Alison Pouliot was the keynote speaker for Fungi Feastival

Dr Pouliot is an ecologist, photographer, author and a renowned authority on the science of fungi.

She has conducted more than 700 workshops and seminars around the world so it was a real coup to have her speak in Central Tilba on Friday, June 30.

Dr Pouliot said that Australia is amid a fungus awakening and shifting from its fungus-phobic past.

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Europe, in contrast, has a long and enduring love affair with mushrooms, ranging from the famous truffle hunters of France and Italy to "the kookiest group of people" Dr Pouliot met in Switzerland 25 years ago, mushroom inspectors.

"There are 409 mushroom inspection offices and 1500 mushroom inspectors in a country half the size of Tasmania," Dr Pouliot told the riveted audience.

To qualify each year, the inspectors must identify 70 different toxic and non-toxic mushrooms with 100 per cent accuracy.

They use all their senses to identify the species of mushrooms.

With their eyes closed, they chip away at the base of the mushroom and then sniff the mushrooms.

"They work out the species from what smells it doesn't have," she said.

They explore the texture of the mushroom with their hands, put a small bit of mushroom on their tongue to detect further clues and even listen to the sound of the mushroom as they break its base.

Dr Pouliot likes to ask workshop attendees about their interest in fungi.

One woman was a crime fiction writer looking for a mushroom to kill a philandering husband and another was a choreographer developing a work based on the wood wide web, the name coined for the intricate relationship between trees and fungi.

A nonagenarian harboured a secret interest in psychedelic mushrooms while one man responded that the mushrooms had told him to come.

Fungi are being used to make things.

A fashion designer in Melbourne is using mycelium, the root-like system of mushrooms, as an alternative to leather.

"Mylo is cheaper, has much less of a footprint, is durable and easy to work with," Dr Pouliot said.

Another Australian is manufacturing fire-resistant bricks from mycelium and Scandinavians have made furniture from 3D-printed mycelium for more than 10 years.

Dr Pouliot said it had been an amazing 20 to 30 years for growing the world's understanding of fungi and the vital role they play in conservation.

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