The story that has stuck with me through the year is not one single story, but a series of stories on the one subject - the Manning River Helmeted Turtle, or Purvis’ Turtle.

The turtle is extremely rare, very beautiful, and little studied, and is endemic only to the upper and middle catchments of the Manning River.

The ball began rolling with me learning about this turtle, and thinking if I hadn’t heard of it before, surely a lot, maybe even most, of the people living in the Manning Valley hadn’t either. Two months after the original story was written the turtle was officially declared an endangered species. 

Julia’s standout stories:

​What is it about this story that sticks in your mind:

The desperate plight of this little creature. Here is this rare, and very beautiful, freshwater turtle that nobody knows much about, and it’s right here in our own river and nowhere else in the world. Yet very few locals knew it even existed.

The few people who had been keeping an eye on this turtle over the year reported that numbers were dwindling rapidly, due to predation by other animals (foxes in particular) and poaching by humans.

What were the challenges in writing this story:

Wading through scientific reports which are as dry as dust and can put you to sleep, such as the NSW Scientific Committee’s Preliminary Determination to support the proposal to list the turtle as an endangered species. It’s like being back at university - it’s a very academic document. Trying to translate that into something more interesting and readable definitely took a lot of work and time. 

Sourcing photos was difficult at first, as well. It’s not like I can take my iphone down to the river and take a photo of this turtle. However I found a very kind man on Flickr, Gary Stephenson, who was only too happy for me to use his astoundingly beautiful photos.

What kind of stories do you love to write:

I enjoy writing about people in our community who are quietly going about doing extraordinary things. But I do have a special interest in writing about the environment and our wildlife, and can even become a little fanatical about it, so this story really fit the bill.

People always love animal stories, especially the cute and cuddly ones, or snakes and sharks.  But stories like the turtle, or about our grey-headed flying foxes at Wingham Brush, they’re the ones that I get fierce about.

What would you like to add:

When I look back over the year, all the way back to March when I wrote the initial story, I am filled with a sense of quiet awe and profound gratitude at the reach a story can have.

An unofficial Messenger group started as a result of those stories, with readers and myself then forming the Manning River Turtle Conservation Group to help the OEH research the turtle, and to educate and raise awareness for our locals, particularly our school children.

We held a night-time winter solstice lantern walk at Wingham Brush and through the town of Wingham as an awareness-raising exercise, and around 150-200 people turned up and participated.

All of the local schools participated in a turtle colouring in competition, with the local high school taking on a turtle art competition. These were judged by another passionate advocate of the turtle - world-renowned wildlife illustrator Peter Schouten AM. Some school teachers are now incorporating the turtle into their lesson plans.

I had turtle fanciers from as far afield as Queensland contact me, and I’ve seen my stories about the turtle spread even as far as France. However what is way more gratifying for me is knowing that the turtle is now definitely much more well known in our region.