{"id":5908,"date":"2026-05-06T11:31:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/5908\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T11:31:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:31:19","slug":"freshwater-turtles-thriving-only-months-after-outback-lake-was-on-verge-of-drying-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/5908\/","title":{"rendered":"Freshwater turtles thriving only months after outback lake was on verge of drying up"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the early hours of the morning, university students Amelia Corboy and Eric Brooks jump in their kayak to check on the turtle traps they placed out the night before.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At Imperial Lakes Nature Park on the outskirts of Broken Hill, valuable data is being recorded one turtle at a time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, the population is thriving.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"two<\/p>\n

The research team set traps every morning and night for a week. (ABC Broken Hill: Lily McCure)<\/p>\n

These freshwater turtles are what PhD candidate Wesley Smith has travelled to far west NSW for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Smith and his team are looking to understand how the turtle population is booming in a typically arid region of Australia and whether artificial habitats are aiding in their survival.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“What makes these turtles unique is that they are out in very high numbers in a very arid part of Australia,” he said.<\/p>\n

Conducting research at the lakes on the outskirts of Broken Hill and along sites of the Murray- Darling Basin, the team hopes to get a better idea of how many there are and the different species present.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"green<\/p>\n

Imperial Lakes Nature Park is on the outskirts of Broken Hill in far west NSW. (ABC Broken Hill: Lily McCure)<\/p>\n

Unexpected discovery<\/p>\n

The research team travelled from Wodonga, north-eastern Victoria, in April after being invited by Landcare Broken Hill to collect data.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During their time, more than 500 turtles were recorded across the two artificial lakes, including the eastern long-necked turtle, eastern short-neck turtle, also known as the Murray River turtle, and broad-shelled turtle species.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Once the turtles’ size, weight and type are recorded, they are released back into the lake. (ABC Broken Hill: Lily McCure)<\/p>\n

Pleasantly surprised with the findings, Mr Smith said it was particularly interesting to have found so many of the short-necked turtles, as they typically did not move over land very effectively.<\/p>\n

“To get out here [to the Imperial lakes] they would need either outside assistance or a very large flood to move out here,” Mr Smith said.<\/p>\n

“Or they just had to have been out here [in far west NSW] for thousands of years.”<\/p>\n

Mr Smith said the broad-shelled and long-necked species were much more suited to overland movement, where they were able to walk between various water holes in the area.<\/p>\n

Emma Kynaston is a Master’s student and is part of the team that travelled to Broken Hill.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Emma Kynaston from Wodonga, Victoria, was part of the team that travelled to the far west. (ABC Broken Hill: Lily McCure)<\/p>\n

Ms Kynaston’s research includes a study of eastern long-necked turtles in a wastewater treatment plant in south-eastern Australia, examining different population dynamics and the importance of these facilities as habitats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the trip was being planned, Ms Kynaston said she was sceptical that they would find many turtles at all.<\/p>\n

“I was just surprised they were out here in general,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I was expecting 100 or so \u2026 we got five times that.”<\/p>\n

Lake brought back from the brink\"The<\/p>\n

A dead turtle at Imperial Lakes Nature Park outside Broken Hill. (ABC Broken Hill: Kristina Rosengren)<\/p>\n

Landcare Broken Hill put out an urgent call in January for help to purchase water for the perpetual eastern lake following a period of hot, dry conditions.<\/p>\n

Despite surviving the federation and millennium droughts, the lake was on the verge of drying up<\/a> for the first time in its 130-year history.<\/p>\n

A national crowdfunding campaign raised more than $100,000 to buy water for the lakes and keep the wildlife alive.<\/p>\n

“It bought us seven weeks of time before the rain came on the very last day of February,” Landcare Broken Hill president Simon Molesworth said.<\/p>\n

Record-breaking rains<\/a> of more than 200 millimetres fell across parts of far west NSW at the end of February and into March, drenching pastoral land and filling the lakes at the nature park.<\/p>\n

Now, with the two park lakes full, Mr Molesworth said they had a leftover water fund they could hold onto for the next dry period.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’ve basically set up a strategy whereby we can keep water in the lakes,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Simon<\/p>\n

Simon Molesworth is surprised at the number of turtles found. (ABC Broken Hill: Kristina Rosengren)<\/p>\n

Before the rain, one of the main concerns was the threat to wildlife.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Molesworth said he could only imagine what the turtles were doing to survive when the lake was almost dry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“[The turtles] must have been stacked up as though they were in an elevator \u2026 there was so little water there,” he said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As the nature park springs back to life, Mr Molesworth has celebrated the success of the La Trobe research team in discovering such a large population of turtles.<\/p>\n

“We had no idea there might be that number,” he said.<\/p>\n

Team turtle<\/p>\n

According to Wesley Smith, there was not a lot of research into turtles in arid areas.<\/p>\n

With declining numbers of turtles<\/a> in the Murray River, Mr Smith wants to better understand the population, particularly in the Darling and Lachlan river systems.<\/p>\n

\"4<\/p>\n

Amelia Corboy, Emma Kynaston, Eric Brook and Wesley Smith travelled from Wodonga, Victoria to Broken Hill. (ABC Broken Hill: Lily McCure)<\/p>\n

They’re also studying how the Menindee lakes system and its dams impact turtle movement, in addition to investigating artificial ponds and irrigation channels as possible habitats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Mr Smith said the findings exceeded expectations, it would be important to follow up on the discoveries.<\/p>\n

“This population seems to be thriving,” Mr Smith said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Which certainly is a good thing, but we’ll have to dig into it a bit more.”<\/p>\n

Mr Smith said being able to come back in a year would be an important step in understanding the sustainability of the population.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Wesley Smith is researching how turtles survive in the arid regions of the Murray-Darling Basin. (ABC Broken Hill: Lily McCure)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the early hours of the morning, university students Amelia Corboy and Eric Brooks jump in their kayak…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,4368,7202,7205,7200,7204,7198,7199,7203,3685,7197,7201],"class_list":{"0":"post-5908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-austrlia","10":"tag-conservation","11":"tag-fresh-water-turtles","12":"tag-freshwater-turtle-research","13":"tag-imperial-lakes","14":"tag-imperial-lakes-nature-park","15":"tag-la-trobe-university","16":"tag-lakes","17":"tag-protected-turtles","18":"tag-research","19":"tag-turtle-research","20":"tag-university-students"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}