Please rescue the turtle and take it home before calling us on the numbers below. Please don’t leave the animal, or put it back into the water as it may have health issues which aren’t obvious to the untrained eye.  It would be appreciated if you would also rescue dead turtles as well.  It’s much quicker, for us and the turtle, if we can collect a turtle from an address rather than have to look for one turtle in a large area of lakeside habitat. 

If you find a turtle hatchling (usually in August and September) 

Turtle nests can be laid some distance from a waterbody, and that distance can pose a number of hazards for tiny turtle hatchlings making their way to the water.

Just picking the hatchling up and placing it in fringing vegetation in the nearest water body may increase its chances of survival by up to 90% as it is on the journey from the nest to the water that they are most at risk - cyclists on bike paths, ravens, traffic, road kerbs & drains, becoming trapped in thick couch grass and being in the path of the large mowers used by councils on the grassed areas around lakes.   If the hatchling appears to be dead, or if you have any concerns at all about the hatchling, please don’t hesitate to call us for rescue and/or advice.   

If you do help a hatchling(s) to a waterbody, we'd still like to hear from them as we record all such incidents to build on our body of data about these animals - when and where they're found, etc.

Download our WHAT TO DO IF YOU FIND A TURTLE  document. 

To download a copy to your smart phone you can scan this QR code