Manning River Turtle Project 2018
The Manning River Turtle Group is proud to be supporting the Australian Reptile Park and Aussie Ark in an exciting new project – creating an insurance population of the endangered Manning River turtle.
Tim Faulkner, general manager and head of conservation at the Australian Reptile Park (ARP) and general manager and board member of Aussie Ark and Devil Ark, is a self-confessed “turtle nut”.
Tim is a household name for his appearances on the TV show Bondi Vet and now his own show The Wlid Life of Tim Faulkner which airs on Nine Television and Foxtel’s National Geographic channel.
Tim has dedicated his working life to the conservation of Australia’s native wildlife, and in 2015 was named the Australian Geographic Australian Conservationist of the Year.
The Manning River turtle is one of Tim’s particular obsessions, and he and his teams at both ARP and Aussie Ark have created an off-exhibit facility at the Australian Reptile Park in Somersby, NSW, to house an insurance population and captive breeding program for the Manning River turtle. The project is similar to the Taronga Zoo and Symbio Wildlife Park partnership working on the Bellinger River turtle breeding program.
To get the project started, a crowd funding campaign was launched to help Aussie Ark, a not-for-profit registered environmental and charitable organisation, raise funds to help build the facility. The campaign was launched at Wingham on August 21, 2018 at a community information evening hosted by MRTG, with Tim and his team present as the special guest speakers.