Travelling paths and overnight roosts of the lace monitor, Varanus varius, were recorded by radiotracking during periods of up to 19 months in lowland open forest of south-eastern Australia. Home ranges were calculated by four methods: convex polygon (without correction for small sample size), convex polygon (with correction for small sample size), and two 95% probability ellipses. From field observations, I conclude that the convex polygon method without correction for sample size provides the most realistic description of the space used by V. varius. By this method, I calculated a mean (+/- s.d.) home range of 65 +/- 34 ha for 13 male V. varius (mean mass 5.1kg) that were radio-tracked for 2-19 months.