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Bendigo Creek Holds a Rare Surprise

7 Feb 2008

It may come as a surprise to many, but the Bendigo Creek provides some extremely important habitat. Recently, a lively and somewhat noisy population of the threatened Growling Grass Frogs was discovered in the Creek.

The Bendigo Creek that many residents see is the concrete and bluestone channel that runs through the centre of Bendigo. However, travelling a bit further down stream things start to change. The channel becomes more natural and the habitat improves; by the time you reach Huntly the creek has some pockets of quite important habitat. 

Leigh Mitchell, Regional Waterwatch Coordinator said that the North Central Catchment Management Authority's Waterwatch program has developed a successful community based frog monitoring program to help identify remaining populations of threatened frog species. 

"The program, which is co-sponsored by Coliban Water and the City of Greater Bendigo, trains community members to identify frogs by their mating call". 

"This recent find of Growling Grass Frogs is fantastic. Initially, when the community monitor reported that they had found Growling Grass Frogs in Bendigo Creek we were very surprised, the species hasn't been recorded in the creek for about 15 years". 

"It's difficult to say whether this population has been there the whole time, undetected, or maybe it's a new population. Regardless, it's just great that they are there," said Leigh.

Once very common, the Growling Grass frog is now rare throughout its range especially in north central Victoria. It is listed as threatened under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988, with populations declining steadily over the past few decades. 

"They're quite a large frog, reaching about 10cm long as an adult, and are quite distinctive with their green and gold markings and characteristic growling noise, which can be heard during their mating season," said Leigh.

Leigh added that this is the second -significant threatened species find - the first was the Eltham Copper butterfly in Bendigo National Park - in the Bendigo area within a month. Both finds were the result of enthusiastic community members investigating the natural environment.

"These significant finds demonstrate that anyone has the ability to help conserve our precious native biodiversity".

"The information we provide to the community, through our range of biodiversity education and monitoring programs, is providing people who are interested in threatened species with the skills needed to make such positive and important contributions such as this" said Leigh.

For more information about the North Central Waterwatch frog monitoring program, please contact the North Central CMA on 5448 7124.


For further information please contact: 

Communications Officer, North Central CMA
PO Box 18, Huntly VIC 3551
t: 03 5448 7124
e: info@nccma.vic.gov.au

 

 

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