A food safety expert has likened gathering wild mushrooms to a game of Russian roulette, following the sudden deaths of three people who attended an ill-fated lunch party in Victoria.
Lydia Buchtmann, spokesperson for Food Safety Information Council, described foraging for mushrooms as "extremely risky" and likely to end with someone unwittingly eating a highly toxic death cap or yellow-staining mushroom and dying.
"I've sat down with mushroom experts and we can't tell the difference between a death cap mushroom and a safe mushroom, because they look different at different stages of their growth," Buchtmann told 9news.com.au.
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Although death caps appear very similar to common mushrooms people buy from supermarkets, they are lethal, she said.
"As little as a teaspoon can kill you, and there really is no cure."
Some people who ingest the toxins are given an organ transplant but even that last-ditch life-saving effort is often futile.
"So our advice, absolutely, is not to pick or eat wild mushrooms at all because you cannot tell the difference," Buchtmann said.
Death caps are considered the most poisonous mushrooms in the world and one is enough to kill an adult human.
After eating the yet-to-be-identified mushrooms at the lunch in South Gippsland, sisters Heather Wilkinson and Gail Patterson died in hospital on Friday and Patterson's husband Don, 70, died on Saturday.
A fourth person, 68-year-old pastor Ian Wilkinson, is fighting for his life in hospital.
Victorian police said today they are unsure if the poisoning was a crime or an accident. Investigations are continuing.
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It's not the first time deaths as a result of mushroom poisoning have hit the headlines.
In 2012 two people died after eating poisonous mushrooms at a New Year's Eve dinner party in Canberra.
That fateful meal was prepared by a trained culinary chef Liu Jun, 38, who had mistakenly misidentified the species.
Death cap mushrooms are not native to Australia.
Originating in Europe, it's believed the death cap spread to other continents, including Australia, through the shipping of timber and live seedlings around the world.
Buchtmann warned that people born overseas, especially in Asia, should be aware that these deadly mushrooms can look like edible mushrooms regularly gathered in their home countries.
The mushroom is common in the Canberra area, but is also found in Victoria and has been spotted in Tasmania and Adelaide.
Death caps can appear at any time of year, and are often found near oak trees growing in warm wet weather.
Symptoms of poisoning, which usually appear 10 to 16 hours after eating, include vomiting, diarrhoea and stomach cramps.
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The symptoms may ease for several days, lulling victims into a false sense of security, before a terminal phase of three to four days begins.
Without early and effective medical intervention, people may go into a coma and die after suffering two to three weeks of liver and kidney failure.
Other wild mushrooms in Australia can cause serious illness and have caused fatalities.
These include the Cortinarius and Galerina species, the ghost mushroom - which is commonly mistaken for oyster mushrooms - and the yellow-stainer which resembles a field mushroom.
The yellow-stainer is the most commonly ingested poisonous mushroom in Victoria and New South Wales.
If you suspect anyone has eaten a poisonous mushroom don't wait for symptoms to occur. Go to a hospital emergency department taking the mushroom with you if you can.
You can also contact the Poisons Information Centre from anywhere in Australia on 13 11 26.
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