Fungi workshops

Workshops are organised by SOLN and have been subsidised through funding from DEECA from the Victorian Landcare Grants program

Underground Lovers – Encounters with Fungi - Free

THURSDAY 20 APRIL, 18:00–19:30

The Kingdom Fungi is a kingdom of conundrums. Once overlooked, fungi are the exhilarating new poster organisms reconfiguring our understanding of the natural word and capturing the public imagination.

Underground Lovers is a captivating journey into the sensory realms of fungi. It’s told through first-hand stories – from the Australian desert to Iceland’s glaciers to America’s Cascade Mountains – where we encounter glowing ghost fungi and the enigma of the lobster mushroom. We’ll dwell with fungal allies and aliens, discover how fungi hold forests together, and why humans are deeply entwined with these unruly renegades of the subterranean world.

The book presents new questions and insights about fungi but is also an intimate celebration of their astonishing beauty and complexity. It melds science and personal reflection to explore overlooked themes, among them ­– fungi and fire, fungi and climate change, fungi and aesthetics, fungi in ecosystem restoration, and fungi and indigenous wisdom.

What can we learn from the lives of fungi? Underground Lovers brings us to our knees, magnifier in hand, to find out.

Join us for this Otways launch of Underground Lovers to hear some stories from Alison’s adventures during the writing of the book.

cuppa and cake included

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What’s that mushroom? - $65pp

FRIDAY 21 APRIL, 10:00–16:00

Fungi delight and intrigue and provide the connective network of terrestrial ecosystems. The forests of the Southern Otways harbour some of the most diverse and bizarre fungi in the country. This workshop introduces participants to the diversity, ecology and curiosities of the Kingdom Fungi, specific to fungi found in the Otways region but also within wider Australian and global contexts.

It will include an interactive session on the basics of fungus identification where participants will get to handle, examine and identify various fungi. Participants will also learn to recognise the various diagnostic characteristics used to identify fungi in the field. Fungi will be explored in regard to their ecology and conservation as well as cultural aspects such as edibility and toxicity.

We will then partake in an exciting foray through various local ecosystems to search for species of interest. Supplementary notes are also provided.

lunch and hot drinks included

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Southern Otways Fungus Survey – Fungus Identification and Survey Training Day - $40pp

SATURDAY 22 APRIL, 10:00–16:00

The fungi of the Otways forests are little known. Only very scant and mostly anecdotal records exist. Fungi are an important part of these forests in creating and stabilising soils, nourishing and interconnecting plants, as a food supply for animals, recycling nutrients and essentially underpinning their health and resilience. Effective forest 'management' should ideally include fungi.

This aim of the training day is to equip participants with the basic principles and protocols for surveying fungi in the field. Participants can then further develop their skills with the newly formed Otway Mushroom and Fungi Group to become leaders in engaging the wider community to partake in fungus surveying. Data collected from the surveys will provide a baseline for ongoing monitoring in the Southern Otways and a more comprehensive picture of the biodiversity of the region.

lunch and hot drinks included