Look at the top left! Nightwalkers on a tour in December 2007 are looking at an Eastern water Dragon as the walk along the trail. The water Dragon has chosen a typical spot to sleep; a sloping vine near a small creek.
Eastern Water Dragons live right down the coast as far south as Sydney, and there are several subspecies. Thsi one is almost certainly a female, judging from the size of the head and body. The males can get much larger, I have seen examples well over 1 metre long. (Note that reference books measure lizards snout- vent, which does not incluse the tail)
Eastern Water Dragons tend to form Harems, with one male having a teritory that includes several females. We notice that their range seems to shrink in dry weather and they spread out along smaller creeks when it rains. Water Dragons can swim and dive, and have nostrils on the top of their snout, so it seems they have evolved for some time to be aquatic.
At least once a year someone comes up from our waterhole and says that they have just seen a samll crocodile there. It always turns out to be a Water Dragon!
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