Way Out West Reptiles

15/11/2025

A few pairings of Southern Banded Knobtail Geckos (Nephurus wheeleri) from earlier in the week.

25/10/2025

Great to see some progress with the species additions. Keep an eye out for an email in your inbox from DBCA if you made multiple applications for additional species.

🚨 Important: All Keepers & Stakeholders 🚨

On Friday, 24 October, many licence holders, stakeholders, and members of the public who took part in the recent DBCA online public consultation (which closed on 6 October) were contacted by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) via email.

The department is now asking participants to rank their nominated species — with 1 being your most desired addition and higher numbers your least desired.

As a community, it’s important that we stay united and continue pushing for major reform to WA’s herpetofauna keeping system — not just minor or token changes. Right now, WA has the most restrictive reptile and amphibian keeping list in mainland Australia, by a wide margin.

To help, AHWA has created a template response that captures the shared views of WA keepers and industry stakeholders. This template will be emailed to all AHWA members starting today (25 October) to make it easier and faster for you to respond to DBCA’s request.

If you’re not yet an AHWA member and would like a copy of the template response, please get in touch with us at 📧 [email protected].

Let’s stand together and make sure our voices are heard — it’s time for real progress in WA! 💪🦎🐍🐸

08/09/2025

23/04/2025

Another stunning hatchling produced this season from the vertebral Nephrurus wheeleri project. Such an underrated species that deserves more attention as to how amazing they are to be kept.

30/03/2025

**To all WA herpetofauna keepers and stakeholders**

The Association of Herpetology Western Australia needs your support to improve the WA reptile keeping system. AHWA's "2018 proposal for the Addition of new species to the Current Western Australian pet keeping list" - provides for 26 new species to be added as ''approved import" species to the WA keeping list.

If you're a WA keeper or stakeholder please support AHWA's 2018 proposal by submitting AHWA's support letter template to our new Minister for Environment, Matthew Swinbourn MLC.

How to submit the support letter for AHWA's 2018 proposal

Step 1: If you have not registered as an AHWA member, please email: [email protected]

Step 2: The AHWA team will email all members the support letter template document for distribution.

Step 3: Please fill out the highlighted sections in the document with your relevant information.

Step 4: Entitle the subject as "Support for AHWA's 2018 Proposal". Address to: [email protected]

Step 5: Send!

If you require any further information, please contact us and an AHWA team member will assist you as soon as possible.

25/03/2025

It's now been 8 years since myself and a small group of passionate western Australian reptile keepers began petitioning for change in herpeofuana keeping. Really important to push for these additions to the keepers list during this upcoming round of legislation revisions.

**Important update**

The Association of Herpetology Western Australia have received information provided by the DBCA Director General, Stuart Smith, that the department anticipate imminent formal invitation for public consultation regarding the review of the WA herpetofauna keeping system and AHWA’s proposal for the addition of 26 new species to the keeping list. The consultation period is expected to commence around the end of March, though realistically this may be more like April with all factors considered.

Undoubtedly, Western Australian keepers experience the greatest limitations when compared with any other Australian mainland state or territory. This misalignment of legislation is exemplified by the current Western Australian keeping list. For example the Queensland keeping list is compromised of approximately 384 species, the New South Wales list 364 species, the Victoria list 170 species, South Australia list 183 species, while Western Australia maintains the smallest list by a significant margin, at 52 species.

If you’re a passionate Western Australian keeper, hobbiest, amateur or professional herpetologist, now is the time to speak up, have your say and show your support of the WA keeping community.

AHWA’s “2018 proposal for the Addition of New Species to the Current Western Australian Pet Keeping List” provides for the significant expansion of the current keeping list to include many native or endemic WA species currently being kept and bred in other states and territories.

The finalised dates of the prescribed public consultation are yet to be communicated by the DBCA however, we expect these details to be provided imminently.

For any further information, please message us through Facebook or email us directly.