4th Australian Marine Turtle Symposium 2018 – Bundaberg QLD

The 4th Australian Marine Turtle Symposium was held in Bundaberg from the 8th – 10th September 2018 and celebrated the 50th year of Turtle Research at Mon Repos.

The theme for the 4th Australian Marine Turtle Symposium was “An environment good for turtles is good for us”. The focus was engaging the diversity of professional and non-professional community groups, indigenous communities involved in caring for our country, students and individuals with interest in conservation.

It was our pleasure to be part of a year of celebration of 50 years of Turtle Research at Mon Repos. Dr Col Limpus first visited Mon Repos as a 5 year old child and it became a family tradition beginning in 1956 to see the new year in at Mon Repos beach. In 1968 Col started a 4 year study of Flatback turtles which got out of hand and is still running. A legacy is being built by Col to instil the love, appreciation and practice to sustain turtle populations in younger generations. His research convinced the Queensland Government to declare waters off Mon Repos a Marine Park in 1990 and assisted in making turtle exclusion devices compulsory on fishing trawlers in 2001. He was honoured with the awarding of the Public Service Medal in 1993.

The 2018 Symposium was held at the Bundaberg Regional Council’s recently opened ultra-modern Multiplex Community Centre. Over 150 delegates from all Australian States and Territories and neighbouring countries attended. The organising committee comprising notable turtle researchers and turtle conservation volunteers from around Australia arranged the program to engage the diverse range of participants as well as members of the general public who wished to attend.