Native Animals History and Science
Introduction
Lizards are among the most diverse and culturally significant animals in Australia, with hundreds of species adapted to deserts, forests, wetlands, and grasslands. In Victoria, lizards range from the familiar Blue-tongued Lizard basking in suburban gardens to the fierce-looking Shingleback and the swift skinks darting across logs and rocks.
For Aboriginal peoples, lizards were more than just animals—they were food, totems, teachers, and spiritual beings. Their movements and behaviour were observed closely, offering lessons about resilience, agility, and adaptation. Across the continent, lizards appear in Dreaming stories and ceremonial life, embodying deep cultural meanings. Colonists, meanwhile, recorded them as curiosities or pests, often overlooking their ecological and cultural importance.
Diversity of Lizards in Victoria
Victoria supports a wide array of lizard species, representing multiple families:
Skinks (Family Scincidae)
The most numerous group. Examples include the Garden Skink (Lampropholis guichenoti) and the Metallic Skink (Niveoscincus metallicus).
Small, fast-moving, and found in diverse habitats.
Blue-tongued Lizards (Tiliqua scincoides)
Large skinks with distinctive blue tongues used to deter predators. Often seen in gardens and bushlands.
Shingleback Lizard (Tiliqua rugosa)
A slow-moving, heavily armoured lizard with a blunt tail resembling its head. Known for forming long-term pair bonds.
Geckos (Families Diplodactylidae and Gekkonidae)
Nocturnal species with sticky toe pads, including the Marbled Gecko (Christinus marmoratus).
Dragons (Family Agamidae)
Include the Eastern Water Dragon (Intellagama lesueurii) and Jacky Dragon (Amphibolurus muricatus). Known for head-bobbing displays and fast movements.
Monitors (Goannas, Family Varanidae)
The Lace Monitor (Varanus varius) once ranged across much of Victoria, though now restricted mainly to the north and east.
This diversity reflects millions of years of adaptation to Australia’s unique environments.
Ecology and Behaviour
Lizards play crucial ecological roles:
Insect control: Skinks and geckos consume large numbers of insects, balancing ecosystems.
Seed dispersal: Some species, such as Shinglebacks, eat fruits and disperse seeds.
Prey species: Lizards form an important food source for raptors, snakes, and mammals.
Adaptations: From the armour of Shinglebacks to the regenerative tails of skinks, lizards embody resilience.
Their presence in gardens, bushlands, and deserts makes them both familiar neighbours and key components of ecosystems.
Lizards in Indigenous Culture
For Indigenous communities, lizards hold enduring cultural significance.
Food source: Lizards such as goannas and skinks were hunted and roasted, providing important protein.
Totems: Many groups across Australia, including in Victoria, had lizard totems, connecting families to Country and embedding responsibilities of care.
Dreaming stories:
Lizards appear as creators, lawgivers, and tricksters in different traditions.
In some stories, their distinctive features—like the Shingleback’s double head—explain lessons about deception, protection, or resilience.
Ceremonial use: Lizard designs appear in body painting, sand drawings, and carvings, symbolising agility, adaptability, and connection to land.
Medicine and teaching: Lizards were sometimes linked to healing, with their movements used as metaphors in teaching children about patience and awareness.
Lizards embodied the lesson that survival comes through adaptability, watchfulness, and respect for Country.
Lizards on Wadawurrung Country
On Wadawurrung Country, which stretches across Geelong, the Bellarine Peninsula, Ballarat, and the volcanic plains, lizards were integral to both ecology and culture.
Skinks on the plains: Small skinks were observed in great numbers, their activity tied to seasonal changes in weather and insect abundance.
Blue-tongued Lizards: Wadawurrung people regarded these as important for both food and teaching, their bold tongues a reminder of defence and self-respect.
Goannas: Once present in Wadawurrung forests and ridges, goannas were prized both for food and spiritual significance. Their tracks in sand were also used as hunting guides.
Stories: Lizards appear in oral traditions as survivors of the volcanic plains, teaching lessons of resilience in challenging environments.
Cultural role: For some Wadawurrung families, lizards were respected as totem beings, embedding kinship ties into the ecological world.
Even today, the sight of a skink or Blue-tongue in a Wadawurrung backyard connects people back to ancient relationships with scaled beings of Country.
Colonial History and Records
Colonists encountered lizards with fascination and fear.
Curiosities: Early settlers described Blue-tongued Lizards as “snake mimics” and often killed them out of fear.
Goannas: Stories of large Lace Monitors stirred both fear and admiration, with colonists sometimes exaggerating their size.
Scientific specimens: Naturalists collected lizards for European museums, documenting their diversity but often ignoring Aboriginal knowledge.
Folklore: Lizards were described as “harmless bush companions” in some accounts, yet others cast them as pests.
This mixture of misunderstanding and fascination framed colonial relationships with lizards, often obscuring their cultural significance.
Symbolism and Meaning
Lizards carry layered meanings:
For Indigenous peoples: Beings of lore, food, totems, and spiritual teachers.
For colonists: Curiosities, sometimes feared or admired.
In modern identity: Indicators of biodiversity, familiar garden companions, and reminders of resilience in changing landscapes.
Their presence ties together people, ecosystems, and stories.
Conservation and Status
While many lizards remain common, others face threats.
Habitat loss: Clearing of grasslands, wetlands, and forests reduces lizard populations.
Predation: Introduced species such as foxes and cats prey heavily on lizards.
Climate change: Shifts in temperature alter basking patterns and breeding cycles.
Conservation concern: Some gecko and dragon species are listed as threatened in Victoria, requiring habitat protection.
Community awareness and habitat restoration are crucial for their survival.
Conclusion
Lizards are more than scaly inhabitants of Victoria’s landscapes. They are teachers of resilience, beings of law, food providers, and guardians of balance. For the Wadawurrung and other Aboriginal nations, they carried lessons in adaptability, patience, and responsibility. For colonists, they were curiosities of a strange new land. Today, they remind us of both ecological fragility and cultural continuity.
Protecting lizards means protecting not just a species group, but the stories, landscapes, and teachings they embody. Their tracks in the sand and their watchful eyes on the plains remind us of an ancient truth: survival depends on balance, respect, and connection to Country.
References
Cogger, HG 2014, Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.
Clark, ID 1990, Aboriginal Languages and Clans: An Historical Atlas of Western and Central Victoria, 1800–1900, Monash Publications in Geography, Melbourne.
Massola, A 1968, Bunjil’s Cave: Myths, Legends and Superstitions of the Aborigines of South-East Australia, Lansdowne Press, Melbourne.
Ryan, L 2013, The Aboriginal Tasmanians, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.
Shea, GM 2010, ‘Lizard diversity in Victoria: conservation and ecology’, Victorian Naturalist, vol. 127, no. 4, pp. 147–155.
Written, Researched and Directed by James Vegter 16/09/2025
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Magic Lands Alliance acknowledge the Traditional Owners, Custodians, and First Nations communities across Australia and internationally. We honour their enduring connection to the sky, land, waters, language, and culture. We pay our respects to Elders past, present, and emerging, and to all First Peoples communities and language groups. This article draws only on publicly available information; many cultural practices remain the intellectual property of communities.