Murray River Turtle

The Murray River turtle is a fast swimmer with claw like flippers. It likes to live where there are riffle zones and rapids in the river because it likes the fast flowing water. It nests on dust covered river banks and the turtles return to the same nesting site year after year. It has the strange capability to absorb oxygen when underwater through gill-like structures near its cloacae, as well as breathe air when on the surface.

This turtle was only described formally by scientists in 1994 and little scientific research has been done on where it lives, how it breeds and how we can conserve it.

The Murray River Turtle is an endangered species which only lives in one river in the whole of Queensland. Unluckily, the Queensland Government is planning to build the Travertine Crossing Dam on the Murray River that will destroy 36.5 km of the river, flooding the habitat of turtles and much other rare and endangered variety.