It’s a story almost too preposterous to believe, starring a group of young uni students, an infamous state premier, a legendary Australian poet and an extinct frog that gave birth by vomiting its young – all at the dawn of the Australian conservation movement.

Yet the tale of the southern gastric-brooding frog, which once inhabited the rainforest streams of the Conondale and Blackall ranges in south-east Queensland, continues to perplex and inspire a new generation of citizen scientists as they hop into FrogID Week .

On November 23, 1973, Chris Corben, his then-partner Anita Smyth, her sister Debbie and journalist Greg Roberts were young naturalists living in inner-city Brisbane.

The gastric brooding frog, which gave birth to live froglets out of its mouth, went extinct shortly after

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