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This week is national volunteer week, a chance to celebrate all the amazing work and efforts put in by our amazing team. As well as the beautiful sunrises, we also get to see how the hours and hours of monitoring are helping with conservation efforts for some of our most vulnerable species. We also have some amazing volunteer work being done in the off season with the huge amount of paperwork and admin that requires attention.

Thank you to our amazing volunteers

In a first for eastern Australia, M&DTW volunteers have recorded evidence of an olive ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) nesting.

The turtle nested on Campwin Beach just south of Mackay in early December 2023. The hatchlings emerged in early February 2024.Dr Col Limpus (Chief Scientific Officer for the Qld Aquatic Threatened Species Program) has confirmed that the MDTWteam recorded the 1st evidence of olive ridley nesting in eastern Australia after 50 years of widespread monitoring of turtle nesting.

The majority of the turtles that lay on Mackay mainland beaches are flatbacks (Natator depressus) with some greens (Chelonia mydas) and these turtles have a breaststroke (symmetrical) gait.In rare instances, loggerheads (Caretta caretta), which have an alternate (asymmetrical) gait, have nested on Mackay beaches.

The Campwin turtle had an alternate gait which would normally indicate a loggerhead turtle. However, a review of photos of the hatchlings showed the olive ridley characteristic of 6 or more pairs of large scales on both sides (costal scales) on the carapaces.

Dr Limpus said “the closest olive ridley nesting within the Coral Sea region is in the eastern Solomon Islands. We have a few hundred olive ridleys nesting annually on western Cape York Peninsula – mostly south of Weipa”

How incredible!!!!!!!

We try and hold regular beach walks and information sessions throughout the ‘off’ season to allow members of the public to come along and learn about what we do and find out what’s happening at their local beaches. We have so far held walks at Haliday Beach, Blacks Beach, Salonika, Bucasia, North Harbour and Sarina/Campwin Beaches.

These beach walks are advertised on our facebook page in advance and people are welcome to come along to any of the walks, not just their local beach.

After a slight delay due to Cyclone Kirralee postponing the awards night, the Australia Day awards ceremony went ahead last Wednesday evening at the MECC. M&DTW won the environmental achievement award and a small group of us were able to attend. Thank you for the nomination and a huge thank you to all our volunteers for the countless hours you spend on the beaches for nearly half the year over nesting and hatching season as well as attending stranding reports all year round.

And a massive shout out to the group members who do so much behind the scenes with paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork! The work that’s put in without even getting sand on your feet is extraordinary.

We appreciate the recognition and look forward to many more seasons of watching the sunrise (or the moon for the night patrols)

Thank you to everyone who came along to have a chat and learn a bit about what we do, it was great to see so many interested people!

We also wanted to say a huge congratulations and thank you to these 3 amazing legends. Fay, Lynette and Joe were given honorary life membership at our AGM on Saturday for their incredible commitment to turtle monitoring and conservation. Fay and Lynette are founding members who have been getting up super early and running around in the dark on the beach since 1992 with Joe starting not long after in 1994. Now that’s dedication!

Mackay And District Turtle Watch had the amazing Fay and Ali attend the Wetlands Weekend at St Lawrence recently. They met up with old friends and made some new ones, including Costa the garden Gnome!

Red Cat Adventures and Wildcat Mackay have been fantastic supporters of Turtle Watch since Wildcat began running tours from the Mackay Harbour. They have been saving and donating all the empty cans and bottles off the boat tours and have generously donated over $1500 to us. Thanks for recycling and helping out community groups!

“The Grove” tavern is a member of the Publinc community and Turtle Watch are lucky enough to be one of the community groups they have chosen to benefit from their patrons generosity. Turtle Watch president Steve, along with a group of Turtle Watch volunteers headed to the Grove last Friday night to say thank you to the Grove staff and patrons for their generous support.

We presented them with a certificate of appreciation and Steve got to draw the winning number in the members raffle. We decided to stay for dinner afterwards and can report that the food was delicious!

FLATBACK TURTLE NEST – YEAR 9 STEAM. Whitsunday Anglican Year 9 STEAM classes took to the beach to participate in citizen science in real-time! After being notified that a turtle nest had hatched the previous evening, the classes joined Mackay and District Turtle Watch to excavate the nest, count the hatched eggs and check to see if remaining eggs were unfertilised or not. This incredibly important data helps monitor the progress of turtles on our local beaches. The clutch contained 50 eggs, two unfertilised and unhatched – an excellent result, with a 96% success rate! It was remarkable to observe. The classes will now design a device that will measure factors that impact the survival rate of hatchlings. Thanks to Mr Pierre Craven, Mr Kel Pirie and Mackay and District Turtle Watch for this fantastic opportunity

January 2023 brought with it lots of rain and lots of debris from the River system. Unfortunately, most of the rubbish and vegetation that was washed downstream ended up on the beaches around the Harbour. This timing wasn’t great for the numerous Flatback turtle nests that were due to emerge around this flood event.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of some dedicated volunteers and a helping hand from local workers, the main areas in front of nests was cleared enough for the hatchlings to emerge safely and make their way to the water.

In amongst the massive pile of rubbish and weeds was also a lot of wildlife, like this freshwater turtle that was very lucky to be found and released somewhere safe.

Thanks to the mant people who spent many, many hours clearing beaches and making it safe for the hatchlings!