From the coast to inland waterholes, Queensland’s regional NRM organisations are working to protect our threatened marine and freshwater turtles.

Through habitat restoration, predator control, nest protection and community-led conservation and monitoring efforts, they’re helping to support vulnerable turtle populations under pressure.

Thanks to the Queensland Government’s commitment to its largest-ever investment in natural resource management, the NRM Expansion Program will include funding for new projects to protect endangered turtle species and their habitat.

Check out some of the conservation work taking place to protect turtle species across Queensland.

Protecting endangered turtles on Cape York

Over the past 10 years, the Western Cape Turtle Threat Abatement Alliance (WCTTAA) has reduced turtle nest predation from over 90 per cent to as low as 10 per cent for Olive ridley, Flatback, Hawksbill and Green turtle nesting sites.

Supported by Cape York NRM, WCTTAA was formed more than 10 years ago after 100% nest predation was recorded on some beaches. Today it is a partnership of six on-ground Indigenous land and sea owners and managers from Apudthama Land Trust and the Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council, Napranum Aboriginal Land Council, Mapoon, Pormpuraaw, Aak Puul Ngantam, Aurukun and Kowanyama. Find out more.

Rangers installing turtle cages on a Cape York beach. These purpose-built, rust-proof cages are installed over nests to prevent feral animals, such as wild pigs, from attacking the eggs.

Celebrating hero volunteers who protect turtles

FBA’s Team Turtle Central Queensland (Team Turtle CQ) volunteer Alice Pakay dedicates hours every day monitoring a 4km stretch of the region’s busiest beach to monitor turtle activity during nesting season.

Alice monitors a beach in the Gladstone region and has recorded 189 tracks and 155 nests on the beach during the 2024-25 season.

She is one of 81 volunteers that make up Team Turtle CQ, a citizen science marine monitoring program where volunteers record marine turtle nesting and hatching activity along the Capricorn and Curtis coasts. Find out more.

Alice Pakay dedicates hours every day to monitor turtle activity during nesting season.

Critically endangered turtles discovered

Burnett Mary Regional Group recently uncovered new evidence that the critically endangered white-throated snapping turtle is not only present but also breeding in the Baffle Creek catchment.

This discovery builds on their initial findings from May 2023, when they recorded the first known white-throated snapping turtles in Baffle Creek—two males and one female—expanding the species’ known range beyond the Burnett, Fitzroy, and Mary catchments. Find out more.

BMRG Project Officer Desmond Purcell holding a female White-throated snapping turtle.

Turtles in trouble in Gulf Country

Working alongside the Tagalaka Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC and the Tagalaka Rangers, Gulf Savannah NRM‘s Turtles in Trouble project has been investigating if feral pigs are behind a declining northern snake-necked turtle population at Tagalaka National Park near Croydon. Find out more.

Gulf Savannah NRM and Tagalaka Aboriginal Corporation’s Turtles in Trouble project is working to establish a baseline population estimate of the northern snake-necked turtle at Tagalake National Park.