When we think of extinction, we tend to think of a giant asteroid wiping out the dinosaurs or the black and white video of the last Tasmanian Tiger taken at a Hobart zoo.
But extinction is on our doorstep. In fact, 39 Australian mammals have gone extinct since Australia was colonised in 1788.
Iconic Aussie animals could well be missing from our children’s future.
1. Superb fairy-wren
Last week The Guardian dropped the news that this common, bright blue and black garden-dweller could be extinct within the next 30-40 years thanks to climate damage.
It is quite frankly terrifying that a bird that was so recently considered common could plummet toward extinction so quickly.
James Cook University ecologist Martijn van de Pol, a senior author of the recent study that unveiled these findings said, “Using various climate models, we found that human-induced climate change is likely to cause a high risk of population extinction within the next 50 years, even with optimistic emission scenarios.”
Turns out we don’t just need to worry about threatened species, we also need to worry about those that seem to be doing okay today. Talk about canary in a coal mine.
Superb fairy-wren. Image: Auzz33 pixabay
2. Victorian grassland earless dragon
This tiny dragon holds an unenviable title: it is the most at risk of all snake and lizard species in Australia.
Once common across the grasslands west of Melbourne, the Victorian grassland earless dragon was thought to be extinct for 54 years. But in 2023, the striped lizard was rediscovered and became a nationally listed threatened species in the same year.
For now, the Victorian grassland earless dragon is teetering dangerously on the edge of extinction as Victoria’s grasslands continue to be destroyed for both legal and illegal bulldozing.
Victorian grassland earless dragon. Image John Wombey, CSIRO.
3. Regent honeyeater
These beautiful birds used to flock in their thousands, but today it is estimated that fewer than 300 individuals remain in the wild.
Regent honeyeaters are a prime example of why bulldozing forests can be catastrophic for Aussie wildlife. Up to 90% of its preferred woodland habitat has been flattened for farming and housing, sending this feathered beauty plummeting toward extinction.
In June 2023, an ACF crowd-sourced investigation uncovered the potentially illegal destruction of 250 hectares of regent honeyeater woodland habitat by a prominent beef producer in NSW.
Without urgent action, regent honeyeaters could be extinct within 20 years.
Regent honeyeater. Image: Ken Griffiths / Shutterstock
4. Top End nabarlek
Australia is the world leader in mammal extinctions and the animal most likely to be added to that already damning list is the Top End nabarlek.
Its small size and tendency to move away from its rugged rocky habitat and out onto plains in search of food is thought to make it particularly vulnerable to predation by cats. This combined with impacts from inappropriate fire regimes and the localised destruction of habitat from mining activities, have resulted in the Top End nabarlek suffering a severe and ongoing reduction in numbers. In 2015 it was estimated the nabarlek’s numbers had been reduced by at least 50% in just 15 years.
5. Maugean skate
In 2025, the Maugean skate became the poster child for Australia’s failing nature protection laws when the Prime Minister introduced a carve out for the farmed salmon industry greenlighting a literal existential threat for the skate.
Despite being around since the dinosaurs, the skate now lives in one place and one place only – Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania. This is the same harbour that is home to intensive salmon farming. Between 2014 and 2021, the population of the Maugean skate nearly halved and today there are thought to be only around 120 adult Maugean skates remaining.
In ACF’s 2024 Extinction Roulette report, Dr Leonardo Guida from the Australian Marine Conservation Society said the skate was ‘staring down the barrel of extinction in as little as ten years’.
Maugean skaate swimming. Image: Neville Barrett.
Every extinction is a choice. Right now, the Albanese Government is writing the standards it will hold nature protection to.