This video captures the sensation and disorientation of moving through Pampas (00:25) and Typha (00:40) grass. It was a particularly windy and smoky day with lots of flying insects.

I learnt that although Bell Frogs could be literally found anywhere from the water to high up on tree branches, they are regularly spotted on Typha (or Bullrush) grass.

Over the course of the survey, I occasionally heard researchers and volunteers making a deep “Wuappppp -wup-wup-wup-wup” call then they would listen to hear if any male Green and Golden Bell frogs would respond with their own calls. At 2:15min, you can hear a chorus of human frog calls.

At 03:20min, you see a Peron’s Tree Froglet in metamorphosis. It still has the remnant tadpole tail.

At 04:24min, a Green and Golden Bell frog is spotted sitting in the water.

At 04:40min, another Green and Golden Bell frog is being released back to the spot where it was initially found.

Both of these are male Green and Golden Bell Frogs, note the darker coloured nuptial pads on the top of their thumbs.

Whilst catching up with artist friends Angela Tiatia and Kieren Cooney in Newcastle, I met their neighbours Jackie and Steven who were raising rescued tadpoles in the backyard.

Another friend had found these little tadpoles in a gutter they were cleaning out and instead of flushing them away, they rescued the tadpoles and gave them to their friends to look after. It was great to share stories about the Green and Gold Bell frog preservation and research being done nearby on Kooragan Island and the survival of these endangered frogs in the suburbs of Sydney.

Listening in on these different encounters of collective care and neighbourly concern for the environment and frog ecologies of everyday people, researchers, volunteers and academics was enriching on moving.

These unexpected human, animal and landscape relationships speak to the desire to observe, watch and support life in all its varying forms, even in the environmentally compromised and ecologically disturbed places where our communities somehow continue to exist alongside things like extractive mining and toxic manufacturing.

We started with a Marsh Snake (or Black Bellied Swamp Snake – Hemiaspis signata) at 00:00min in the carpark. The primary diet of these snakes are skinks and frogs.

At 01:45min I saw my first Green and Golden Bell Frog sitting on a Typha (Bulrush) reed wit the help of Shannon. Upon capture, a number of details are recorded on the bag:

• initials of person catching with the numbered frog the person has captured (eg SS 02)
• Site (Pond name) and time
• Caught on (plant/tree/water/rock etc)
• Height from the pond’s water level
• Distance from the edge of the water.

At 02:40min, there is a Peron’s Tree Frog sitting in the tree.

At 04:00min Colin demonstrates how gravid a female frog look, based on whether her abdomen was full of eggs.

All frogs are returned to the site of capture once data and observations have been collected.

Listening to frog calls:

• Litoria tyleri (Tyler’s Tree Frog) making a short cackling or drawn out ‘laughing” sound. They sound a lot like the Peron’s Tree Frog and sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between the two.
• Litoria peronii (Peron’s Tree Frog) also has a cackling / jackhammer call that is has a downward inflection at the end.

• Litoria fallax (‘Fallax’ or ‘Eastern Dwarf Tree Frog’) “reeek-pip-pip” sound, like a high pitched Guiro instrument or zipper; making a high-pitched “zip” followed by smaller chirps.

At 2:00min you see a Litoria aurea – Green and Golden Bell Frog!!! Notice the bright blue colouring on the legs.

These are collected to record their weight and length. They are also swabbed for Chytrid fungus, micro-chip, have a tissue biopsy, checked for eggs, sex, condition and any scratches of note before being released.

The video ends with some water monitoring. I was shown that you should rinse the the cap out with the water in the pond before testing. Care also needs to be taken to clean and check samplings between ponds to avoid passing on the invasive Gambusia fish between ponds.

This image of a male Green and Golden Bell Frog has distinctive and dark nuptial pad on his thumbs. These help him grab onto the females, and the slight yellow colouration of the neck can help determine his sex.

I joined researchers and volunteers from the School of Environmental and Life Sciences at the University of Newcastle Australia to observe their fieldwork for a number of nights.

