OK, I’ve done weeding, I’ve stacked three builders barrows of split wood (or was it four?). I’ve lit the woodheater and I’ve eaten some lunch. I’ve done some identifications on iNaturalist. The Great Aussie Fungi Hunt is in its last day tomorrow. We have exceeded 50,000 observations in the month. It’s been going since 2022. Last year there were 32,000 observations. Here is a short history from Fungimap:
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A Brief History
The origins of the Great Aussie Fungi Hunt can be traced back to the Great Aussie FungiQuest, launched in 2022 as a collaboration between Fungimap and QuestaGame. The project was described as Australia’s largest fungi bioblitz and aimed to encourage people nationwide to record fungi observations and contribute them to biodiversity databases.
The inaugural FungiQuest demonstrated the enormous appetite Australians have for learning about fungi and participating in citizen science. By 2023, nearly 2,000 participants had contributed more than 13,000 records representing over 1,100 species from across the country. These observations included rare species and even a fungus never previously documented in Australia.
Building on this success, Fungimap evolved the initiative into the Great Aussie Fungi Hunt, an annual national event centred around the iNaturalist platform. The Hunt continues to grow each year, attracting participants from every state and territory and generating tens of thousands of valuable biodiversity records.
In 2025 the Great Aussie Fungi Hunt had over 32,000 observations uploaded to iNaturalist from over 3,500 participants with over 1300 species recorded.
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Anyway, I’m going to siesta now for a bit.