According to police, Perth university students make most mushroom-seeking trips to Balingup, following maps posted on university websites.

Police regularly patrol Balingup’s known magic mushroom areas.

Last week they conducted an operation with police from Nannup and Bridgetown. The Mail joined one of these operations to learn more about how police handle the problem.

On Thursday night police set up a roadblock to breath test drivers and check for any indications that drivers were under the influence of drugs.

Senior Constable Becky Breedveld said locals had reported a lot of cars parked on a road near one of the mushroom patches on Wednesday night.

“Magic mushrooms” —also known as Psilocybin mushrooms — contain the chemicals psilocybin and psilocin, which can cause hallucinations.

People high on mushrooms typically experience symptoms such as seeing disjointed colours or thinking they could fly, she added. They usually stayed overnight because the psilocybin dissipated from the mushroom shortly after picking.

Most of the magic mushroom areas were on fenced-off DEC-control-led land — but police patrols often found the fence cut to allow car access.

While a number of people have been charged by Donnybrook, Bridgetown and Bunbury police, the area was not as busy as it had been in the past seasons, police said.

The typical penalty for people found to be in possession of magic mushrooms was a fine of upwards of $250, depending on the quantity.

When a person appeared to be under the influence of psilocybin, police either took them home or for medical treatment, rather than leaving them out in the forest.

Magic mushroom pickers may also be charged with trespass or disorderly behaviour in public.

Balingup local Roz Benson said there seemed to be fewer mushroom pickers this year.

“I’d say the police have done a good job,” she said.

Mushrooms pickers had broken down fences going into the forest, and she suspected one had lit a fire from a pile of old timber recently.

“They throw rubbish down and just don’t respect the landscape,” Ms Benson said. “They must all be dingbats, because they’re driving around in the cold.”

Except for when mushroom pickers broke the fence down right across from her driveway, she didn’t see a lot of them, Ms Benson said.

“At one stage you’d get up in the morning and there’d be 20 cars — but the police have done a good job in cutting numbers down,” she said.