Saving our Species fact sheets

Once thought extinct, the endangered Asterolasia buxifolia was rediscovered in 2000, but is known from only one population that hugs the banks of the Lett River east of Lithgow.

The endangered barradam-bang wattle (Acacia meiantha) is an erect and sometimes straggling wattle shrub found within the Central Tablelands.

The Barrier Range dragon is an endangered lizard restricted to rocky outcrops in ranges and gorges in three remote sites near Mutawintji National Park and Broken Hill in western New South Wales.

The Bellingen River snapping turtle is only found in a 60-kilometre stretch of the Bellinger River in Northern NSW.

The endangered Booroolong frog lives along permanent rocky streams that only ever dry to pools and can experience large annual fluctuations in abundance, depending on stream flows.

The buttercup doubletail is an endangered, terrestrial orchid found in forests and woodlands near the Great Dividing Range on the NSW Southern and Central tablelands.

The Denman pomaderris is only found in a ridgeline near Denman in the upper Hunter Valley.

In New South Wales, the giant dragonfly is distributed in patches of peat swamp habitats, many of which are threatened.

The glossy black-cockatoo is the smallest of the black cockatoos.

The endangered granite zieria (Zieria obcordata) is found in only two places and is extremely sensitive to grazing and browsing disturbances by domestic stock and native herbivores such as wallabies.

The Endangered grey grasswren is a small elusive pale bird, which lives within dense shrubs and grasses on the swamp flood-plain of the Bulloo River drainage system in north-western New South Wales.

In the words of Charles Darwin, the long-nosed potoroo is "an animal, as big as a rabbit, but with the figure of a kangaroo”.

The endangered Malleefowl is a large bird, which is limited to areas of inland semi-arid scrub. They prefer a dry environment and build large mounds from earth, sand and leaf litter.

The Manning yellow solanum (Solanum sulphureum) is an endangered perennial shrub, with known populations confined to lowland rainforest and wet sclerophyll areas in the Taree – Wingham region, on the mid north coast of New South Wales.

The Merimbula star-hair is a single or multi-stemmed shrub growing up to 1 metre tall, though occasionally taller.

This endangered herb is small, growing up to 20 cm in height, and producing flowerheads that can reach 30 cm. It is found on the Central Tablelands south east of Oberon, New South Wales.

In 1986 a new species of plant was discovered in Nielsen Park, Sydney Harbour National Park, and was named the Nielsen Park she-oak.

This Critically Endangered species, also called ‘Genowlan pea', was unknown to science before 1997, and is now known from a single tiny population north of Lithgow.

The endangered purple copper butterfly is one of Australia's rarest butterfly species. It is found only in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales.

The Critically Endangered red-lored whistler is a small cryptic songbird that is found in and around Round Hill and Nombinnie Nature Reserves in central New South Wales.

The gorgeous scarlet robin is a small insectivorous bird, 13 cm long, and is one of Australia’s three red-breasted robins.

The small purple-pea is a slender, erect perennial herb that grows to around 30 cm tall.

The spotted-tailed quoll, or tiger quoll, is mainland Australia's largest carnivorous marsupial.

The stunning superb parrot is a bright green parrot with a long, narrow tail, sharply back-angled wings and an aerodynamic body for fast flight.

The Tumut grevillea is a large spreading shrub that grows up to 2.5 m tall.

Villous mint-bush grows in sclerophyll forest and shrubland on coastal headlands and near coastal ranges, chiefly on sandstone, and rocky slopes near the sea.