This is juvenile wild eastern water dragon has been hanging out in my front yard ( loves my tree and really loves those dead crickets I've been tossing onto the lawn ( for the water skinks and geckos ).
Been taking crickets from my fingers occasionally , today she let me pick her up - a couple of nice juicy superworms ( they arrived this afternoon ) did the trick …. nom nom nom .
Cheakie is not the least bit phased by this dragon , he even stole a few crickets right from under her nose this afternoon.
Lots of them right up the east coast of Australia ( SA, Vic, NSW, QLD) , like to live near swamps, creeks, lakes, and rivers and like bluetongues , very common to have them in suburbian areas if there is a creek or river or lake or swamp nearby and some woodland . Very common for eastern water skinks and eastern bluetongues to share the same territory , like water skinks , these eastern water dragons love water and can swim very well ( our local version of crocodiles ) in they can swim fully submerged and stay under for a long time.
More info http://www.arod.com.au/arod/reptilia/Squamata/Agamidae/Intellagama/lesueurii
Yes she's wild , and took a while for me to earn her trust ( first spotted her in November, but she's probably been living in my garden with some of her siblings for a while).
Didn't see her for a while after that bushfire , was very pleased to see her back in garden again.
Fully grown she'll be about 1m long and about 900g to 1.1kg.
The lady breeder I bought Caesar and Cleo off also breeds these , and lets her breeders have the run of her house , they make great pets ( every bit as good as bluetongues and beardies ) but are much larger dragon than beardie when fuily grown.
Kid next door when he was about 14 yo had a pet adult female EWD and brought it over to visit me a few times, it was HUGE and a very impressive ( intimidating ) dragon .
Told me he often ran a cool bath and would share the bath with his pet dragon for dragon fun time.
About 30 minutes after the rain stopped and the sun came back out, my friendly water dragon was back , and was scratching at my front window while looking at me.
I eventually gave in and treated her to a couple of superworms .
I think Cheakie is back inside , as I've heard rustling about behind the corner of my lounge yesterday and today.