Central Coast Council is giving the endangered Green and Golden Bell Frog a helping hand by collecting and relocating tadpoles from the Bareena wetland to ponds at North Avoca, which were constructed by Council to provide additional habitat for the threatened species.

Council’s Environmental Management Unit Manager, Luke Sulkowski, said Council is able to undertake this sensitive work by operating under a special threatened species licence under the Biodiversity Conservation Act, 2016. 

“This licence enables Council to collect and relocate tadpoles from the wetland when lagoon openings coincide with frog breeding. Lagoon openings have the potential to negatively impact any tadpoles present in the wetland at the time of opening.  By doing this, Council, is also helping mitigate the reduction of the tadpole population when there is extreme wet weather that requires the lagoon to be opened to the ocean.” 

In 2019, there was a mass tadpole mortality event in the wetland that coincided with the breaching of the lagoon.

Mr Sulkowski said Council has only enacted the special licence three times since it was issued in 2020, the most recent being in February 2022, as the first of the year’s catastrophic floods was evolving. On this occasion, two trained Council staff collected between 4000-5000 tadpoles and metamorphs (tadpoles with legs which are morphing into frogs) and relocated these to nearby ponds, which were installed to provide additional habitat for the species. 

“While it was not possible to specifically identify the tadpoles that were recently collected, many of the metamorphs were confidently identified as Green and Golden Bell Frogs.  It is likely that a proportion of the tadpoles were also of this species, however there are other amphibians within the wetland such as the native Striped-marsh Frog, which have large, bulky tadpoles that look similar..”

Central Coast Council Administrator, Rik Hart, said the Green and Golden Bell Frog work is one positive story to come out of what has been a very challenging year. 

“While much of the Central Coast has felt the negative impacts of the consecutive La Nina events, they have actually proved favourable to the Green and Golden Bell Frog – with the species enjoying two successful breeding seasons.  The weather has been very good for frogs!”

Mr Sulkowski added the community is also able to get involved in future work to rehabilitate and restore habitat at Avoca Lagoon to support and protect the Green and Golden Bell Frog.

“With $300,000 in grant funding from the Australian Government, Council is already developing a detailed understanding of the population dynamics and habitat use of the species at North Avoca as well as developing plans for additional ponds in close proximity to the wetland.

“As part of this project, Council, in partnership with the University of Newcastle, will be facilitating community survey nights later in the year to help us count frogs within and surrounding Bareena Wetland.”  

For more information visit: Love our Waterways