“By the time you can actually see that fungus, it’s already done the damage on the tree inside,” explained Jake from Jake’s Tree Lopping Services.

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“We all love trees, but sometimes they can become an incredible hazard.

“I have seen inside fungus-bearing trees before, they are all rotted and decayed.

“Trees with visible fungi are likely to fail, fall over, snapping near the fungus.”

Recent weather caused several trees around properties and arterial roads on the Myall Coast to fall over, more often than not being eucalypts or other sclerophyll trees.

The fallen tree that blocked along Myall Way in both directions during recent storms was uprooted, proving the shallowness of the roadside soil in which it was growing.

Inspections along the Myall Way yielded some concerning results.

One gum tree in particular currently houses two large fungus pods, both larger than a human head, and both potentially symptomatic of internal structural damage.

The Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney identifies several common tree diseases, a fungus called Ganoderma among them, which is often known by its more common name ‘brackets disease’.

“Ganoderma is an important decomposer of logs and stumps but it also colonises wounds, and can cause decay of sapwood and heartwood in roots, butts and trunks of trees,” explains the Gardens’ website.

“It affects native tree species such as acacias, eucalypts, figs and beech, as well as many introduced species such as oaks, elms, ash and some conifers, and produces distinctive, shelf-like fruiting structures or brackets.”

They are most commonly found on stumps or near the base of living trees, often at the site of an old wound.

Residents are cautioned by experts to inspect trees in and around their properties, especially those that sit near or overhang driveways, emergency evacuation paths or power lines.

By Thomas O’KEEFE