A mass colony of tent spiders have created a mesmerising display in a nature reserve on Australia's east coast, capturing the imagination of locals.

The intricately-formed spider webs have been described as resembling masses of floating jellyfish or tiny suspended spaceships which glow in the early morning light.

During regular daylight hours, they are almost impossible to see.

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But at dawn and in the late afternoon, the webs reflect rays of sunlight and appear almost iridescent.

Volunteer Dave Comish helps to maintain the Kooloonbung Creek Nature Reserve at Port Macquarie in New South Wales, where the spiders have set up residence.

Mr Comish said when he first saw the astounding, shining display, he thought the mid-north coast town had been experiencing unseasonal weather.

"On a heavy dew in the mornings, it looks like it's been snowing.

"They are a beautiful looking thing," he said.

The tent spider webs are best viewed in the early morning light. ( ABC News: Emma Siossian )

The spider webs have stopped early morning walkers in their tracks.

"It reminds me of surfing in spring and … paddling through a sea of jellyfish," said local resident Adam Easter.

Janet Watson, also a volunteer with the Friends of Kooloonbung group, was similarly impressed when she spied the mass of webs.

"When I heard they were tent spiders I thought that was a really fitting name, because they do look like the big top coming out and just sitting on top of the vegetation," she said.

A younger walker, seven-year-old Aidan, said they looked like a "field of cotton wool".

It is not unusual to see tent spiders in large colonies, like here in Port Macquarie, according to the Australian Museum. ( Supplied: Friends of Kooloonbung )

Amazing web construction 'millimetre perfect'

The spider webs are carefully suspended over wet grasslands and low-lying vegetation.

Australian Museum arachnology collection manager, Graham Milledge, said they were built by tent web spiders, of the genus Cyrtophora, a type of orb weaving spider.

He described the sight as like a swarm of jellyfish.

"If you look up closely they are a very intricate, fine mesh construction and the amazing thing is they do it all instinctually."

Weave and leave: The spiders don't take down the webs, instead carrying out repairs as needed. ( ABC News: Emma Siossian )

"At the top of the cone in the web is where the spider has its little retreat, that's where it sits waiting for prey and often there's a lot of detritus and leaves there to camouflage the spider."

Port Macquarie resident and former National Parks and Wildlife ranger, Catherine Mardell, said the perfection of each web was amazing.

"They are millimetre perfect," she said.

Mr Milledge said it took the spiders many hours to create their webs and unlike some species, they did not take them down each day, but carried out repairs where needed.

"Once they make these intricate webs they would leave them, they wouldn't take them down every day like some orb weavers do," he said.

"Orb spiders spin their web in the evening and then take it down in the morning. The common garden orb weaver that we get in our back gardens spin a new web every evening."

Tent spiders common on the east coast

The tent spider webs are a sign of a healthy ecosystem in the Port Macquarie nature reserve. ( ABC News: Emma Siossian )

Mr Milledge said tent web spiders were quite widespread in Australia, and had much larger webs at the top of the country.

"This particular species, seen here in Port Macquarie, seems to favour wet areas, swampy areas, and there's another species up in north Queensland which is quite large and they build quite large webs," he said.

"It's not unusual to see large masses of these spiders.

"It's quite likely that most of these are juvenile and not many generally reach adult stage, so as the season progresses they will probably thin out.

"Spiders are a major predator of insects so they are a good pest controller."

Nature reserve home to creatures great and small

Since restoring Port Macquarie's Kooloonbung Creek Nature Reserve, volunteers have noticed an increase in koala numbers. ( ABC News: Emma Siossian )

The Kooloonbung Creek Nature Reserve where the tent spiders are living is also home to a wealth of other wildlife and a community success story.

Local resident and biologist Les Mitchell recently started volunteering with the Friends of Kooloonbung Creek.

He said over the past 30 years they, along with the local council, had helped to transform the 52-hectare reserve from a degraded patch of weed-ridden bushland to an important nature refuge.

He said it was a great example of what could be done at a grass-roots level to conserve native flora and fauna.

"There are four endangered plant communities and seven different plant communities altogether. For that to occur in 52 hectares is quite remarkable," he said.

The Scarlet Honeyeater is one of 160 species of birds in the Kooloonbung Creek Nature Reserve. ( Supplied: Friends of Kooloonbung )

"It's also one of the easiest places to see koalas in Port Macquarie, and the diversity of habitat gives rise to a richness of bird species," Mr Mitchell said.

"There are 160 species of birds, some of which you'd generally expect to find in large untouched rainforest areas, things like the Noisy Pitta and Regent Bowerbird."

Mr Mitchell said the mass tent spider colony was another positive development.

"It's pretty remarkable. It's an amazing feature," he said.

"Because of the improvement that's been done to the environment here, we will keep seeing little surprises like this."