Very similar in appearance to the sand flathead but is lighter in colour and has three or four well-defined black spots surrounded by white in the lower half of the tail. Behind the eye it has two long adjoining spines which are about the same length, whereas in the sand flathead the lower spine is considerably longer than the upper. The southern bluespotted flathead is common on patches of sand adjacent to seagrass beds.

• Max Size: 90 cm
• Sea Temperature Range: 11.5-23.4°C
• Depth: 1-30m
• Habitat: Soft sediment

• IUCN Threat Status: Not Evaluated
• Occurrence: Infrequent (5% of sites)
  Occurrence describes how often the species is found on surveys within its distribution. It is calculated as the % of reef sites surveyed by RLS divers across all the ecoregions in which the species has been observed
• Abundance: Solitary (1 per transect)
  Abundance is calculated as the average number of individuals recorded per RLS transect, where present.