The Monaro grassland earless dragon

The Monaro grassland earless dragon (Tympanocryptis osbornei, or ‘Osborne’s hidden-ear dragon’) is one of Australia’s rarest reptiles.

Small and weighing between 6 and 9 grams, the dragon has a very short lifespan. It lays three to six eggs once a year, just under the ground where sunlight warms them. These nests can dry out or be disturbed by hooves, machinery or predatory insects, leading to sudden local population loss.

Habitat damage has severely impacted dragon numbers. Open grasslands, like those at Narrawallee, have been overgrazed by sheep and cattle, and damaged by ploughing, farming and building activities.

Custodians of the Monaro grasslands

Prior to the arrival of European settlers, and perhaps for more than 20,000 years, the Ngarigo nation were the custodians of the Monaro grasslands. They regularly burnt the grasses where the dragon lived, managing the land carefully and skilfully to promote a sustainable food supply (including perhaps the occasional dragon). This maintained the health and diversity of the grasslands, and the fauna living within them.

European settlement and the changing landscape

Captain Mark John Currie was one of the first Europeans to alert settlers to the rich and diverse Monaro grasslands. On 1 June 1823, he recorded in his diary: ‘passed through a chain of clear downs to some very extensive ones ... From ... natives we learned that the clear country before us was called Monaroo’. After this visit, the European settlers arrived and ‘took up’ country. The destruction of the Monaro grasslands started with the beginning of this settlement.

The problem was that the Australian climate - highly variable, with frequent droughts - and the ancient coevolved vegetation and generally poorer soils were vastly different to those in north-western Europe and Britain where the settlers came from. Polish explorer Count Paul Strzelecki delivered a report to Governor Gipps in 1840 about his brief travels through the Monaro. He told Gipps that the effects of the drought at that time were not just due to the climate and overburning of the grass by squatters, but to:

That is, poor management from overgrazing by sheep and cattle was the destroyer of both grasslands and grassy woodlands, and therefore of the Monaro’s plant and animal biodiversity.

Historical accounts of land degradation

In his famous book, Discovering Monaro. A Study of Man’s Impact on His Environment (1972), historian W.K. (Keith) Hancock was able to document this ‘impact’ of European mismanagement. His extraordinary research notes and papers for the book are held in the archives of the National Library of Australia.

Hancock revealed that, upon the arrival of European settlers, the native fauna was so abundant that they regularly shot lyrebirds and other, now rare, animals for sport. Scottish visitor Farquhar McKenzie noted in his diary of 1837 that: ‘When out shooting duck at Bredbow river I saw a number of those curious animals the Platibus and fired at them repeatedly.’

However, it was the overgrazing by sheep and cattle that continued to degrade the diverse flora and fauna of the Monaro grasslands, especially in drought times. This is graphically captured in a vivid recollection by Monaro settler William Crisp, whose records Hancock discovered.

As Hancock concluded: ‘there is nothing good to be said about what the squatters did to the pastures. In Monaro as elsewhere, they made one blade of grass grow where two had grown before’.

Survival of the Monaro grassland earless dragon

However, despite nearly 200 years of overgrazing, the Monaro grassland earless dragon did not become extinct.

These dragon-lizards were first discovered by scientists in 1907 when two specimens were collected and sent to the Australian Museum in Sydney. They were then considered extinct until the late 1980s when another scientist, Dr Will Osborne from the University of Canberra, found them again on the Monaro (which is why this little dragon is named after him).

Today, the dragon, a grassland specialist, remains close to extinction. It is placed very high on the endangered species list for Australia, and is one of the most endangered reptiles in the world. Fortunately, with the help of scientists, landholders like my family are implementing ecological grazing practices. At our farm, we also work with land manager Rod Mason, an Elder of the Ngarigo nation, incorporating traditional Indigenous land management practices into our attempt to preserve healthy temperate grasslands for the dragons. We all must do what we can to save these beautiful, cheeky, yet rarely seen, little animals!

About Charles Massy

Dr. Massy is widely known and has presented all over the world.

He became an advocate for regenerative farming during the 1980s drought, which forced him to radically change his approach to farming. He is the author of The Last Dragon as well as other books about the Australian sheep industry.

Dr. Massy has managed Severn Park, an 1820 ha sheep, and cattle property on the Monaro for 40 years.

Concern at ongoing land degradation and humanity’s sustainability challenge led him to return to university in 2009 to undertake a PhD in Human Ecology. He is a Research Associate of the Australian National University and has been awarded an OAM for services to the Wool Industry and Community.

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