14-02-2025
Tradie makes shock discovery in stagnant drain: 'They're bloody everywhere'
A tradie was looking down from a roof at a new construction site when he noticed something odd moving in the murky stormwater drain below. After downing his tools during smoko, Aaron Hickson ventured down to take a closer look and discovered signs the area had become overrun with invasive toads.
'They're bloody everywhere. Yesterday I saw around 15 juveniles within 20 metres,' he told Yahoo News on Friday. 'I'm back there now and I can see thousands of tadpoles.'
Cane toads were imported from Hawaii and introduced into Queensland in the 1930s in a misguided attempt to combat insect attacks on sugar cane crops. Since then toads have continued to methodically spread south with the southern front now extending to the Clarence River in NSW.
Related: Farmer solves decade-long cane toad 'murder mystery'
'Spot fire populations' are also common occurrences that need to be tracked. They are sparked when pairs jump ahead of the front by catching rides on caravans, buses, horse floats and trucks carrying garden supplies. As they take new territory, toads have demonstrated an ability to outcompete native frogs and kill marsupials and birds with their poisonous glands.
Once they become established, their numbers need to be controlled, or sudden outbreaks can occur, as Gold Coast residents found out two years ago.
Hickson's discovery was 90km south of Byron Bay in the town of Yamba. While the toads were rarely seen there in the 1980s, the video highlights how the species is now flourishing.
Charles Sturt University environmental scientist Dr Matt Greenlees studies the species' encroachment through northern NSW and said the situation at the construction site demonstrates how toads can utilise disturbance caused by humans and become established.
'It's an unfortunate consequence of how they're able to exploit engineering associated with development,' he said. 'If it was in an area on the edge of their distribution, an environment like that would offer them an opportunity to become established. So, it's a good example of what to keep an eye out for.'
Related: Grim prediction after 'Toadzilla' discovery in Aussie national park
Despite efforts by authorities to contain toads to regions north of the Clarence River, satellite populations of toads are frequently found on the Central Coast, and a small population temporarily became established in Sydney's suburbs during the early 2000s.
'It demonstrates they're perfectly capable of existing that far south. Modelling that compares toad physiology to the environment shows they could definitely spread all the way down the coast of NSW further south than Sydney,' Greenlees said.
New technologies are available to help residents rid toad tadpoles from their properties, with one device capitalising on the cannibalistic nature of toads to control them. And Local Land Services also have experts available for advice on toads.
Macquarie University cane toad expert Professor Rick Shine told Yahoo the rate at which toads have spread around Australia is 'concerning'. How the extraordinary weather conditions created by climate change affect their advance remains unknown.
'It can either accelerate the invasion or slow it down. The obvious suggestion would be, if you get lots of rain it makes it easy for the toads to move across wet ground.
'But if you get a weird week or two of unusually cold weather at the front, we get reports from farmers of dead toads. If you get unusually dry conditions, there are fewer bugs and you get lots of starving toads.
'It really is swings and roundabouts. We don't know whether the net positives and the net negatives will balance out, or whether we'll see a more rapid or a slower expansion of the toad front.'
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While skirmishes against the spread of cane toads continue, some fear the battle against them is already lost. Invasive Species Council CEO Andrew Cox doesn't think Aussies should lose too much sleep over the spread of cane toads because it's 'inevitable', and that emerging threats need more attention.
According to modelling by the CSIRO in 2021, invasive species are already costing the nation $25 billion a year, and Cox thinks more money needs to be spent on stopping their arrival in Australia.
'The mistakes were made long ago and we have very few tools to stop cane toads. But what we're seeing around Australia is a constant arrival of new invasive species, particularly in the north, and authorities are struggling to keep up,' he said.
'The magnitude of impacts from invasive grasses, insects and diseases are being seen already, but it's poorly appreciated by most Australians. We need to invest more heavily in solutions, particularly prevention, developing new technologies, and getting smarter about how we deal with this problem.'
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