Nicholas Gale takes us on a herping adventure from Melbourne
west to South Australia.
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or me, there are always three key steps to a
successful herping trip:
Picking a target species.
Researching and planning in order to have
the best chance of encountering the target
species.
Sending daily messages to my mate and
fellow herper and keeper Dan Mangano in an
attempt to convince him to drive me some-
where ridiculous to find a small brown skink
(or something similar).
On this particular occasion, I rolled out of bed on a
rather sunny Saturday in excited anticipation of
what the next couple of days would hold. I waited
for what seemed like an eternity for Dan to pick me
up, and after a couple of wrong turns we were on
the road to our first destination, stopping only briefly
to pick up some last minute supplies and to admire
the beauty of the Giant Koala of Dadswell Bridge!
Later we passed through Horsham (Victoria’s tidiest
town in 2016 – who would’ve thought?), and then
found our first herp, in the form of a dead Shingle-
back (Tiliqua rugosa). We were both disappointed
to see this absolutely beautiful, yellowish liz ard
squashed on the road, and were soon to discover
that Shinglebacks would be the most commonly
encountered species over the duration of our trip.
We had arrived at our first area of interest, being
Mount Arapiles-Tooan State Park. I had vaguely
sussed out the road using Google Earth (Herping
Hack 101), but was still unsure where we could find
our target species. We first explored a more
wooded area; smaller skinks including Ragged
Snake-eyed Skinks (Cryptoblepharus pannosus)
were running around fallen logs, and we also saw a
few Boulenger’s Skinks (Morethia boulengeri).
Opting to search for more favourable habitat for
small dragon species, we drove further up the road
and eventually found a nice dune-covered verge
that was worth investigating. Almost immediately we
began to spot darting shadows out of the corners of
our eyes – we had found the right area! Getting up
close to these lizards would prove to be a chal-
lenge, however, as we barely saw them for more
than a second or so. Dan stumbled across an
animal that wasn’t quite so speedy; another
Shingleback. We got some phone photos of the
lizard, which was missing some digits from one of
its front legs.
After walking for another half an hour so we had still
not managed to get a good view of any dragons. I
had chased what I thought was a Painted Dragon,
only for it to turn out to be an Eastern Striped Skink
(Ctenotus orientalis). Small skinks were again
relatively prolific, with large piles of sticks providing
refuge for many Common Dwarf Skinks (Menetia
greyii) and a new species for me, the Shrubland
Skink (Morethia obscura). Dan suggested that we
try a different track that we had passed before, and
on the walk back to the car we stopped to see the
Shingleback still basking in the same spot, without
having moved an inch. We hiked along the new
track without seeing anything of interest other than
more Shrubland Skinks. Finally, I caught sight of
something moving behind a small bush. A beautiful
male Painted Dragon (Ctenophrous pictus) in full
breeding colours was sitting on the sand at the side
of the track. I called Dan over, and soon we were
both gazing at the magnificent animal, trying to work
out how we could possibly get any closer to get
some better photos. As I began to creep towards
the dragon, it took off at full speed for a large
shrubby tree, hiding within the fallen twigs at its
base. Fifteen minutes later we were forced to admit
defeat as we couldn’t find the dragon again, so we
returned to the car. Only seconds after getting back
into the vehicle, another Painted Dragon an across
‘Almost immediately, we began
to spot darting shadows out of
the corners of our eyes.’
the road in front of us – almost deliberately taunting
us! Although we weren’t able to obtain any photos
of the lizards I was still quite content, as Painted
Dragons are not commonly seen this far south of
the Mallee. On the way out of the park I spotted
another Shingleback eating a dandelion on the side
of the road, and we quickly jumped out to get some
more phone shots.
We left Tooan with unfinished business, but we had
other things on our mind, namely food! The closest
town was Edenhope, but nothing was open.
Desperate, and running off merely Red Bull and
muesli bars, we finally crossed the border, and
arrived at the town of Naracoorte in the Limestone
Coast region of South Australia, where we managed
to locate a petrol station cafe. After indulging in
some local delicacies (potato cakes and chicken
rolls) we hit the road again in pursuit of another
dragon species. I had found a single record of the
Mallee Tree Dragon (Amphibolurus norrisi) within
one of the many reserves that make up the
Naracoorte Caves National Park. We began our
search at the end of a dirt road, the sides of which
were littered with tin and burnt-out cars. The tin only
concealed more of the small skink species we had
previously seen, along with some centipedes and
ants. Eventually we headed back to the car; sweaty,