Tickets, volunteer and stallholder applications for the 2025 festival are now available at https://myco.tidyhq.com/
Accomodation including cabins, powered and non powered sites, is available at the Ballan Caravan and Tourist Park. All enquiries/bookings 0467 084 733
Moorabool Mushroom Festival
Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, April 12-13, 2025
TICKETS AVAILABLE:
Purchase here: http://thq.fyi/se/a49f52a61737
Join us for a celebration of all things fungi in Bacchus Marsh in March 2024, for the annual Moorabool Mushroom Festival!
The event will be held at the Bacchus Marsh Town Hall, which is 15 minutes walk from the Bacchus Marsh train station and near ample parking.
This 2 day festival will be looking at all aspects of fungi including:
- ecology
- citizen-science
- cultivation
- foraging
- food
- medicine
- mycoremediation
- mycomaterials
As part of this we will have talks, workshops, art, a social event and a market. There will be food for sale (including vegan options).
MYCOmmunity is a not-for-profit organisation. All proceeds from the festival will go to cover costs, to next year's festival or to local citizen science projects such as monitoring fungi in Wombat Forest.
Program
*May be subject to change
Speakers
Alison Pouliot is an ecologist with a passion for fungi. Her journeys in search of fungi span northern and southern hemispheres, ensuring two autumns and a double dose of fungi each year. As scientist and photographer, author and someone who roams the forest daily, Alison delves deep into the realm of fungi through multiple lenses. She has presented over 700 seminars, workshops and forays across a dozen countries. Alison is actively involved in fungal conservation, research and teaching, and is author of The Allure of Fungi, Underground Lovers (due March 2023) and co-author of Wild Mushrooming. For more information www.alisonpouliot.
Sarah Lloyd is a naturalist with a lifelong love of birds and a 35-year interest in documenting flora, fauna and funga, focusing particularly on the species that inhabit the forest that surrounds her home in northern Tasmania. She writes regularly for various publications, and has written natural history books about different regions of Tasmania, including Takayna Tarkine, Blue Tier, Black Sugarloaf, and the Great Western Tiers. She was on the inaugural Committee of Fungimap Inc., and it was through Fungimap that she was introduced to slime moulds, the myxomycetes.
In 2010 Sarah started searching for myxomycetes (myxos) in the forest at Birralee, which has proven to be far richer than she could ever have imagined. After 15 years of collecting for her private herbarium and the National Herbarium of Melbourne, she has amassed over 2500 specimens representing 174 taxa, including six ‘new’ species, one new genus and many others awaiting description.
In this presentation, Sarah will explain why slime moulds have baffled scientists and naturalists for centuries, describe their life cycle, where to find them, and how to collect, store and deposit specimens at local herbaria. With the growing awareness about the importance of healthy soils, Sarah is keen to highlight their ecological importance, and that slime mould amoebae can dominate the soil microbiota in functioning ecosystems. As has been revealed through Sarah’s work, Australian myxomycetes are clearly different to their northern hemisphere ‘twins’, and it is only a matter of time before researchers (mostly from Europe) will turn their attention to Australia’s myxo diversity.
Sarah shares her work via her website, Instagram and iNaturalist:
https://sarahlloydmyxos.wordpress.com
https://www.instagram.com/sarah.lloyd.tasmania/
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?taxon_id=47684&user_id=sarahlloyd&verifiable=any
Dr. Vivian Sandoval is an entomologist passionate for the taxonomy and biology of insects associated with fungi, such as leaf-cutter ants and mycetobiont beetles. Vivian works for the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries with market access and fruit fly post-harvest disinfestation research. In her spare time, Vivian is foraging for fungi in order to study the complex biology of their inhabitants, with the support of the QLD Mycological Society. She is also the artist behind "Bugs and Beads", a gift shop specialised in insect/fungi inspired accessories, jewellery, stationary and educational resin blocks. Vivian wants to increase appreciation for insects and fungi, raise awareness, change negative perceptions and entomophobia with her products.
| LinkedIn
Subashini Chathumini Jayasiri
Subashini Chathumini Jayasiri is a dedicated mycologist with over 10 years of experience in fungal research and scientific publishing. Her work focuses on fungal diversity, fungi in fruits and seeds, their applications in agriculture, plant pathology, and molecular biology.
She earned her PhD in Mycology in 2019 from Mae Fah Luang University, Thailand, where she conducted pioneering research on fungi in wild seeds and fruits. Her efforts led to the discovery and publication of 54 novel fungal species from this underexplored ecological group — a remarkable contribution, accounting for approximately 18% of the 300 new species introduced worldwide from wild seeds and fruits to date. She strongly believes these species hold great potential for future research and applications.
Profiles:
Diversity, Morphology, and Molecular Phylogeny of Dothideomycetes on Decaying Wild Seed Pods and Fruits
Dothideomycetes is one of the largest and most diverse class of ascomycetes. While its members have been reported from various plant parts, there has been relatively little research on their presence in wild seed pods and fruits. Dothideomycetes can be seed-borne or colonize fruits and seed pods after they fall to the ground.
In this study, we investigated Dothideomycetes associated with wild fruits and seed pods, primarily in Thailand (tropical), with additional observations from China (temperate) and the UK (temperate). I described new taxa and analyzed significant phylogenetic relationships within this group.
