Thanks so much for your help everyone – Roy Halling confirms it’s eating wood which is what I am after at the end of the day.
Great website too… so glad I found it.

So the spore colour was described to me as “just a boring medium brown”, so that casts some doubt on Conocybe.

I am sticking with Psathyrella as the most likely identity until someone suggests something more fitting, or puts up a good argument against Psathyrella.

Amanda, would you describe the spores as rusty brown, chocolate brown, purple brown, light or dark brown..?

As for Descolea, I don’t see the resemblance.

for the pics from WA! Descolea has a skirt-like partial veil, and is a ECM (ectomycorrhizal) genus. Amanda mentioned the stipe got bent, so that’s not a veil in image 1,2. I think all images are of the same conocyboid thing.

Species of Descolea belong in the Cortinariaceae family.

I do agree that pics 3 and 4 look like a Conocybe. but the first two Descolea, maybe. Pholiotina; I could probably get talked into accepting. But Psathyrella… doesn’t look right.

Are Descolea saprotrophic?

I can’t agree. The first two pics show something that is neither Psathyrella nor Stropharia – I think it’s Descolea.
As for the fourth pic this seems to be a classic Conocybe and is another mushroom than the first two….
But they are all saprotrophic so who cares?

These look like Psathyrella to me as well.

Stropharia are not nearly so delicate, they tend to have a tough,fibrous rather than brittle, watery stipe. Definitely not Stropharia.

Conocybe or Pholiotina look similar to this, but the overall colour is more orange, especially the lamelle.

and the fourth one really the same?

this looks like a Conocybe/Pholiotina thing or Stropharia … a very difficult group of mushrooms and impossible to determine by the naked eye unless you are an expert dealing solely with this groups