders offers a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We caught up with Robin Rowland, tour guide, to learn more about these incandescent insects and the people who care for them.
by Kyle Hitchmough
For those who might not be familiar, can you explain the purpose of the Glow Worm Caves?
These caves were purpose-built for the glow worms in order to create a sanctuary. There’s never been anything else like it. It’s essentially because glow worms in our rainforest locally have no physical protection around them. Anyone can access them, touch them or take them home, and that obviously led to a big decline in populations. They’re one of those animals that desperately needs protection and unfortunately, at the moment, there aren’t any other protective programs.
The caves are actually on the Cedar Creek Winery grounds. What’s the link there?
Yeah, the winery was here first! I always get asked, “What do the glow worms have to do with the winery?” And it’s simply that the owner of the property liked wine and glow worms. These are two of his interests. He had a winery, and he had a great friend who was a park ranger up here on Tamborine Mountain who had noticed big declines in the glow worm population. They got together and he took that jump to protect them 16 years ago. They started with 300 glow worms that were collected with the help of a University of Queensland biologist, and at this point we’ve got about 10,000.
How were the artificial caves actually created?
The whole cave was built with the help of Claire Baker, our consulting biologist who studied glow worms in the wild, and so the idea was somewhere that’s 95% humidity with lots of nooks and crannies and surfaces for the glow worms to move into and colonise, and somewhere that’s completely dark during the daytime. We do bring in all their food, so we’re out collecting insects in the wild and bringing them in daily for them. When we bring in flies, we can release a thousand insects and they’ve pretty much all been eaten in a couple of minutes. It’s incredible!
So why do the glow worms really glow?
Glow worms glow to catch food! They worked out that if you glow in the dark, insects tend to fly around you, and then if you’ve built webs to catch them, that’s a really great combination.
You give guided tours through the caves, correct?
That’s part of the main goal. Having a backup colony is one of our major values, making sure these guys don’t go extinct, but the other part is educating people and drawing people away from wild sites. Visiting our glow worms doesn’t have that negative impact. 70% of our customers have never seen a glow worm in their life, so it’s really interesting.
How did you get started working here?
I did a degree in Animal Behaviour in the States, and when I moved over here, I was looking for work related to animals. The Glow Worm Caves were hiring at the time. The last thing I worked with in America was elephants, and then I moved to glow worms. Just a little bit of a jump. It’s a cool thing to get into because science doesn’t know a lot about them. It’s a pretty new field.
As well as the caves, you also have some other features here. Can you tell us more about those?
We have a little gift shop, we have our grounds, and then we have a frog exhibit, Frog Hollow. It’s basically a display of native frogs and insects. It’s the only wildlife exhibit on the mountain and it’s free and open to the public. We’ve got native tree frogs, stick insects, tadpoles, great barred frogs.
Was Frog Hollow always part of the design? When was that added?
Pretty early on! I guess the owner had three passions— wine, glow worms, and frogs! It was just another thing where he just really liked the animals and wanted to display them somehow. Frogs are another one of those animals that most people don’t get to see in the wild because they’re nocturnal, so in that way it’s a good connection.
Have you noticed any particular trends in your clientele?
Definitely backpackers and lots of families, it’s very kid-friendly. We talk about ‘glowy bums’ a lot, and that goes over well. Especially during school holidays, it’s just the kind of thing that kids love.
Are you a local? What’s your opinion on the Tamborine Mountain area and community?
Yes! I moved up here about two years ago now, it’s a really special part of the world. Being from America, it’s really awesome getting to live in this tropical rainforest. I’m also involved with wildlife rescue up here, so I get to see more wildlife than most people. We have such special and unique species, I get to rescue leaf-tailed geckos, koalas, rainforest bowerbirds.
Is there anything you personally like to do in the area?
If I’m not in my house, I’m getting coffee at Treehouse Café, or on one of bushwalks around here. Curtis Falls is one of my favourites, I love to go at night to see all their glow worms, as well as the glowing mushrooms. I’m always impressed by how many other people are also out there at night time! It’s definitely one of those things that locals love to do.
What do you think the glow worm caves really provide to the area?
I think it provides something for families to do, especially in rainy weather. It’s indoors, it’s covered up, there’s so many sites on Tamborine Mountain that once it starts pouring rain, you can’t visit. But it’s also a really amazing site for kids who love science or nature. They’re just so excited to collect all the fact sheets and see all the animals, see our water dragons.
What do you enjoy most about working here?
I love working with weird species that you wouldn’t get the opportunity to do anywhere else. But I also just really like being able to talk to people who are really interested and have lots of questions, so when I get a lot of questions from a kid who just needs to know everything about how the glow works and exactly what chemistry is involved, that’s my favourite.
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