Frogwatch Field Guide To Victorian Frogs
Natural History Field Guide Amphibians Australian Wildlife Environmental Education Conservation Children’s Nature Reference
Victoria’s frogs at your fingertips—this scarce 1991 first-edition Frogwatch Field Guide is the definitive pocket reference created by the Department of Conservation and Environment and written by Australia’s leading amphibian specialist Gerry Marantelli (with Jean Marc Hero). Every one of Victoria’s 38 frog species is covered in crisp detail: colour paintings, diagnostic photographs, regional distribution maps, season-by-season calls and the all-important tadpole ID charts that other guides leave out. Because it was produced for the original Frogwatch citizen-science program, the language is friendly enough for upper-primary students yet scientifically rigorous for university field work—making it the only book you can carry from suburban creek-bank excursions to professional wetland surveys without needing a second reference.
What makes this copy special is condition plus vintage provenance. It is the unobtainable 1991 paperback that spawned today’s Frogwatch Australia network; most were used to destruction in the field, so clean 32-year-old examples rarely surface. Light shelf scuffing and minor foxing on the outer page-block are the only signs of age—no inscriptions, no loose pages, no dog-ears, and the binding is still tight enough to lie flat on a lab bench. For collectors, it is a snapshot of early ’90s conservation science; for educators, it is a curriculum-linked resource that still satisfies the Victorian biology syllabus; for families, it unlocks night-time adventures where kids can match the illustrated calls to the real thing chorusing in the local pond.
Environmental hobbyists prize the book because every purchase funds knowledge that protects frogs: proceeds from original print-run sales funded wetland restoration across Victoria, and owning the guide keeps that legacy alive. Second-hand copies now change hands among ecologists, homeschoolers and eco-tourists because modern reprints omit the original hand-drawn plates and locality data. Whether you need a reliable waterproof backup in the field pack, a nostalgic gift for a ’90s-born nature lover, or a hard-to-find citation for your thesis, this 1991 illustrated first edition delivers the complete Victorian frog story in one compact, backpack-friendly volume.
Refer to our eBay listing for a full condition report and many more high-quality pictures of this item.
Buy Now