Endangered Australian Turtles become the focus of Queensland-first Survey in Tiaro

Issued: 24 April 2024

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Tiaro and District Landcare Group has begun tracking the movements of one of the world's most vulnerable reptiles, the Mary River turtle, in a project jointly funded by the Australian and Queensland Governments through the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.

Landcare members officially released 10 hatchlings into the Mary River in Tiaro on 4 April 2024, with each turtle tagged with a unique nano-transmitter that will be used to monitor the movements of the juvenile Mary River turtles. Tracking these movements will provide insights into the predation levels and survivability of the turtles in the downstream section of the Mary River.

For the first time, non-native eel-tail catfish and native eels within the Mary River have been tagged with transmitters which will allow Tiaro and District Landcare to track the movements of these large fish and identify whether they are in fact predating on juvenile Mary River turtles.

The project, which will continue until September 2025, will allow experts to better understand the extent of the 2021–2022 flooding impacts on the turtle breeding populations, compare movement patterns of turtles and their predators, and better understand if severe flooding events have an impact on turtle population size in this region of the river.

One of Australia’s largest freshwater turtles, the Mary River turtle, which exists only in Queensland, is now one of the state’s most endangered reptiles, with an estimated 95% decline in nesting populations since the 1970’s.

Tiaro and District Landcare Group are working with scientists from Charles Darwin University to gather a variety of population, behavioral and ecological data to compare pre and post flooding trends in an effort to identify the impact the flooding has had on the species, and to inform future management of the Mary River turtle population.

QPWS Principal Project Officer Kaitlyn Houghton said it was exciting to see the project well underway and to meet the project partners.

“The severe flooding that impacted southeast Queensland caused significant damage to our waterways, which are home to some of the state’s most vulnerable species.

“Supporting local community groups natural resource management groups and researchers to deliver habitat restoration, monitoring and species recovery actions is so important. The department cannot tackle the recovery of Queensland’s threatened species alone, so working with a variety of partners and stakeholders increases our collective capacity to achieve real on-ground outcomes for these species.”