Biologist Geoff Williams said it was now understood platypus are active throughout the day - though you are 33 per cent more likely to see them from the banks of the Murray in Albury early in the morning.

"If you stand still and take your time, they are no more difficult to see than any other native mammal," he said.

"I have been near the canoe club at Noreuil where there are hundreds of people, and noticed them.

"Because of those myths, it was traditionally thought you couldn't study platypus by visual means - they relied on methods like trapping - but we started to think it would be possible to do visual monitoring."

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The conservancy has now launched the Australian Platypus Monitoring Network, to gather sightings of platypus.

Mr Williams has been holding workshops this week for people in the North East interested in contributing.

"It works; if you get enough people tracking platypus over time, you can actually see how population trends are going," he said.

"And that's really important because the platypus is now classed as near-threatened.

"That doesn't mean they're endangered, but it is a 30-year warning to prevent this species getting into real difficulty."

Mr Williams said it would take five to 10 minutes to spot a platypus.

"They need to eat 20 per cent of their body mass every 24 hours, so they're feeding constantly," he said.

"They are on the surface for 10, 15 seconds, dive underwater for about 30 to 50 (seconds), they feed and put feed in their cheek pouches, come to the surface, chew their food and then the whole process starts again.

"In roughly a minute, they're diving and coming up.

"So if you're scanning for five minutes, the chances are, you'll see a platypus if it's there."

As if to prove a point, a platypus was seen in the Murray near Noreuil Park on Friday morning as Mr Williams took a group on a monitoring walk.