Innovative water infrastructure to support threatened turtles

An important part of water infrastructure projects is ensuring environmental impact is carefully managed. This can be done through many ways and is driven by an environmental impact assessment completed in the initial stages of a project.

A great example of this can be seen at the National Water Grid funded Rookwood Weir in Queensland, where part of the construction of the weir includes a passage to allow turtles to continue their natural movements around the manmade weir.

How does a turtle passage work?

Generally speaking, turtles need to travel up and down river streams to be able to breed, seek shelter and find food. But what happens when we build water infrastructure, such as weirs and dams, within their natural environment that creates a blockage or barrier?

To ensure turtles can carry on with their day-to-day business, projects such as Rookwood Weir, can construct a turtle passage, sometimes known as a ‘turtle bypass’. A turtle passage, while manmade, allows turtles to cross the weir, or dam wall, and make their way up and down stream as required.

While the turtle passage at Rookwood Weir looks quite steep, it has been designed specifically to allow local turtles to make their way up and down easily. To assist, the team has created little pools of water at each step to ensure the turtles can have a rest before going further, and shaded parts of the passage to help mimic the turtles’ natural desire to seek shelter from the sun.

Turtle experts at the project site believe the turtles will learn to use the passage rather than trying to cross through the weir wall.

Which species of turtle will use the passage at Rookwood Weir?

The turtle passage at Rookwood Weir will be used by 2 species of freshwater turtles. These include the vulnerable Fitzroy River Turtle and the critically endangered White Throated Snapping Turtle.

The Fitzroy River Turtle has a distinctive white ring around its eye while the White Throated Snapping Turtle is one of Australia’s largest turtle species.

Interestingly, both turtles have an impressive party trick when it comes to breathing. They can both breath above the water’s surface using their lungs or below the surface using ‘cloacal ventilation’. Cloacal ventilation is the process where water is drawn into and expelled from the cloaca, giving these species another name of ‘bum-breathing’ turtles.

Both turtles have been monitored throughout the Rookwood Weir project, with a Turtle Species Management Plan being implemented by project proponent, Sunwater, to ensure best practices are met.

What can the average person do to help turtles?

Reading about large water infrastructure projects to help turtles may lead you to wonder what the average person can do to help. One simple thing we can do is to:

• avoid fishing using baits where turtles are found and
• avoid using opera-house style crab pots.

This will help reduce the chances of turtles being caught up in fishing equipment.

You can also get involved in turtle conservation programs such as the 1 Million Turtle Program.

More about the project

Rookwood Weir is jointly funded by the Australian Government, Queensland Government and Sunwater. Australian Government funding is provided through the National Water Grid within DCCEEW.

Learn more

• Find about why Rookwood Weir was recognised for excellence for sustainability.
• Read the Sunwater Rookwood Weir Project Turtle Species Management Plan.
• Learn about the Rookwood Weir project.