Tunnel Vision
A rare look inside Mittagong's Mushroom Tunnel
Buried underneath the hillside, alongside Mt Gibraltar between
Mittagong and Bowral in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales,
lies a disused railway tunnel. This single track tunnel was built in
1866 and used up until 1919 when a new double track tunnel was built
alongside it to become the new railway link between Sydney and the
nation’s capital, Canberra. The single railway tunnel remained unused
until in the 1950’s it became one of the first cultivated mushroom
farms in Australia.
The Tunnel is 650 metres long and dark, Walking
along his tunnel is a bizarre experience - there are hundreds of these
manufactured wood logs and cut black bags with blooming mushrooms of
different colours sprouting at the top and sides.
The single
tunnel had been promised to the people of Bowral as an air-raid
shelter during WWII, however, was taken over as a munitions store for
the Royal Australian Air Force. After the RAAF vacated the
tunnel in 1953 is was used to grow mushrooms for the Edgell cannery.
Some of his exotic mushrooms include shiitake, oyster (white,
blue, grey, yellow and pink varieties) shimeji, wood ear, Enoki, king
brown and chestnut.
And he says it's not only the dark and cool
conditions of his tunnel that help his mushrooms grow.
"Someone
sent me an article from Japan that said they found shiitake growers
get better yields by having a low rumbling noise that apparently helps
them grow.
"In this tunnel whenever we want a low rumbling noise
we just order up a train."
Noel continues to be proactive by
introducing new varieties to the Australian market ... he was the
first to grow Swiss browns and shiitake in Australia.