Award winning mushrooms in 1891 Railway Tunnel Tasmania
Photo: Off the Table
Award winning mushrooms grown in 1891 Railway Tunnel in Tasmania Grown in a 1891 Railway Tunnel in Tasmania.
Tunnel Hill Mushrooms Hidden under the surface at Mt Rumney on Hobart’s Eastern Shore in Tasmania is an old 1891 railway tunnel. It was opened in 1892, and closed in 1926. Since the closure of the railway in 1926 the tunnel has be used by the Defence Department during WWII to store records from Anglesea Barracks, as well as the University of Tasmania to house recording devices for cosmic ray testing, In the late seventies a Hungarian gentleman by the name of Pasztor purchased the southern end of the tunnel with the desire to run a restaurant there, yet it never reached fruition.
Photo: abc.net.au
Repurposed in 2000, the railway tunnel is now a unique growing operation .“Tunnel Hill Mushrooms” produces premium food, as Producers Dean and Anita Smith cultivate three types of oyster mushrooms, grey, white and tan oyster mushrooms picked fresh to order. The railway tunnel has optimal growing conditions for cold loving winter strains of oyster mushrooms.
Owner Dean Smith
Visit the unique Tunnel tours to learn how oyster mushrooms are grown and stored as you walk through the mysterious re-purposed train tunnel on a railway line that ran from Bellerive to Sorell between 1892-1926. The tunnel is the perfect environment because of its stable year-round temperature and low light. Tunnel Hill Mushrooms supplies to some of Hobart’s top restaurants, including The Glasshouse and Franklin.
