Our Project Officer, Marilyn Connell, has been awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship 2010. This Fellowship will enable her to travel overseas and investigate Community based turtle projects in Malaysia (Turtle Conservation Centre, Terengganu and Turtle Conservation Project, Sri Lanka) and undertake a Field course on river turtle conservation, management and research in Brazil. Another member of our Landcare group, Deb Brischke, will accompany Marilyn. Their trip starts on the 2nd Sept 2010, so be sure to follow their blogs and photos on this website and share their experiences.

Title: Tiaro Catch & Release Fishing Competition
Location: Petrie Park, Tiaro
Description: All welcome to join in Family weekend, enjoying the river, catching fish, releasing them & winning prizes (Juniors, Seniors & Family)
Start Date: 2010-10-30
End Date: 2010-10-31

Title: World turtle trip
Description: Marilyn & Deb leave today for their tour of turtle projects in Malaysia, Sri Lanka & Brazil.
Start Date: 2010-09-02
Start Time: 13:55
End Date: 2010-10-14

Title: Landcare Meeting
Location: Tiaro Primary School
Description: Monthly meeting. All welcome. Back to weekday evening meetings now the Tiaro bridge is functional again.
Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2010-08-18

Title: Field Research
Location: Tiaro
Description: UQ team conducting field work on the Mary River turtle
Date: 2010-07-22

Title: Bus trip to Uni of Qld
Description: All day bus trip to visit Uni of Qld turtle research project & Mary River Cod hatchery at Lake Macdonald. Meet at McDowall Car Park Maryborough
Start Time: 07:00
Date: 2010-07-17

Title: Monthly meeting
Location: TESS Woocoo office
Description: Monthly meeting followed by BYO BBQ. Meeting venue changed due to Mungar Bridge repairs.
Start Time: 3:00pm
Date: 2010-05-23

Title: Uni of Qld visit
Location: Hideaway pub, Tiaro
Description: An informal discussion about current and future partnerships with University of Qld with Professor Craig Franklin and PhD candidate Mariana Campbell.
Start Time: 18:00
Date: 2010-02-08

A very relaxing and informative evening was spent on Monday evening with Professor Craig Franklin, PhD candidate Mariana A. de M. Campbell and Dr Hamish Campbell from the University of Qld. We greatly appreciated the effort Craig made to travel to Tiaro & fit us into his hectic schedule. It is a great partnership with benefits to both organisations, but most of all, we are learning more about the physiology and habitat requirements for this endangered turtle. An interesting discovery has been the huge temperature range of wild nests.  Temperatures this season were recorded between 42deg C max and 17deg C min.

February is generally our wettest month. Rarely do we have any nests with unhatched eggs at this time of year and consequently don’t have to worry about the likelihood of flood waters inundating nests. However this year we still have a number of unhatched clutches. With a rising river in early Feb I had to make a dash to the river, got caught in a downpour, and rescued 2 clutches. They were relocated to the highest part of the bank. Thankfully this weeks river rise (river peaked at 4.80m at Home Park, our nearest River Gauging Station) was below these clutches which may take another 2 weeks to hatch. Unfortunately on another nesting bank, we were unable to get to 2 clutches. However we are hopeful as the river is dropping quickly.