The Green and Golden Bell Frog Litoria aurea population at Sydney Olympic Park is one of the largest populations of the species remaining in New South Wales. This endangered species was identified in the midst of extensive site development occurring for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, and became the focus of a long-term conservation program that has significantly influenced the design and development of the Park. This program has resulted in conservation of the original population, and establishment of two new self-sustaining sub-populations on newly-built habitats on remediated lands. This paper presents an overview of the frog conservation and management program at Sydney Olympic Park from 1993 to 2006. It describes how legislation, science, policy, development and sport have, with the dedication of hundreds of people and the tenacity of the frog itself, come together to bring about the frog's conservation. It describes how the frog and its habitat continue to be managed in an urban parkland setting, and the future challenges that are present in securing the long-term viability of the population.

For pond‐breeding species, the distribution of larvae is a reflection of habitat suitability and adult breeding site selection. Some species preferentially breed in ephemeral ponds, which can provide benefits for larvae. An alternative strategy used by adults to increase offspring survival is to detect aquatic predators and avoid them when selecting breeding sites. We investigated whether either of these types of breeding site selection are contributing to the negative correlation between the distributions of tadpoles of the threatened green and golden bell frog (Litoria aurea) and the introduced eastern gambusia (Gambusia holbrooki) in Sydney, Australia. From 2003 to 2012 we drained ponds to temporarily remove gambusia and examined the effect of removal on the numbers of male, female, and juvenile frogs, and tadpoles. We found that males preferentially selected fish‐free ponds as breeding sites. In addition, the removal of gambusia increased tadpole abundance to over 140 times that of an undrained pond. Pond draining did not influence female or juvenile abundances. The ability to detect and avoid gambusia may be mitigating the effect of predation to a certain extent. We conclude that pond draining to remove exotic fish is an effective strategy that can be used to greatly increase the reproductive success of this and potentially other threatened amphibian species in the presence of exotic predators. © 2017 The Wildlife Society.

When Sydney's 760 ha Homebush Bay industrial site was rezoned for urban renewal and staging the Olympic Games in 2000, massive investment was made to remediate past damage and develop a future public park containing active recreation and natural areas. Since that date, endangered forest and wetland communities, along with threatened fauna species, have received priority treatments to improve the ecological function of the Park's natural areas. Evaluation of progress 12 years on reveals substantial achievements and multiple lessons.

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