I was introduced to ‘Gam’ or the Gambusia fish (mosquito fish) – 00:37min. At 06:14min, you can spot a Gambusia fish with a fungal infection.

These fish were first introduced to Australia in the 1920s, and then en masse by the Australian government during WWII to biologically control mosquito larvae. In the environment, they do not control mosquitoes anymore than native fish do, and have proliferated to become a pest across  many areas of Australia. Their ability to tolerate poor water quality and live in a wide range of conditions (including high salinity and pollution) combined with their aggressive nature (fin-nipping other fish to make these more prone to infection, preying on native fish eggs, larvae, tadpoles and invertebrates) have exacerbated the decline of many native fish and frog species.

At 02:54min I spotted my first frog, a bright green Litoria fallax – Eastern Dwarf Tree Frog. You can also see a number of Litoria peronii – Peron’s Tree Frog at 03:00min and 07:46min with their distinctive yellow and brown spotted hind legs. And towards the end of this video, you see and hear a Limnodynastes peronii or Striped Marsh Frog at 07:13min.

These are environmental and frog capture details that need to be recorded and kept with each frog for data collection. 

Bringing my aunty, my mother and a group of their friends and neighbours to do a washing performance in the Agent Orange/Dioxin contaminated waters of Burramattagal (Parramatta River) on Dharug Land, I told them that a population of endangered Green and Golden Bell Frogs (Litoria aurea) were surviving and thriving just downriver at Homebush Bay in the Sydney Olympic Park Brick Pits.

Reminiscing about the survival of these endangered frogs in polluted waterways, they spontaneously sung me a song from their childhood about frogs and living by the river.

[Translation from Vietnamese]:
On the banks of a pond, a congregation of frogs are shouting,
– croak, croak, croak
When it rains, their harmonies are raised,
– croak, croak, croak
When summer comes, all the waterways become raucous,
– croak, croak, croak
Looking up at the sky they wait for the heavens to respond,
– croak, croak, croak

This afternoon I went fishing and brought a basket to catch crabs,
I’ll try to catch enough so Mum can make her sour soup
– Oh, a crab! A crab!
But don’t yell too loud – it’ll crawl back into its burrow
Don’t yell too loud – it’ll crawl back into its burrow

The neighbour over there, she owns a rooster
– that crows, and crows, and crows
Boil some water, and put it in a pot,
– it’ll crow no more – it won’t crow no more.

A catfish stole the umbrella, a mudfish went after it
– she’s also gone now
The frog is left to cry, he sits and cries
– boohoo hoo hoo – boohoo hoo hoo.
But then he picks up someone else’s umbrella,
– hides from the sun and rain, and runs back into his burrow.

Thank you to Kim Dung, Bác Ngọc, Bác Thanh, Bác Nga, Bác Son, Bác Hương and Dì Nhung. Also to Fairfield City Museum and Gallery (where this work will be installed in March 2026) and Creative Australia.

About 15 minutes away from my parents place near Bankstown Square; in the industrial suburbs of Western Sydney, remain remnant habitats for frogs communities.

Located on Darug and Eora Ancestral Lands and Waterways, the site is wedged between the Chullora Railway Yards, the Coxs Creek run-off canal and a asphalt-concrete works along a battle-axe shaped piece of ‘Community Land’; zoned by Strathfield LEP 2012-E2 for Environmental Conservaition.

I called up scientist Dr John Gould when I was on site in the early afternoon. By 3pm, the frogs were already calling on this warm spring day, presumably they were hiding unseen from the two netted ponds found on site.

Quietly sitting there, I turned on my sound recorder, took some photos and filmed the surrounds.

Over the phone, John told me he could mostly hear the Crinia signifera (the Common Eastern Froglet) with their baby rattle or cricket like chirps. These frogs had a year round mating season. But in the time when the wattles were beginning to bloom, you can hear their frog song overlap with the distinctive croak of the Litoria aurea (Green and Golden Bell Frog), who were only now starting to enter their mating season.