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.

Mackellar has or used to have 28 threatened animals within its boundaries. One of them is me, the Giant Burrowing Frog.

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 Burrowing Frog

Heleioporus australiacus

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

Heleioporus australiacus is found across 39 electorates.

The Giant Burrowing Frog is a rotund frog with muscular forearms and hindlimbs, growing to about 95 mm. Its back colouring is quite variable, ranging from steely blue-grey to black and dark chocolate brown. Varying degrees of white/yellowish spots can occur on the sides in all populations. The species is always white below with some brown on the throat. It has a yellowish splash in the armpits, and a flap of skin at the anterior corner of the eyes. Adult males have warts capped by black spines on the back and sides. This species eyes are prominent and large.¹

Explore more about this species on the Atlas of Living Australia

Adverse fire regimes