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Town With Magic Mushroom Problem Has Unfortunate Tourism Slogan

"Experience the magic".
Balingup likes scarecrows, and each winter, magic mushrooms grow wild.
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Balingup likes scarecrows, and each winter, magic mushrooms grow wild.

Winter in the West Australian town of Balingup is a time for dewy walks among the pines, quaint antiques shopping and seriously hallucinogenic magic mushrooms.

The illegal fungus grows wild in forests and fields surrounding the town of 400 people.

They spring up every winter, prompting police to ramp up patrols in the area, but it can't help that the town's tourism slogan is "experience the magic".

Constable Jay Pereira told the ABC they'd been catching people harvesting the wild-growing fungus.

"We've experienced a fair few issues of late involving our local offenders in possession of or utilising magic mushrooms," Pereira said.

"We've amped up the attention we've been paying to the natural magic mushroom growing areas and we've been finding a fair few people in this area."

Balingup is also home to a rather trippy collection of scarecrow statues.

If you want to experience the magic for yourself, Balingup is two and a half hours south of Perth.

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