Turtle Experts in Adelaide for First Australasian Turtle Symposium
Many species of freshwater turtles are facing serious threats, including all three South Australian species. The symposium aims to understand these animals, identify their threats and share knowledge about how they can be protected.
The two-day symposium on 28-29 September 2026 is the first ever to bring together First Nations, university researchers and students, conservation volunteers, citizen scientists, wildlife carers, policy makers, environmental organisations, government practitioners, turtle keepers and breeders, and landholders with turtle habitat.
The symposium also features an evening of dinner and turtle-themed comedy, Turtles After Dark, starring Kevin Kropinyeri. Turtles After Dark is open to the public as part of the Nature Festival.
Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board Project Officer and Australasian Turtle Society President, Dr Sylvia Clarke, said bringing people together was particularly important for South Australia, where the freshwater turtles are in rapid decline in the Murray River, and with limited local research and monitoring of turtles throughout South Australia.
‘We don’t know enough about the pressures our local turtles are facing, where they might be most at risk or where populations are doing well,’ Sylvia said.
‘By bringing people together, we can share what we know and identify where there are gaps in our knowledge.’
Seeing turtles in your local river was very common in the early 1900s but fewer people have the privilege of coming across them now as their habitats have changed and turtle numbers are a fraction of what they once were.
The community can help build our understanding of South Australia’s turtles by reporting any turtle and nest sightings through TurtleSAT, a national citizen science platform that helps researchers and land managers build a picture of turtle populations and their habitat.
‘Every sighting helps build our understanding of where turtles are, what they’re doing, and what might be threatening them, and can be used to plan local and state-wide actions to improve their survival,’ Sylvia said.
‘Information shared during the symposium, together with sightings contributed through TurtleSAT, will inform the first South Australian Turtle Management Plan, which is due for completion in mid-2027.’
‘It would be wonderful to be able to walk along our rivers in the city and the country and see turtles basking on logs and islands again.’
Strong attendance from First Nations has been facilitated though the Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board TURTLE Project (Together Understanding and Recovering Turtles in our Landscapes and Ecosystems) with funding from the South Australian Government’s Landscape Priorities Fund.
The symposium is sponsored by the Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board through the landscape levies. Turtles After Dark is being run in partnership with Green Adelaide.
The dinner and comedy night is open to the public to attend as part of the Nature Festival: https://www.landscape.sa.gov.au/mr/events/nature-festival-turtles-after-dark
