2024 Mini-conference
Program
7pm 4th July 2024, Elgin Inn, Hawthorn

After being inspired again and again by others amazing frog posters, such as 'Frogs of Ecuador' or 'Frogs of Darwin' I thought...what better way to spread awareness for Victorian frog diversity than lumping them all together on a big poster! So I did just that. I put my creative mind, photography skills and passion for frogs to work, and created a photographic poster to the frogs of Victoria! (And you might be able to buy one at the conference! - ed)

​

@MattClancy94   |   @clancy_wildlife

​

Matt is a zoologist and wildlife photographer with an interest in herpetology (especially frogs) and threatened species conservation. 

Catchment Management Authorities and Melbourne Water are teaming up with Kirsten Parris to focus on frog monitoring in October across Victoria. We will be focusing our efforts on the Growling Grass frog and Banana Box Frog. I'll walk you through the project and and want to hear from you on questions and feedback on the project.

​

Justine works in citizen science across Victoria, coordinating the EstuaryWatch and WaterWatch program. She is eager to collect meaningful citizen science data about frogs that will benefit researchers. Although she is new to the world of amphibians, she thrives on collaborating with communities and organisations to channel their enthusiasm toward achieving better health and environmental outcomes. Justine’s work has led her to live and work in Perth, Canberra, Tonga, Broome, Melbourne, Central Queensland and now in Torquay. Justine spends most of her spare time surfing and gardening and contemplating how to maximise the impact of citizen science.

The structure of the Growling Grass Frog call is very complex, with several separate elements. This talk will examine the structure of this call and discuss the various elements - how they differ and what is the purpose of each element.

The talk will show how the elements can be differentiated using software such as RavenPro​

​

Jeff Hughes is a Senior Lecturer in Chemistry and Environmental Science within the School of Sciences at RMIT University. In recent years he has coupled his expertise in the physical sciences with a passion for frogs, recently having supervised PhD graduate Brendan Casey who undertook much of the work being presented.  

Habitat destruction and fragmentation is making it more difficult for frogs to survive and thrive. In a wealthy country like Australia we can do much better. Some ideas on how to protect habitat.

​

Sue is a campaigner, wildlife carer, and field naturalist.

Infection with the pervasive amphibian chytrid fungus has resulted in pronounced declines and extinctions of frog species across Australia and around the world. Together with increased prevalence and severity of drought conditions, infection with chytrid can decimate frog populations that are already contending with increasingly dry microhabitats. Irrigation and provision of artificial refuges represents an exciting possible solution to help combat drought and encourage reproduction among terrestrial-breeding frogs. However, there is potential for the additional moisture beneath artificial refuges to encourage chytrid growth and infection. We investigated whether the provision of artificial refuges and supplementing moisture to these refuges increases the susceptibility of Bibron’s toadlet, Pseudophryne bibronii, to infection by chytrid fungus. Analysis of chytrid loads is still ongoing, however initial results indicate that chytrid infection rates differ between frogs found beneath artificial and natural refuges. Although these results are preliminary, there are important implications for the management of Bibron’s toadlet and the use of artificial refuges to supplement breeding habitat and success.

​

@wallace_s_

​Sam Wallace is now officially a 'frog Doctor' and has spent many years surveying amazing landscapes for threatened frogs. Sam completed her Honours at Deakin University and spent her time scampering after calling frogs in Western Victoria amidst wind, rain, and sleet. Making the move to Newcastle, Sam studied a PhD on the impacts of mining on threatened frogs. These days, Sam has come full circle and is now back in Victoria working as a threatened species officer with the federal government.

The iconic Southern Corroboree frog (Pseudophryne corroboree), once abundant in alpine forests of Kosciuszko National Park, now hangs on the brink of extinction resulting from the spread of the foreign chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. P. corroboree is currently reliant on captive breeding and reintroduction programmes, though persistence in the wild is grim since chytrid fungus is maintained on the landscape by the resistant Common Eastern  froglet (Crinia signifera). To understand the immune response to the fungal pathogen we need to determine how infection effects gene expression. We collected toe clips from infected and uninfected P. corroboree of three different age classes at set time points. Toe clips will be used to sequence the transcriptome across disease progression to identify longitudinal changes in expression across early disease progression. We hypothesize that genes that experience differential expression post infection will play an important role in immune response to chytrid.
 
The iconic Southern Corroboree frog (Pseudophryne corroboree) hangs on the brink of extinction caused by chytrid fungus. To understand the immune response to the fungal pathogen we need to determine how infection effects gene expression.

Dan is a PhD student at the University of Melbourne, studying the genetics of the critically endangered Southern Corroboree Frog, Pseudophyrne corroboree. ​