Endangered frog jumps up in Corio backyard

Andrew Mathieson
A FROG facing extinction around Geelong’s waterways has found a home in a Corio backyard.
With the population of the endangered southern bell frog rapidly declining in the region, a Geelong conservation group has been restoring wetland habitats around the Barwon River over the past 12 months to bring the species back.
The growling frog has rarely been spotted or heard until it was discovered in the Corio backyard’s fish pond.
Resident Bev Cambridge believed a southern bell frog lived in the pond for six months from September before returning a month ago.
Ms Cambridge said a story in the Independent earlier this month alerted her to the frog’s endangered listing.
Banjo frogs, commonly referred to as a bullfrog, had also been living in her backyard for the past two summers, she said.
“Last summer I thought I was going silly because I could hear all these sounds and I thought it sounded like more than one frog,” Mrs Cambridge said.
“They were all the same at first but coming from different parts of the fish pond, kind of answering each other.
“All of a sudden I heard a growl and it was clearly different.”
Mrs Cambridge said she spoke to an expert from Melbourne Zoo last year who identified the growl as coming from a southern bell frog.
Her family first spotted the frog while lifting rocks and weeding the pond.
“We just covered everything up and we didn’t weed all winter because we didn’t know where they would be,” Ms Cambridge said.
Conservation Volunteers Geelong team leader Andrew Quick said the frogs could have migrated to their new backyard environment from nearby swamp area.
A Shell eco-volunteers group had been replicating the Barwon River plan to restore habitats along Hovells Creek, near Lara, he said.
“There were good wetlands out there in the old days but she (Ms Cambridge) has a good pond in her backyard, lives close enough to the country side and this pond is fairly available that they can get in there,” Mr Quick said.