Turtles


Australia is home to about 23 species of freshwater turtle. All but one of these species belong to the family Chelidae, which is found only in Australasia and South America. These long-, snake-, or side-necked turtles retract their head and neck beneath their shell by folding it to one side, rather than drawing their head backwards as most of the world’s species of turtles and tortoises do.

Australia also has six species of marine turtles but lacks the truly land-based tortoises that occur on all other continents except Antarctica. Only three marine turtles occur regularly in Sydney waters, the Green Turtle, the Loggerhead and the Leatherback.

North American species of freshwater turtles have also been found in the Sydney region, probably as a result of people releasing imported pets into local waterways.


Turtles

Announcements

14 Jun 2025

It's relatively common for people to upload sightings which may actually contain multiple species.E.g. photos of a plant that may also have captured an insect on one of the leaves OR a photo containin...


Continue reading

Capital Ecology backs NatureMapr for 2026

NatureMapr integrates with Wildlife Insights for NSW based camera trap data

NatureMapr update

Platform update

Discussion

MB wrote:
6 Apr 2025

Chelonia mydas
6 Apr 2025
@MB Was the turtle dead or badly injured?
It looks like propeller lacerations on the carapace.

Chelonia mydas
Mike wrote:
22 Mar 2025
More in top dam.

Chelodina longicollis
wombey wrote:
25 Jan 2025
Can you down load an image please

Emydura macquarii
wombey wrote:
14 Dec 2024
Based on most likely species rather than much help from the image

Chelodina longicollis
824,129 sightings of 22,554 species from 14,227 members
CCA 3.0 | privacy
NatureMapr is developed and subsidised by at3am IT Pty Ltd and is proudly Australian made