At the bottom of the Macquarie Pass National Park, south of Wollongong, sits a popular bushwalking track that, for a short period in November, turns into a bioluminescent wonderland.
While tourists hike to its tiered waterfalls during the day, the area comes alive after dark with fireflies and glow worms.
I have known about it for years but this year I am determined to see them for myself, so I have brought along someone who knows the area intimately.
“This is probably the most reliable spot to see fireflies in the whole Illawarra area,” Kiama citizen scientist David Finlay says.
“We don’t know how many spots there are around the region — it used to be a lot more before the bushfires — but this is somewhere anybody can come and experience them.”
David has been a bioluminescence chaser for years.
His Instagram account is full of photos of fireflies, ghost fungi, sea sparkle and glow worms.
A different world after dark
I have walked this track many times, but never at night.
Being spring, the air is pleasant and cool and cloud cover means only a little moonlight pierces through the tree canopy.
“You come out into nature at twilight and dark and hear all the sounds of the bush like the wombats rustling around, the insects come out and the birds go to bed — it’s a completely different scene,” David says.
Apart from the gentle flowing of the creek that runs alongside the track, the bush is remarkably quiet.
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Before we set out on our walk, David said that because it was so early in the firefly season, there was no guarantee we would see one.
But after about 10 minutes of walking, he stops and points about three metres ahead.
“There you go, there’s your first firefly.”
Just down the track floats a single yellow blinking light, drifting back and forth over the track and into the bush.
The party starts
It is like a magic trick, but then again, all forms of bioluminescence seem implausible.
But while ghost fungi appear as a white glow to the naked eye and only reveal their brilliant green under a long exposure photograph, these fireflies pulse a strong yellow light.
“I’ve shocked myself because it’s about 20 minutes early and it’s not even proper dark yet,” David says.
“That’s just one, if we stand here for a while, that male is going to be hopefully joined by a lot of its mates.”
Just as he predicted, we turn around to look back at the track we just walked down to see numerous little blinking lights drifting around and emerging from the dense scrub.
I see light out of the corner of my eye and wonder if someone is coming, but it is just another firefly emerging from the bush.
It all happens nearly simultaneously.
It is like we are a two-person audience that has arrived for a theatre show, the lights have gone down and the performance has started.
Nature’s Christmas light display
Soon they are flying all around us, landing on our head torches and backpacks.
Now I can see them up close — a beetle, smaller than a fingernail, with two long dark wings slowly crawls across the back of my camera, pulses its yellow light and then flies away.
The fireflies are silent, which means the experience is not only stunning, but peaceful.
“Every single time I come out, I’m experiencing what you’re experiencing now, it doesn’t dim for me,” David says.
“Sharing the experience gives me a lot of joy, educating people about protecting the habitat for the fireflies and I get a big buzz out of it every time.”
When I ask where the glow worms are, David tells me to switch off my head torch and let my eyes adjust.
Soon, constant blue sparkles start appearing alongside the creek – not as many as the fireflies, but obvious to the naked eye.
This natural Christmas light display is subtle and brief, but spectacular and wondrous.
