Woma, Aspidites ramsayi

     
(Queensland Museum)

Problem:
Womas are disappearing from the areas in which they live outside the main population in central Australia.  The isolated south-central Queensland population (around Roma, Yuleba, Surat and St George) will decline if habitat destruction proceeds.  This is what occurred in Western Australia and New South Wales.

Background information:
The Woma is a python found across Australia's arid lands.  In Queensland, its eastern population in the Brigalow is at risk; in western New South Wales it is endangered; in south-western Western Australia it is almost extinct.

Research:
Woma habitat throughout Australia is being reduced by clearing for grazing and agriculture.  Only one Woma specimen has been sent to the Western Australian Museum from the south-west of that State since 1975.  Recent Queensland Museum research indicates that if clearing of brigalow in south-central Queensland follows the trend that has been established further in the north, this population of Womas will be seriously threatened.

Solution:
Secure Woma habitat in the southern Brigalow Belt as soon as possible, before further clearing endangers the population.

Back to Queensland's Vanishing Wildlife