a) The Newnes railroad was closed in 1932 after 25 years of shipping oil shale.
b) The rails were pulled out of the 600-meter tunnel, which had been bored through the sandstone in the Wollemi National Park, and the tunnel was left to its own devices.
d) For Newnes, that meant becoming home to thousands and thousands of glow worms.
c) The glow worm is a catch-all name for the bioluminescent larvae of various species, in this case, the Arachnocampa richardsae, a type of fungus gnat. Found in massive numbers in caves, the fungus gnat larvae cling to the rocky walls of the abandoned tunnel and hunt with long, glowing strings of sticky mucus.
