Meet the Southern leaf-tailed gecko
The southern leaf-tailed gecko is a master of camouflage. Its flattened body is covered in rough, pointed scales and mottled in grey and brown, so pressed against sandstone or bark it seems to disappear. Its broad, flat, leaf-shaped tail stores fat and works as a decoy: if grabbed, the gecko drops it and escapes, then grows a new, smoother tail.
It is a patient night-time ambush hunter, waiting on rock faces and tree trunks for spiders, cockroaches, beetles and moths. When cornered it rises up, opens its mouth wide, waves its tail and lunges with a raspy call.
This is a true Sydney local. It lives throughout the sandstone country of the Sydney Basin and often turns up in garages, retaining walls, woodpiles and houses. Females lay small clutches of one or two eggs in crevices.
It was among the first Australian lizards described by Europeans. George Shaw named it Lacerta platura in 1790 in John White's Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales. Its names are descriptive: Phyllurus means 'leaf tail' and platurus means 'broad tail'.
Where it lives
The Sydney Basin of New South Wales, from about Newcastle south to the Illawarra and west into the Blue Mountains, closely tied to Hawkesbury sandstone.