Dr Alex Callen and PhD student Kate Tunstill are working to conserve the green and golden bell frog 

A Council research grant program is helping two University of Newcastle researchers prevent a threatened species of frog from croaking in Lake Macquarie.

Dr Alex Callen and PhD student Kate Tunstill’s research focuses on protecting the green and golden bell frog – an endangered Australian amphibian that now only exists in isolated populations along the NSW coastline.

The once-prevalent species is now locally reduced to a single Lake Macquarie population at Muddy Lake in Dora Creek, where Ms Tunstill has conducted more than 10 surveys for research, microchipping and monitoring purposes.

“We gave it an eco-health check because surveys aren’t conducted for the Muddy Lake population, and what we’ve discovered is it’s probably integral to the survival and conservation of this species going forwards,” Ms Tunstill said.

Lake Macquarie City Council’s Environmental Research Grants Program is open for applications until 12 February 2026.

Up to $8000 is available for projects that support appropriate land-use practices, remedial and preventative works and adjust management strategies.

Dr Callen said research partly funded by Council’s grant had helped reveal that Muddy Lake’s characteristics were crucial to sustaining the frog population.

“It looks like Muddy Lake is what we call a bit of a Goldilocks zone – a sweet spot – and it meets the needs of the green and golden bell frog because of the hydrological characteristics,” she said.

“Chytrid disease is prevalent in our freshwater environments here. That’s what’s affected the decline of the bell frog, and we think the salt water in coastal habitats is acting to mitigate the disease.”

Chytridiomycosis is an infectious disease caused by the chytrid fungus, capable of causing sporadic deaths – and in some cases 100 per cent mortality rates – in amphibian populations.

Ms Tunstill said the grant funding had been critical to the success of her research and encouraged other students and researchers to consider hopping online to apply.

Green and golden bell frogs change colour when exposed to sunlight

“It’s done a lot actually; as a student you don’t always get a large amount of funding,” she said.

“I was really lucky to have the opportunity with this grant. It helped with basically every component at that site, so conducting surveys and costs associated with that, keeping equipment out, running the genetic analysis, running the disease analysis and more.”

The researchers also breed green and golden bell frogs at UoN, operating from the Centre for Conservation Science (CCS).

Ultimately, they hope to identify suitable locations to re-introduce the species along the NSW coast, using Muddy Lake as a blueprint.

“Kate’s research is about identifying suitable sites where we could potentially reintroduce the bell frog to in the future and how susceptible those sites might be to sea level rise from climate change, which means that they may not be the optimum sites for reintroductions in 10, 20 or 30 years’ time,” Dr Callen said.

“We’ve been very grateful to have the funding from Lake Macquarie Council to actually determine what is important about the Muddy Lake site.”

The Environmental Research Grants Program is supported by Origin Energy, Delta Electricity and Hunter Water Corporation.

Visit lakemac.com.au for more information or to submit an application before 12 February 2026.

To learn more about the green and golden bell frog study and CCS, visit csrg.site.

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