Barnacles are small invertebrates that live inside hard circular or pyramid-like structures made from calcium-carbonate. They are distinguished by their size: they are taller than they are round and have similar shape to a volcano. They can be found singularly or in a group.
Giant rock barnacles are the largest type of barnacle and are comprised of six large plates that are white to light green in colour, and have top to bottom (transverse) grooves on them. They have a distinctive bright blue body (mantle) inside.
Barnacle larva are free swimming and live in the plankton layer and when they are old enough they return to the rocky shores where they find a spot and cement their heads to the rock and then grow their shell around their body.
Size
30 - 60 mm height and 25 - 30 mm diameter.
A reference to its yellow resin, Xanthorrhoea literally means "yellow flow" in Ancient Greek. Grass-tree is a misnomer. Its not a grass, nor a tree.They are actually distantly related to lilies.
Perennial flowering plant. Trunk resembles a tree above ground or exists under the earth’s surface. Trunk is woody and made up of tiny packed leaves.
Leaves
Clustered in a terminal crown, 30 - 140 cm long, rhombic (kite-shaped) to wedge-shaped in cross-section, tapering at the ends.
Flowers
Borne as flower clusters on a cylindrical and spike-like woody axis.
In the bush the flowers could reveal directions, since flowers on the warmer, sunnier side (usually north) of the spike often open before the flowers on the cooler side facing away from the sun.
Medium sized shorebird with a straight, slender bill and a heavily streaked head and neck. Non breeding plumage in Australia; pale to chestnut head, neck and upper breast. White underparts.
In breeding plumage they have a black band across the chest, and black, white and reddish speckles on the upperparts (Great Knots breed in Siberia).
Size
A medium-sized shorebird
Its head and upperparts are mostly dark grey, with a white eyebrow and throat, a narrow grey band across the upper breast and a creamy-buff belly. The feathers of its long tail have white edges and tips, and the tail is often fanned out.
Size
14 – 16 cm long
Dark grey to black on top and usually white on the belly. Humpbacks have very large, elongate pectoral fins, a small but prominent dorsal fin and a large, bushy blow (up to 5 m tall).
The large fins, dark tail with white underneath, active breaching and tendency to “hump” their backs and raise their tail out of the water before diving, distinguish humpbacks from other whales.
Size
Adult humpbacks can reach a length of up to 15 m.
The top of its head and its hindneck are black. Its forehead is covered with bright-yellow skin, which hangs down to form wattles. The rest of the head is white. Its back and wings are pale grey-brown. Below, black plumage extends from the hindneck onto the sides of its breast, and the rest of the underparts are white. Its long legs and feet are reddish and its bill is yellow. It has a prominent spur on each wing.
Juveniles are similar to adults, but have dark ‘scallop’ markings on the back and wings, and the wing spur and wattles are either smaller or absent.
Distinctive feature
A yellow wattle that extends from its forehead to behind its eye and hangs down beside its chin.
They have a transparent mushroom-shaped bell. Its reproductive organs form a conspicuous clover-like shape when viewed from above. Numerous fine thread-like tentacles hang from beneath the edge of the bell.
The moon jelly is a favourite food of marine turtles.
Its species name banksii is after the English naturalist and botanist Sir Joseph Banks.
A small, brown seaweed (algae) which resembles a beaded necklace. It has branches (thalli) which are made up of strings of hollow, water-filled, round or oval-shaped beads joined together by a short stalk. Each bead is covered in many pores, giving it a rough surface. It is attached to the substrate by a thin disc (holdfast).
Size
Fronds 10 – 30 cm long, beads 5 – 15 mm in diameter, and holdfast 3 – 10 mm across.
Mostly black in colour with a light grey saddle behind the dorsal fin and a distinct white oval shaped horizontal patch behind the eye. The belly, underside of the jaw, and underside of the tail are also white. Mature males have a tall triangular-shaped dorsal fin while females and juveniles have a smaller, more curved dorsal fin.
Size
Adults reach a length of 10 m, dorsal fin up to 1.8 m in height.
Tiny, plain grey-brown and whitish wader with black legs and straight, gently tapering black bill, slightly swollen at tip. Shadowy dark line from bill through eye separates small white area over bill and subtle whitish eyebrow from whitish throat. Upperparts are grey-brown. Underparts are whitish with grey-brown zone on sides of upperbreast.
Size
13 – 16 cm
A medium-sized marine snail (mollusc). They are grey or off-white in colour, with 5 - 6 distinctive ridges spiralling up towards a sharp tip (apex).
Size
25 - 50 mm
Field Guide
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Its genus name Banksia is named after Sir Joseph Banks, a British explorer and naturalist, and its species name marginata is from the Latin 'marginatus' meaning bordered, referring to the recurved leaf edges.
A variable species that occurs as a shrub, a flat-lying plant, or a tree, with smooth brown-grey bark. Grows up to 2 m high and wide as a shrub, less than 1 m as a flat-lying plant, and between 5 – 12 m as a tree.
Leaves
Green on the upper surface and silvery underneath. Each leaf is linear to oblong-shaped, 1 – 8 cm long, 3 – 13 mm wide, and has finely-toothed edges. The edges are recurved (rolled under) and may have small serrations, and their tip can be blunt or squared.
