Mon Repos Conservation Park

Largest loggerhead turtle rookery in the South Pacific — guided night tours Nov-Mar

Address Mon Repos Road, Mon Repos

Mon Repos is the most accessible turtle rookery in mainland Australia and the most important breeding site for loggerhead turtles in the South Pacific. From mid-November through January, female loggerheads (and occasionally green and flatback turtles) come ashore at night to dig nests and lay eggs. From mid-January through late March, the hatchlings emerge and scramble to the sea.

The site is run as a Queensland Parks night-tour operation only during the nesting season — groups of 70 are walked to whichever turtle or nest a ranger has identified that evening, with red-light torches and clear protocols to avoid disturbing the animals. The encounter is up close and genuinely moving. Book online well in advance — tickets sell out months ahead for the prime December and January slots. Outside the season, the small interpretation centre is open during the day but the beach is otherwise an ordinary stretch of sand.

things to do sight wildlife
A story
The first hatchling tagged at Mon Repos in the early 1970s — a female fitted with a small flipper tag — was recaptured in waters off the Solomon Islands two decades later, hauling out to lay eggs back on this beach. Loggerhead turtles return to lay on the beach where they hatched; the round trip from Australian feeding grounds to nesting beaches and back can take three years.