Post-fire impact assessment for priority frogs: northern Philoria **

Bushfires in Australia are predicted to increase in frequency and severity with climate change. The large-scale ‘Black
Summer’ fires of 2019/2020 validated these predictions, burning 1.8 M ha of forest and woodland across eastern Australia.
The fires began during Australia’s hottest and driest year on record and burned an unprecedented extent of rainforest.
In northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, over half of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australian World
Heritage Area was affected by the 2019/2020 fire event — habitats that have rarely, or never, been recorded to burn.
These rainforests support a number of endemic, range-restricted amphibians, including several species of
Mountain Frog (Philoria spp.). These frogs primarily occur in rainforest or wet sclerophyll vegetation communities,
where they breed in headwater drainage lines and bogs. Their dependence on wet areas, as well as their limited
and fragmented ranges and ‘slow’ life-history traits make these frog species sensitive to increased drought and
fire associated with climate change