Elected representatives in government are in charge of the policy and funding that can make or break saving threatened species. Their decisions and actions matter.

Bass has or used to have 24 threatened animals within its boundaries. One of them is me, the Giant Freshwater Crayfish.

We took care to attach appropriate images that are as close to representative of each species as our resources and the availability of images allowed. However, we could not ensure perfect accuracy in every case. Some images show species that share the same genus but not at the species or subspecies level.

Giant Freshwater Crayfish

Astacopsis gouldi

Status: Vulnerable

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) lists threatened species under six categories:
Extinct, Extinct in the wild, Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, Conservation dependent. Read more about these categories

Astacopsis gouldi is found across 3 electorates.

The Giant Freshwater Crayfish is the largest freshwater invertebrate in the world. The species has been reported to grow up to 6 kg but, currently, animals weighing 2–3 kg are considered large. In general, females weigh about 500 g with a carapace length of 12 cm and males weigh around 300 g and have a CPL of 7.6 cm. Adults range from dark brown-green to black or blue. The species is spiny and has distinct chelae, walking legs, carapace and abdomen ending in a tail fan. Males have larger pincers than females. The pincers are brown with greenish tips and the tubucles and spines are yellow.¹

Explore more about this species on the Atlas of Living Australia

Changed surface and groundwater regimes