OzFish and Landcare search for signs of rare Australian lungfish near Lismore after sighting

A search has been underway in northern NSW for a prehistoric amphibious creature – one seemingly as elusive as the fabled Loch Ness monster. Here’s what we know.

A rare lungfish is released back into the Brisbane River after having its details recorded for a long-term study.

When two residents reported seeing what appeared to be an extremely rare Australian lungfish in waters near Lismore, it gained the attention of a leading conservation group.

The upshot has resulted in OzFish Unlimited working with Richmond Landcare to scan the waters of Terania and Rocky creeks.

Using hi-tech eDNA sampling, scientists were able to see if there were any telltale signs of lungfish in the area.

Australian lungfish have not been in the area for millions of years and the endangered native species is found only in small sections of southeast Queensland.

After last year’s disastrous floods caused major damage to the Tuntable Creek ecosystem, 25km north of Lismore, a resident said he saw a lungfish in the waterway and his clear description was backed up by another local on a community Facebook page.

OzFish Unlimited volunteers recently teamed up with Richmond Landcare in search of the elusive prehistoric lungfish which was sighted in northern NSW. Picture: OzFish

OzFish senior project officer Lucas Kas, who grew up at Brunswick Heads, said: “Just like at a crime scene where we can see who’s been lurking around the place, we can do the same thing with animals through eDNA testing.”

“As an animal moves through the environment it leaves all these traces – skin flakes, mucus, all the other bodily secretions,” he said.

OzFish Unlimited senior project officer Lucas Kas (centre) at one of the investigation sites near Lismore.

“So all we have to do is come down, take a sample of the water, preserve it, send it off to the lab and then they can do some wizardry on it and basically spit back to us if there’s a presence or absence of Australian lungfish in the creek.”

“The reason we’re making a big deal about lungfish potentially being sighted in this area is because they’ve only been found in two rivers in southeast Queensland and that’s now been expanded due to a breed-out program.

“They’re really significant because they’re really rare but they’re also living fossils.

“They’re prehistoric creatures that have been around since before the dinosaurs and they basically represent an evolutionary stage that all land animals evolved from.”  

Mr Kas said the analysis did not find a trace of lungfish, but while the science is strong it’s not infallible.

Dr Julien Louys (Australian National University) holding a tooth plate from an ancient lungfish. Picture: Supplied

“It’s not the nail in the coffin that there’s none there,” he said.

Lungfish can be mistaken for catfish or carp, however, Mr Kas said the man who reported the first sighting was able to determine features which ruled out the animal being an eel or carp.

The water sampling failed to return any detection of lungfish. Picture: OzFish

“We just don’t know (if it was a lungfish),” he said.

Mr Kas joked: “Though, there’s also been reports of Big Foot and black panthers in that area as well.”

Lungfish can live for up to 117 years and grow to 1.5 metres in length “which is huge for a freshwater fish”, Mr Kas said.

They are also remarkably resilient and can take to the land to move from one body of water to the next due to having a lung.