Between Mitagon and Bowler in New South Wales, Australia, sits an abandoned railway tunnel. This monorail tunnel was built in 1866 and continued until 1919, with the addition of a new tunnel, thus forming a double-track tunnel.
The railway tunnel remained unused until the 1950s, when it became one of the first mushroom farms grown in Australia.
In 1987, microbiologist Dr Noel Arrold took over the tunnel and began developing new mushroom varieties for the Australian market.
The first variety is the Swiss brown mushroom, followed by exotic Asian varieties – shiitake mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, and wood ears. These mushrooms thrive in the cool, wet and dim environment of the tunnels, just as mushrooms are cultivated in the mountain forests of China, Japan and Korea, which is the best place for mushrooms to grow naturally.
The mushrooms are placed in a tunnel 650 meters long and 30 meters deep, with no sunlight in the hard rock, and the temperature remains at a stable 15 degree Celsius. Fluorescent lamps are used for 12 hours a day to provide photosynthesis. These mushrooms are moist and at constant temperatures and are ideal for growing.
Initially, Dr. Noel Arrold placed his mushroom strains in straw bales filled with steamed and sterilized straw segments, waited for them to sprout, and then transferred them to jars, black garbage bags, or plastic-wrapped logs.