What sea turtles nest in Australia?
Six of the world's seven species of sea turtle live in Australian waters, namely the green, loggerhead, hawksbill, flatback, olive ridley and leatherback. Most nest on Australian beaches.
Green turtles are the most common, nesting in large numbers on Raine Island in the northern Great Barrier Reef, one of the largest green turtle rookeries in the world, and on islands off Western Australia.
Loggerhead turtles nest mainly at Mon Repos near Bundaberg and on islands of the southern Great Barrier Reef. Flatback turtles nest only in Australia.
Nesting season
Most nesting happens from November to March. Females crawl ashore at night, dig a hole and lay around 100 eggs before returning to the sea. The temperature of the sand decides the sex of hatchlings.
Threats include plastic, fishing nets, boat strikes, foxes and pigs digging nests, and warming sand that produces mostly female hatchlings.
Turtle-watching tours at Mon Repos are run by rangers, letting visitors watch nesting females and hatchlings without disturbing them. Leatherback nesting in Australia is now very rare, and hawksbills nest mainly in the far north. Many Indigenous communities run sea turtle monitoring programs as part of their ranger work.
Did You Know?
Raine Island has been the focus of a major project to rebuild nesting beaches and prevent turtle deaths.