Gould's Monitor (or goanna) can be seen all over Australia, except in high rainfall forests.

It is a very large (1.7 metres from head to tail) , ground living monitor whose upper surface varies from yellow to nearly black with lighter and darker markings. Its eyes have round pupils and well developed eyelids. Its forked tongue flicks to carry scents to an organ in the roof of its mouth. The limbs are powerful with strong clawed digits.

This monitor shelters in a burrow, hunts smaller animals and may eat carrion.

During the breeding season, males may fight. A female buries up to 11 eggs in a nest dug into earth in spring or summer. The hatchlings emerge the following spring.