UNSW nomination used 20 years of sightings data
New data collected over 20 years indicates the platypus distribution has shrunk by nearly 25%, and possibly by as much as 30%.
The Australian Conservation Foundation and University of New South Wales researcher Associate Professor Gilad Bino are urging the federal government to fund Australia’s first national platypus survey.
In March 2026, UNSW nominated the platypus for protection under national environment law using more than 13,000 sightings gathered across the country over two decades. That dataset included records logged by ACF Platy Project volunteers.
Habitat destruction, drought, bushfire, invasive species and poor river and dam management all put pressure on the species. Platypuses also face a moderate bird flu risk because they share habitat with many bird species.
Committee left platypus off 2026 list
National environment law does not currently protect the platypus. South Australia lists it as endangered and Victoria lists it as vulnerable, but there is no federal threatened listing and no national action plan.
However, the federal Threatened Species Scientific Committee did not place the platypus on its 2026 Proposed Priority Assessment List, so the UNSW nomination was never assessed.
In published reasons, the committee said there was “no evidence to demonstrate declines across the species range or impacts on its national population”.
Bino rejected that conclusion. “To suggest there is no evidence of decline in Australia’s national platypus population is simply incorrect,” he said.
He said platypuses are disappearing from places where people used to find them, but researchers still cannot measure the rate of decline properly from chance sightings alone.
“Australia has never once run a national platypus survey, and you can’t measure a decline properly from sightings that people happened to make,” Bino said.
According to ACF, its Platy Project is now in its fifth and final year. So far, more than 15,000 people have taken part and submitted more than 2,500 platypus records to the project’s map.
Each spring, the project asks east coast Australians to visit a local creek or waterway at dawn or dusk, watch for platypus and log any sighting on the map.
ACF is calling on Environment Minister Murray Watt to fund a national survey to gather more data that could support legal protection for the species.
