{"id":885452,"date":"2026-10-17T11:22:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T11:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/885452\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T11:22:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T11:22:17","slug":"more-to-life-darwin-accountant-trades-numbers-for-cane-toad-taxidermy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/885452\/","title":{"rendered":"‘More to life’: Darwin accountant trades numbers for cane toad taxidermy"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are 531 dead cane toads in Mithram Selvaratnam’s Darwin backyard freezers.<\/p>\n

By Christmas, some will be wearing Santa hats.<\/p>\n

The former accountant runs an unusual souvenir business, which sees him doing everything from sandblasting and whitening crocodile skulls to gutting and stuffing dead toads.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Former accountant Mithram Selvaratnam now sells taxidermy cane toads and crocodile products at Darwin’s markets. (ABC News: Lillian Watkins)<\/p>\n

It’s a far cry from the life he envisioned for himself when he left Malaysia to study accounting in Australia 16 years ago.<\/p>\n

“When I grew up it was all about the rat race,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There was no way this was part of my five or 10-year plan, that’s for sure.”<\/p>\n

The decision to leave it all behind came to Mr Selvaratnam after working full time as an accountant in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

“I was doing that corporate life, 9 to 5, stuck in the office, and I just felt like there was more to life,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Christmas-themed cane toads are being prepared for the festive season. (ABC News: Lillian Watkins)<\/p>\n

Word of Mr Selvaratnam’s dilemma got out to his Darwin-based aunt, who offered an unexpected solution.<\/p>\n

For decades she had been selling curries at the iconic Mindil Markets and a neighbouring stall had put his Territory souvenir business up for sale.<\/p>\n

Taxidermy bootcamp<\/p>\n

That was in 2017 and the transition from spreadsheets to stuffed toads hasn’t always been smooth sailing.<\/p>\n

Mr Selvaratnam was initially purchasing the toads from a taxidermist in Queensland, but when the supplier decided to retire, he was left with two choices \u2014 give up the business or take matters into his own hands.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Grace Ray works on a taxidermy cane toad at Mithram’s Leanyer work space. (ABC News: Lillian Watkins)<\/p>\n

“Before I started doing this, I could barely pick a toad up,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But I thought, we have plenty of toads in the Territory, an abundance of supply, so I’ll just make them myself.<\/p>\n

“I went [to Townsville] and put myself through a two-day bootcamp of learning how to do it.”<\/p>\n

It was through gritted teeth and pinched nostrils that Mr Selvaratnam learnt to gut, tan, stuff and dry the warty pests before painting them with varnish to make them “look pretty”.<\/p>\n

\"Mithram<\/p>\n

Former accountant Mithram Selvaratnam couldn’t even touch cane toads until he underwent ‘taxidermy bootcamp’. (ABC News: Lillian Watkins)<\/p>\n

Armed with his new-found knowledge, a head torch and gloves, Mr Selvaratnam began scouring golf courses and gardens hunting the pests.<\/p>\n

Until he hit the jackpot.<\/p>\n

Toad busters<\/p>\n

Community ‘toad busts’, like the one held recently at the Territory Wildlife Park<\/a>, can provide hundreds of dead toads to Mr Selvaratnam in a single night without him having to lift a finger.<\/p>\n

Territory Wildlife Park ranger Luke Hare says toad busts aim to reduce the numbers of the pests while also educating the community of their dangers.<\/p>\n

“Cane toads produce significant risk to a lot of our native species,” he said.<\/p>\n

“A lot of our natives can’t tolerate the toxins cane toads have, so when they eat the cane toad, or try to eat them, often it will kill them.”<\/p>\n

Mr Hare estimates that there could be hundreds of thousands of cane toads running rampant in the wildlife park on Darwin’s outskirts.<\/p>\n

For Mr Selvaratnam, the park’s latest haul of 531 toads has come just in time for his end-of-year Christmas orders.<\/p>\n

Soon, newly minted santa hat-clad critters will join their rum-drinking, ukulele-playing and occasionally X-rated counterparts.<\/p>\n

\"Gloved<\/p>\n

The recent toad bust has filled the freezers at his Leanyer workshop. (ABC News: Lillian Watkins)<\/p>\n

A second life<\/p>\n

But cane toads aren’t the only unwanted creatures finding a second life in Mr Selvaratnam’s backyard.<\/p>\n

Among the tanning equipment and taxidermy tools are chest freezers full of crocodile heads.<\/p>\n

“I started with the toads and the skulls came about a year after that,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Crocodile teeth and skulls are also turned into souvenirs. (ABC News: Lillian Watkins)<\/p>\n

Mr Selvaratnam had initially been buying the skulls from a supplier, but in a case of deja vu, retirement once again threatened his supply chain.<\/p>\n

“This time I didn’t go down to Queensland to learn, I just got him on the phone and he ran me through it, and from then, on experimentation, really,” he said.<\/p>\n

The skulls are a by-product from crocodile farms in the Territory, and along with croc teeth, buffalo heads and other leather goods, they make up the rest of Mr Selvaratnam’s unlikely livelihood.<\/p>\n

He’s also recently been experimenting with other forms of taxidermy including the Territory’s iconic barramundi.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mithram Selvaratnam has been testing out his taxidermy skills on barramundi. (ABC News: Lillian Watkins)<\/p>\n

“It’s stuff that is quite different, things that people normally just throw away, there’s no other use for heads and carcasses,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So being able to give them a second life, it’s nice.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are 531 dead cane toads in Mithram Selvaratnam’s Darwin backyard freezers. By Christmas, some will be wearing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":885453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[201479,107187,371552,371549,371550,79,371551,371548,371553,201480,201],"class_list":["post-885452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-cane-toad-bust","tag-cane-toads","tag-croc-skulls","tag-mindil-markets","tag-mithram-selvaratnam","tag-science","tag-souvenirs","tag-taxidermy","tag-territory-wildlife-park","tag-toad-bust","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}