[2][3] The species was described in 1953 by Fulbright research scholar John A. Moore from a specimen collected at Towong Hill Station at Corryong, Victoria, and sent to the Australian Museum.

The curator, Roy Kinghorn, recognised it as a new species and allowed Moore to describe it.

The body and head are short and wide, the snout has a slight point, and the fingers and toes lack webbing.

[5] The southern corroboree frog is native to Kosciuszko National Park in the northern Snowy Mountains, where it found at locales between the Maragle Range and Smiggin Holes.

[8] The species are critically endangered,[1] with the wild population thought to number around 30 individuals.