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Sounds like a Starfish Fungus to me,
David.
Not uncommon, just weird.
If you had go up close and personal with it,
you would have noticed a faecal smell, which is how it attracts blow flies as
its spore disseminators of choice.
I have written about it on my Blog "The
Nature of Robertson".
It is a favourite with photographers as it
is quite remarkable.
Do a Google image search
for "Aseroe rubra"
Wikipedia says it has a place in history as:
"The first native Australian fungus
to be formally described, Aseroe rubra was collected in 1800 in southern
Tasmania and named by the French botanist Jacques Labillardière."
It is also one which we have managed to
export back to Europe (Kew Gardens no less), and also to
California.
In my opinion, this is a paltry effort on
our part, to counterbalance the number of weedy plants and fungi and pest
animals we have received from them.
Cheers
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