Renewed hope of finding the Bathurst grassland earless dragon

The last time the reptile, which is found only in and around the Bathurst region, was seen was in 1996.

It is considered a critically endangered species, which is why recovery efforts are being launched to try to find it before its classification changes to extinct.

The Central Tablelands Local Land Services, NSW Department of Planning and Environment, Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Grassland Earless Dragon Alliance and University of Newcastle have all come together to host an information night in Bathurst.

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Senior land services officer Allan Wray said the aim is to educate people about the Bathurst grassland earless dragon and hopefully create some allies in the recovery of the species.

"The event is primarily a way to get the local community engaged, to come along and learn more about the species, learn more about the habitat requirements, and the ecology of the species, and then start looking at whether we can get interested landholders to voluntarily offer their properties for surveys and monitoring in the future to help us try to rediscover the species in the Bathurst district," he said.

There is renewed hope that the Bathurst grassland earless dragon could be spotted again after a similar species was rediscovered in Victoria.

"The Victorian species that was only just rediscovered recently hadn't been recorded for about 50 or 60 years, so I guess there is hope from that perspective," Mr Wray said.

Members of the public and landholders are encouraged to come along to the community meeting on September 7, 2023 at the Raglan Community Hall.

The meeting will be held from 5.30pm to 8pm and is free to attend.

People are asked to register their attendance in advance via the Local Land Services website.

The reptile is small in size, with a maximum adult head and body length of around seven centimetres, and a maximum overall length of 16cm.

It has three thin white lines running from the neck, along the body and down the tail. These lines divide an irregular pattern of light and dark brown or reddish cross-bands on the back.

The Bathurst grassland earless dragon lives in very specific types of open grassland where there are few trees.

"Particularly in Bathurst, there are a few areas around that are naturally treeless grasslands, and so they're the areas we're particularly interested in looking at," Mr Wray said.

"As well as areas that have in-tact natural grassland environments, so areas that haven't been grazed too heavily or haven't been modified through other agricultural practices, like intense cropping and those sorts of thing.

"They very much are what's known as a Goldilocks species, so it can't be too over grassy and it can't be too under grassy, it's got to be in that 'just right' sort of condition."

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