Armillaria sp.

With those deep purple tones on the stem (stipe) and the colour of the cap (pileus) at the base of the ornamentation being blue in the younger specimens and then showing more red/lilac tones on the older one, I would be thinking Cortinarius! There are some species in this genus with hairy, scaly and fibrilose ornamentation on the caps. Also the fact that on the tips of those clusters on what appears to be the older specimen the colour is more brown than on the younger ones. This may be an indication of dispersed spores settling there.

Cortinarius are you sure ?, I thought Cortinarius grew in earth, this was growing on timber. Could it be a Pluteus sp.

After further investigation I am suggesting Armillaria hinnulea.
Armillaria hinnulea is a species of mushroom found only in Australia and New Zealand. It is a secondary pathogen (i.e., causing disease only after a primary pathogen has damaged the host) of wet native forests. It appears first as an immature mushroom with a rounded blackish rough cap and a thick white stalk. The stalk is covered with white fibres and is bulbous at the base. A fine cortina (cobweb-like partial veil) extends from the cap margins to the stipe.
Mature specimens of Armillaria hinnulea have flattened brown to olive-green caps with a dark granular material on the centres. Gills and stipes are a pale cream.

Didn't realise the substrate was wood, thought it was mossy ground - sorry about that. It's not an Armillaria and defintely not A. hinnulea - I know this species well and am fairly well across the other Australian/NZ species. The ornamentation on the pileus of that species is 'gritty' and not in those clumps of upright squamules, stipe is different, the colours don't correlate either. It's not Pluteus cervinus - again pileus surface, colours and general morpholgy. Did you by any chance get an image of the gills (lamellae) or note their colour or any spore colour? It did have lamellae and not pores? The micro characteristics of Pluteus tend to be very distinctive. I think you were much closer with your macro characters to Psathyrella (eg P. echinata - however again it's the wrong colour!!) There's a Gymnopus that grows on the bark of living trees and larger pieces of wood that has some of the characteristics of your species. Inocybe grows on wood at times as well!! All of this is guestimation of course, so unless you can look at some spores to get a positive id to genus at least for taxonomic integrity of the site at this stage I feel it would be wiser to stick with 'Agaric'. Then when a specimen can be collected and forwarded to Michael Priest for identification. By the looks of it you potentially have something different and special on your hands. So that would be great to be lodged at DAR. When photographing try to get images of the fertile surface and at least note colour as this helps heaps when trying to id something from an image. Great find.

I'm going to disagree with you. Numerous listings on Mushroom Observer, Myco Portal and on Bowerbird all match as close as one can to images I have posted. Surely not everyone is incorrect. Your post/identification on Bowerbird June 2013, sighted April 2005,pretty much matches the image of the mature specimen I posted, except the annulus has depreciated. Question begs ??

So let me clarify your comment. Are you saying your image is that of an Armillaria hinnulea?

From investigations, I do think my images may well be that of Armillaria hinnulea. From what I can find there are quite a number of variations in this species, so one has to keep an open mind, as we have too with so many other fungi species also showing many variations within species. This is becoming more common as more people are getting out in the field and taking images and discovering that there are many more variations that what was once thought.

Sorry John I know this genus and your nominated species very well and your image does not even belong to this genus. I agree there can be variation within species however I'm also finding a great number of the 'variations' are just misidentifications! Do you need a copy of the description of this species? Otherwise just look up Armillaria species from south-eastern Australia by Kile & Watling inTransactions of The British Mycological Society 81(1) 131 1983.

As I know 100% that this is the immature specimen of the previous mature specimen posted I have no hesitation in confirming this at the genus level until positive ID is returned from the mycologist.

Shame you couldn't have let me know they were the immature specimen of the Entoloma sighting all of which had a variety of different names. Teresa with you experience with fungi I would have thought you could have picked an Armillaria no trouble at all, particularly after looking at the spores. Entoloma spores are pink and very distinctive in shape! Same with Pluteus micro characteristics. Also questions I asked to try and clarify, the ID, eg spore colour, were never answered! Hence, as I didn't really have a clue I stuck with "Agaric'. With your skill at looking at spores and your emphasis on looking at these I find this whole episode perplexing and the tone of some of the comments on this post and the 'Entoloma' post unprofessional.

If you knew the extenuating circumstances leading into all this you would be a lot more understanding!!! John has done a fantastic job on his own trying to keep this site afloat and I resent your attitude of late

Pam I think you NEED to reread some of my comments. You might well change your attitude if you do read them PROPERLY. I won't rehash them, however if you are a professional then some of your comments and inuendo leave a lot to be desired. In fact totally unaspiring indeed.

Which site are you talking about? I'm so sorry to gather from this that you are having problems down your way. Please let me know what's going on so I have a better understanding of the issues. John was putting up some fantastic images and I felt I was making positive and encourageing comments on those. Let's therefore put this all down to crossed communications and move on from here.