Flowers
Pale yellow cylindrical spikes forming a bottle-brush shape. Each flower head is 5 – 10 cm long and 4 – 6 cm wide and attracts nectar-eating birds.
Fruit/seed:
The southern brown tree frog is native to southern Australia. Other common names of this tree frog are brown tree frog, whistling tree frog, or Ewing's tree frog.
Ranges from pale fawn, cream, or orange to light brown, although some individuals in western Victoria and South Australia are partly or completely green. It has a wide brown band that starts from between its eyes and runs down its back. Darker flecks are also scattered across its back. It has a narrow black or brown stripe that runs from its snout to its shoulder, and a pale stripe that runs from below its eye to the base of its arm. Its belly is white to yellow and breeding males have a light brown vocal sac (beneath their mouth).
Distinctive features
Its back is smooth with small lumps, its fingers have no webbing and its toes are half webbed.
The name ‘right whale’ was given to them by early European whalers who thought they were the ‘right’ type of whale to hunt. Their slow moving nature made them easy targets and their blubber was of high quality. They also floated when dead, making them much easier to move to shore.
Generally black with small patches of white on the belly and lacking a dorsal fin. They have a rounded head and short, spatula shaped flippers with a distinctive V shaped blow.
Distinctive feature
They have numerous, pale coloured callosities around the head.
A large jellyfish with a rounded bell shape that is clear or tinted brown or yellow. The bell has many obvious small white crystalline spots close to the surface that are evenly distributed.
The tentacles are located in the centre of the bell, with 8 individual arms visible. Two sets of tentacles are visible: one is short, fleshy (cauliflower-like) and the other is longer, clear to white (rope-like) and extend beyond the shorter fleshy tentacles. The longer tentacles also have white spots on their ends.
The striped marsh frog or brown-striped frog is a common species in urban habitats It is a mostly aquatic frog native to coastal Eastern Australia.
A pale to grey-brown back with darker brown stripes. Usually also a pale stripe running down the middle of its back. Its belly is white and often flecked with brown, and there are dark spots and stripes on its limbs.
Size
4.5 - 7.5 cm
They are called Surf Barnacles because they prefer to live in areas of medium to high energy wave action.
Small invertebrates that live inside hard circular or pyramid-like structures made from calcium-carbonate. They have eight main side plates, surrounded by many smaller ones, giving them a scaly appearance and are usually grey with a greenish tinge.
Size
20 mm high, 25-30 mm diameter.
Field Guide
Improve your identification skills. Download your Surf Barnacle guide here!
Also know as Blackthorn.
A woody shrub to small tree, usually with thorny branches. Grows up to 5 – 10 m high.
Leaves
Glabrous, dark green, 20 – 44 mm long and 5 – 9 –mm wide.
Flowers
White, 6 – 10 mm wide, fragrant.
A small green seaweed. It has dark round, forked fronds (branches) with a fuzzy appearance and a velvety or sponged texture.
Size
Up to 30 cm long.
Field Guide
Improve your identification skills. Download your Velvet Weed guide here!
Evergreen shrub or small tree. Grows 1 – 6 m high.
Leaves
Bright yellow-green to dark green and paler underneath. They are 4 – 15 cm long and 1 – 3 cm wide, and generally have a toothed or curved edge. The leaves have a minty smell when crushed.
Flowers
Funnel-shaped and white, or pink to pale mauve, with purple and orange spots inside. They are about 2 cm long and grow in clusters at the end of branches. They are slightly scented.
Medium marine snails (molluscs) that float around in the open ocean. They have a purple shell that lightens in colour as you move towards the flattened top of the shell. The shell itself is very light weight and they have no operculum (lid). Their flesh is a dark purple or sometime black.
They float around the open oceans upside down, attached to a raft of mucus bubbles that they make.
Size
Up to 30 mm
Flower-like invertebrate that has many long tentacles surrounding a central mouthpart which is attached to a hard surface. These specialised fighting tentacles come from the acontia, which appear as white spots on the top of the column. At low tide or when disturbed, the tentacles retract and the anemone looks like a round blob of jelly. They range in colour from bright red, reddish-brown to dark purple.
Their tentacles contain hundreds of stinging cells called ‘nematocysts’ which the anemone uses to sting and immobilize their prey, and to do battle with other unrelated anemones. These are the same cells that give Blue Bottles their sting although most anemone species cannot penetrate human skin.
A large bird of prey with a dark grey back and a white head, white chest and white belly. Their legs are also white and have long black talons. They have dark eyes and a light-coloured, hooked beak. When viewed in flight, the undersides of the wings are a distinctive half white and half grey-brown.
First-year juveniles have a buffish and ‘spiky’ head, contrasting with patchy cream and dark brown body and wings; underwing pattern also patchy, but note half-moon at base of tail feathers. Older juveniles have a pale buff-grey tail.
Their nests are massive, made of sticks and branches, usually found in a tall living tree near water or on a remote coastal cliff (on ground if on an island).
Distinctive feature
A wedge-shaped tail, distinctive when seen in flight.
