Frog Law: Queensland's Version

Each state sets their own regulations on the keeping of native animals and this could be any system from completely prohibiting collection and keeping - to allowing the keeping of anything without restriction. In Queensland, frogs are allowed to be kept under the following circumstances.

• You do not need a licence or collection permit if you are ONLY keeping tadpoles or only keeping two frogs per species, for up to four species. For example, you could raise tadpoles and release all but two of each for up to four species. You might keep two Common Green tree frogs, two Ornate Burrowing frogs, two Striped Marsh frogs and two White-lipped tree frogs and you won't need a licence.
• The species to be kept are common species only. For example, most of the species that are often found in backyards are still considered 'common' such as the Common Green, White-lipped, Graceful, Brown tree, Eastern Dwarf Sedge, Ornate Burrowing, Marbled Burrowing, Spotted Grass, Striped Marsh and Stoney Creek frogs. You would NOT be able to keep species such as Fleay's Barred, Giant Barred, Green-eyed, Common Mist, Waterfall, Australian Lacelid, Pearson's, Day frogs, or most microhylids for instance.
• As soon as you want to keep three of a species, or more than four species, you need to apply for a licence. For example, if you wanted to set up three White-lipped tree frogs for possible breeding or if you had two each of four species as in the previous example and you wanted to add a Marbled Burrowing frog to your collection.
• If you want to keep more than four species or three of any common species, then you would apply for a Recreational Amphibian Licence. After your licence is issued, you will need to keep a record book and pay an annual fee. You also need to make your collection available for random, unannounced inspections by QPWS staff.
• Once you have a licence to keep frogs, you cannot have any wild caught animals in your collection. So you would then have to release any frogs you had collected yourself or raised from tadpoles. All frogs held under licence have to come from captive sources so you would need to find a breeder for the species you want to keep. (Captive breeding is done in enclosures which prevent the animal from leaving - frogs which breed in backyard ponds are NOT captive bred.) Once licenced, you will not be allowed to collect any frogs or tadpoles from the wild.
• If you acquire at least two years of verifiable husbandry experience with a Recreational licence and you have at least two recognised herpetological referees, you can apply for a Specialist licence which allows you to keep some of the classified species mentioned above.

If you live in Far North Queensland in particular, you will quickly begin to see that the Queensland system might make some sense for frog keepers living around Brisbane but, for potential keepers up here, there are some anomalies. For one thing, very few Queensland species have been bred in captivity and the vast majority, if not all, captive breeding is taking place in Southeast Queensland. If you need to buy frogs from a breeder, they will have been raised in a different climate to ours and they will be coming from an area where chytrid fungus has been active for many years and new diseases might be arriving and not documented. Finding a breeder will also be a challenge because the department will not reveal the contact details of licenced individuals so you are on your own there. It will also be impossible to distinguish the difference between the frogs in your captive tank and the same species coming in through the open windows in our tropical climate. It might seem a lot of work, too, to have to control all the feeding and maintenance of the frogs in the tank while the backyard frogs come and go and look after their own needs.

Whether the Queensland regs are appropriate to current frog conservation issues is not being discussed here. The information on this page is provided merely to give a potential keeper some basic information about this state's regulations. If you have detailed questions about the Queensland licence system, please contact your nearest QPWS office which will be listed in your phone book.