They are a medium-sized brown owl and have a characteristic voice with calls ranging from a barking dog noise to an intense human-like howl.

However, this is not used as a common name in Australia or other English speaking areas in this species' range and has now been corrected to barking owl.

[4] Latham commented that the species "Inhabits New Holland, but no history annexed, further than that it has a wonderful faculty of contracting and dilating the iris: and that the native name is Goora-a-Gang.

[10] The barking owl is coloured brown with white spots on its wings and a vertically streaked chest.

They choose to live in forests or woodland areas that have large trees for nesting and foliage cover for roosting.

They often reside near river, swamp or creek beds as these features often have large trees with hollows required for nesting and the productivity to support sufficient prey.

The only detailed studies of barking owl home-ranges have been conducted in southern Australia where the species is declining.

[13] These results are mirrored in the Pilliga forests of northern NSW although there the home ranges were larger, often up to 2,500 ha (6,200 acres).

[14] Although barking owls are uncommon and sometimes even rare in many suburban areas, they occasionally do get accustomed to humans and even start to nest in streets or near farm-houses.

[12][pp8–11, 35-77] The breeding season of the barking owl is from July to September in the north of Australia and from August to October in the south.

[16] A clutch of 2 or 3 roundish, dull-white eggs, each measuring 48 by 38 mm (1.9 by 1.5 in), is laid and incubated by the female for about 36 days.

Lower pitched softer barks are often used around the nest or roost areas by the male to call the female for a meal.

This climbs into a louder and higher pitched series of howls, often made while the owl dives at the intruder.

Existing records of Barking Owls on the Atlas of Victorian Wildlife database (NRE 2001) are unlikely to give an accurate representation of the current distribution and abundance of the species.

Extensive surveys in Victorian forests have shown the species to be rare, localised and mainly found in north-eastern Victoria (Loyn et al.

A similar pattern of decline is evident in NSW with surveys in 1998, 2004 and 2008 showing barking owls to be rare in areas that had been assumed to be strongholds.

[27] In contrast (as of 2012), barking owl calls are still a common sound in many wooded parts of Queensland and the Northern Territory, although there have been few recent published population studies/surveys in those areas.

It is not known how the owls will fare through periods of rabbit decline due to climate fluctuations, control programs or disease such as calicivirus.

In the early settlement of Australia a screaming noise matching the barking owl's description was credited and told to the settlers by the Indigenous Australians or the Aboriginals as the bunyip.

It is believed by many that the sound is of the nocturnal barking owl and that proves the location, the noises and the rarity of the bunyip cries.