Mushroom Growing in the Classroom
Luke Vaughan is a taxonomist with a passion for observing and documenting fungi. Luke is a research assistant at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria and is undertaking a Master of BioSciences at the University of Melbourne. His MSc research is focused on the systematics of the genus Peziza, which are a group of cup-forming fungi that typically occur on sandy soils and in disturbed habitats, such as on charcoal after bushfires, and have spectacular morphological features under the microscope. Luke will present some of his research, which includes molecular phylogenetics, applied for the first time to this group in Australia, and bright field microscopy of preserved fungarium specimens and fresh collections. Some of the publications Luke has contributed to can be found at ResearchGate https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Luke-Vaughan-3
Jessica Lazner is a research student of botany and mycology, having recently gained experience in fungal taxonomy at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria as a recipient of the Jim Willis Studentship. She is passionate about cryptogram diversity broadly and is currently completing Honours research on bryophyte developmental genetics. Also interested in the philosophy of science, Jessica is fascinated by the human aspect of biological discovery and knowledge - from herbarium collections and citizen science to cultural factors that shape research.
Topic: Describing fungal diversity through the help of citizen science records: Emergence of a rare northern hemisphere genus in the south.
Queering Mushrooms
With Nevo and Mush
An interactive workshop and discussion space to explore different texts and prompts around the relationship between queerness and fungi. Feel free to bring your own! There will be tea and snacks.
Melvin Xu Researcher at University of Melbourne on Entomopathogenic fungi, Vice President & volunteer at MYCOmmunity and Coordinator of the Fungi Group of Field Naturalist Club Victoria.
The relationship between Orchid and their fungal partners are crucial to their survival, Orchids seeds are not able to germinate due to their lack of available nutrients, this is where fungi play a crucial role providing accessible nutrients for the Orchid seeds when the environment is suitable.
Working in Council, Landcare, and volunteer groups, begun his home propagation from his own Australian Native Terrestrial Orchids. With his own stock of fungi and seeds hope to develop new protocols to include fungi into local nursery and future conservation of native Orchids.
Emily McIntyre is a graduate of a Masters of Ecosystem Management and Conservation, where her thesis explored the effect of biotic and environmental variables on soil fungi across an elevational gradient. She is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Melbourne, where she is studying the diversity and ecology of hypogeous fungi in south-eastern Australia. Her research explores the distribution and diversity of these fungi and their mutualistic relationship with the endangered Long-Footed Potoroo. She is also currently undertaking research through MYCOmmunity's Wild Fungi DNA Project to examine the effect of storm damage on soil fungi within Wombat Forest.
Emily is most interested in learning about the interactions that fungi have with plants, animals, and abiotic factors, to better understand how ecosystems function.
Caine Barlow is a Fungi Educator and Mycologist based in Melbourne, Australia. He gives regular talks on mycology, fungi conservation, and teaches gourmet mushroom cultivation. He works closely with the Australian organisations Entheogenesis Australis, the Australian Psychedelic Society, and is a co-founder of US-based organisation The Entheome Foundation. Caine is also a mentor for Milkwood Permaculture for their online Mushroom Cultivation course.
Caine started foraging mushrooms in the early 1990's, started cultivating gourmet fungi in the mid 2000's, and has been teaching mushroom cultivation in person since 2017. He did his Bachelor of Science at the University of Tasmania, and a Master of Science at the University of Melbourne where his research project was based around Conservation Mycology.
He has written for Entheogenesis Australis, DoubleBlind, ThirdWave, MicroDose, and Healing Maps. Caine is currently working on a book project, expected to be released soon! He is an admin and moderator on many Facebook fungi groups. In addition to fungi, he has had a long-term interest in ethnobotany, ethnobotanical literature, and growing medicinal plants. Caine posts regularly on his Instagram, @guerrillamycology. His website is www.guerrillamycology.com
Jeremy Hegge (he/him) is a citizen scientist and amateur mycologist based in Naarm/Melbourne.
In 2024, Jeremy will run over 140 mushroom identification & ecology walks across the Naarm/Melbourne area through Partial Veil (https://partialveil.com) and will be continuing walks throughout 2025. Jeremy adopts a slow and researched approach to identification with a strong focus on understanding current taxonomy and an interest in global foraging practices. Although he is interested in sustainable mushroom foraging, his main interest is to document and share his enthusiasm for the wonderful biodiversity of the fungal kingdom.
He is an active contributor to iNaturalist with over 8K observations and more than 14K fungi identifications. He also helps moderate several large fungi identification groups on social media and has identified countless mushrooms over the years.
I am Feresh Pizarro, the founder of South Spore. South Spore is a sustainable off-grid mushroom farm near Robe, SA. We love educating people about the amazing and often ignored capacities of fungi! We believe fungi are the missing link for solving many of our biggest problems. Our mission is to sustainably cultivate gourmet and medicinal mushrooms and be a portal for people to learn about this Queendom. For more information, please visit our website at southspore.com.au or follow us on Instagram at _south_spore or on Facebook's South Spore page.
Fran La Fontaine is a highly experienced science laboratory technician with a career spanning 30+ years across areas of research, tertiary and secondary science education. At university (RMIT), she gained a unique biology degree featuring units in plant pathology, applied mycology and medical mycology. A growing love of fungi and subsequent work at RMIT saw her assist in developing the practical component of Melbourne’s first Applied Mycology short course. Fran is skilled in microscopy techniques and fungal culture, with particular personal interest in microfungi (such as soil fungi, and those that cause plant disease). She is excited to share with you the fascinating ‘inner-inner’ workings of mushrooms through the microscope lens at her Festival workshops.
Event coordinator
Ema Corro (she/her) is the main organiser of the Moorabool Mushroom Festival. She is also president and co-founder of MYCOmmunity.
Ema is a mycologist with experience in mushroom cultivation, myco-materials, environmental science and ecology. She also has extensive experience with community engagement and science communication. She regularly teaches courses and workshops on various aspects of mycology including science, cultivation and identification. She is coordinator of the Wild Fungi Project which aims to increase knowledge of Australian fungi by engaging citizen scientists in collecting and sequencing mushrooms, as well as developing environmental DNA techniques to monitor pest and endangered fungi.