Snapper (Chrysophrys auratus) is an emblematic fish species and a key fishery resource in southern Australia. Despite its significant role for commercial and recreational fisheries, declines in snapper stock size and productivity over the past 15 years have led to both Spencer Gulf/West Coast and Gulf St Vincent stocks being classified as ‘depleted’ and closed to fishing since November 2019. These stock declines and subsequent management actions have led to a multi-million science program to support Snapper stock recovery. This presentation will outline major research priorities and recent results for Snapper science program, derived from a combination of multiple sampling techniques covering all life stages of C. auratus. Improvements of an existing stock assessment model enable the integration of multiple fisheries-independent data streams to assess stock size and productivity, and derive future projections based on recruitment surveys. This approach recognises that the vulnerability of snapper fishery is partly attributable to the species’ life history traits such as slow growth, late maturity, highly variable recruitment, and aggregating behaviour. The improved detectability of seasonal spawning aggregations is a major step forward towards spatially explicit predictions of snapper distribution and biomass to inform management arrangements.