Blog

Sep 20, 2023

Ghost mushrooms pop up in Western Victoria to delight nature lovers

Tisha Kavanagh would know if there were luminescent mushrooms in Nelson, her

Tisha Kavanagh would know if there were luminescent mushrooms in Nelson, her home along Victoria's Glenelg River that borders South Australia.

Ms Kavanagh has walked up and down the river every night for 20 years.

Used to crawling the ground on her hands and knees to examine any mushrooms with her camera, she always keeps an eye out for fungi.

After hearing reports of ghost mushrooms 90 kilometres away in Mount Burr, South Australia, Ms Kavanagh was being extra vigilant on her walks three weeks ago.

According to Forestry SA, a ghost mushroom, which is native to Australia, emits a soft green glow at night. It can often be found growing on decaying plant material.

Recent wet weather had resulted in a flurry of mushroom growth, with all kinds of varieties springing up in decent sizes.

"I've honestly never seen so many mushrooms as I have in Nelson at the moment," Ms Kavanagh said.

"And then I saw this tree stump that was just covered in these white mushrooms that looked like a funnel, almost like an ear really.

"So I came home very excited and spoke to my son and said, 'You know, I think we should go back after dark and just see whether they are ghosts mushrooms'."

Ms Kavanagh admits it took a little while to find them again in the dark.

"[But] as soon as we [turned our torches off], we just saw, not just this tree that I'd seen starting to glow and light up, but all the little individual mushrooms all in the scrub as well," she said.

"There was one tree that … must have [had] 20 clumps. And they were all around the bottom of it and all up the tree itself.

"There was just huge numbers of them."

As well as returning herself, Ms Kavanagh has been spreading the word about what she's seen.

Her favourite responses are from those who weren't initially enthused, like a friend's teenage daughter.

"She said she was squealing with delight when she saw them," Ms Kavanagh said.

"I've got teenagers myself. And sometimes I think that the virtual world can be very alluring to our teenage generation.

"Getting them out looking at the natural world and enjoying all these great things that are just on our doorstep is just amazing."

Working as a doctor at the Mount Gambier prison, Ms Kavanagh's passion is photography.

"There's not a day goes by that I'm not out taking and sharing photographs," she said.

"It's such an amazing way of sharing what's around us.

"And really making people realise the beauty of our planet and hopefully making them want to take care of it and treasure what we have."

Ms Kavanagh is happy to share the location on the proviso people respect the area.

"Obviously, it needs to be a really dark night. So full moon nights are not your friend if you're looking for them," she said.

"And obviously away from houses or any ambient lights. So you've got to get to the real pitch dark areas, and then they just all start coming out before your eyes basically.

"There's things all around us if we just look, and not enough people get out and just really look at what's out in their backyard."

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