In Australia's Illawarra region, a ghostbusting-style night tour reveals ghost fungi, sea sparkles and tiny creatures lighting up the dark.

On a slate-black night, I stare at a horizon freckled with stars. Only this isn't the sky, illuminated by hundreds of constellations; it's the muddy bank of a river, charged by a colony of glow worms.

"This is my TV," says David Finlay. "It's magical, like something out of Avatar." By day, Finlay works as a transport manager, but by night, he scours Australia's bushland and beaches chasing living light. "If you're tucked up at home, you miss these things. Everybody cocoons themselves at night, whereas I think, what fun can I have?" he says.

Bioluminescent creatures lurk in many corners of the world, but Australia's Illawarra region on New South Wales' south coast is a magnet for glowing phenomena. With low light pollution, ample rainfall and high humidity, it's an ideal microclimate for these creatures to thrive and trap prey.

Many are clustered along the Illawarra Escarpment, a sweep of sandstone cliffs, fringed with forests that roll into the Pacific Ocean. "Our escarpment habitat is special. It's a well-preserved subtropical rainforest environment, which helps protect fragile bioluminescent life forms," says Finlay.

From his home in Kiama, Finlay can spot the "big four" within an hour's drive. There's sea sparkle, plankton that paints the ocean an electric blue; ghost fungi, mushrooms that radiate an eerie green; and glow worms and fireflies, which pierce the night-sky like tiny lanterns.

These natural phenomena are notoriously unpredictable and fickle to find, dictated by seasons, weather and light patterns. They are also extremely fragile, as mounting evidence shows bioluminescent creatures are waning with climate-change and human disturbance.

But for a growing number of glow seekers, who, like Finlay, visit with care, the challenge is part of the adventure.

When I meet Finlay at a clearing near Cascade Falls in Macquarie Pass National Park, it's only an hour past sunset, yet we're cloaked in darkness. It's Friday night, and while most people are under artificial lights, toasting to the end of the week, we're here to find natural shimmers in the night.

We trek through a path that cuts through the towering eucalypt trees, our head torches glowing red to cause minimal disturbance to wildlife. The full Moon pilots from above and the flow of the river whooshes us forward, guiding our footsteps towards the waterfall. "If something flies straight past your face, it's probably just a micro bat," warns Finlay. "They're very gentle, they're just looking for insects to eat."

Cascade Falls has an ideal microclimate for glow worms and fireflies, he explains. Glow........

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