Review: Mega! Australia’s Megafauna

Did you know that evidence suggests that Australia’s First Nations people lived alongside megafauna for thousands of years? Doesn’t that just blow your mind? This and other facts are explored in Mega! Australia’s Megafauna, created by Laura Holloway and Liz Duthie.

Holloway’s playful writing style creates vivid, memorable facts about the mega animals that existed in Australia between 2.5 million and 11,700 years ago. Think massive echidnas, platypuses and kangaroos. My current favourite animal is Australia’s longest snake ever, the Bluff Downs Giant Python which was 10m long. Holloway light-heartedly describes the snake’s constricting grip behaviour as ‘gave suffocating hugs’. Comments like these make the book fun to read.

A talented illustrator, Duthie has used acrylic paints showing texture, resulting in artworks showing movement and energy. My eight-year-old likened her style to beautiful rock art that humans used to possibly record these animals thousands of years ago. Duthie also illustrated Captain Thunderbolt’s Recital.

Mega! Australia’s Megafauna, is suited to those readers interested in topics such as animals, history, fossils and palaeontology. The book contains useful features for the classroom like a glossary, a size comparison chart and timeline. Please find teaching ideas in the teachers’ notes here.

Ideal for readers seven years and older but my five-year-old loved it too.

Title: Mega! Australia’s Megafauna
Author: Laura Holloway
Illustrator: Liz Duthie
Publisher: Wild Dog, $24.99
Publication Date: 28 October 2025
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781742036830
For ages: 7+
Type: Junior Non-Fiction