Early Bird Discount for Fungimap 7 Conference Closing Soon

Only 10 weeks to go until Fungimap 7!

Registrations for Fungimap 7 are selling out fast - make sure to get in before Easter to secure the Early Bird discounted prices (closes 28 March at 5pm). Another reason to get in early - some of the workshops are almost full so make sure you get your first preferences by booking now; Simone Louwhoff's workshop on lichen identification and Roy Halling's workshop on boletes are proving especially popular.

We’re excited to announce that Professor Tim Entwisle, the new Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne will open the Fungimap 7 Conference on May 24th. Professor Entwisle is an expert in freshwater algae, and has a special history with Fungimap, having provided advice and comments during the production of the FNCV Fungi Kit. He is also an exceptional science communicator, former Executive Director of the Botanic Gardens Trust, Sydney, and former Director of Conservation, Living Collections and Estates, at Kew Gardens, London. We are looking forward to hearing his global perspective and insights into the future of Australian fungi!

Other new additions to the Fungimap 7 program include ‘Target Species Bingo’ on Thursday night to kick us off for the weekend - brush up on your skills in recognising the target species to dominate the competition and win some great prizes. We’ve also got some fascinating student presentations happening on Sunday night, including Rebecca Le Get from LaTrobe University who will talk about the relationship between prior land use and mushroom diversity, as well as a brief talk by the Tarra Bulga Parks Victoria Ranger during Monday’s foray. 

Victoria has finally received some rain! We hope you’re getting rain where you are too, to bring out the fungi!

From top-left: Three species likely to be seen this year at Rawson:  Amanita muscaria, Calostoma fuscum, and Mycena interrupta. Images provided under Creative Commons 3.0 Australia : CC-BY-SA - Attribution Share-Alike.

Fungimap VII preparations begin

Fungimap conference: Fungimap VII preparations begin

Although it's not until May 2013, Fungimap Coordinators Blanche Higgins and Alena Moison began preparations for the 7th biannual Fungimap conference last week with a trip to Rawson, Victoria to scope out the conference location and meet the very friendly staff of the Rawson Village Holiday Resort (http://www.rawsonvillage.com/).


Rawson is about a 2.5 hour drive northeast of Melbourne, near to the historic town of Walhalla and about a half hour from Mount Baw Baw. (For those of you who won't be driving up, buses will be arranged to meet trains from Melbourne at Moe). Luckily for us it was the perfect day to enjoy the rural beauty of West Gippsland, though we're assured it will be all wet by May!





The conference will include a full day foray into the Tarra-Bulga National Park, where some common fungi  include: Amauroderma rude, Australoporus tasmanicus, Calostoma rodwayi, Plectania campylospora, Stereum ostrea, Tremella fuciformis, Vibrissea dura, and Xerula radicata.

Conference registrations will open in February but you can register your interest now here: http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/fungimap/events-and-activities/fungimap-conference/fungimap-7

Or see the conference program as it develops here:
http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/fungimap/events-and-activities/fungimap-conference/fungimap-vii

Fungimap 7 is jointly organised by Fungimap and the Field Naturalist Club of Victoria (www.fncv.org.au), and we are grateful for the support of the Norman Wettenhall Foundation (www.nwf.org.au/) .