The Turtle Hospital at the Reef HQ Aquarium
In recent headlines a new study has revealed that over half of all sea turtles have ingested plastic. Before we went to the turtle hospital they gave a talk about sea turtles. They said that the turtles (and other marine life) have been able to eat anything they find in the oceans for thousands of centuries. The sea turtles, of course, don’t realise anything has changed and so when they see some brightly coloured object floating in the water they don’t realise it is something that could harm them. That, together with the other recent news of the decline of all marine life over the last several decades makes for a very sad state of our ocean life. The turtle hospital at the Reef HQ Aquarium does their part by educating people and rehabilitating sea turtles. All of the sea turtles found in the Great Barrier Reef are threatened species. We were lucky to have a chance to visit the hospital while we were in Townsville.
They had half a dozen or so large tanks set up with rescued turtles in them. Many of them had what’s known as ‘floating syndrome’ which prevents them from diving. That means they can’t eat and are at the mercy of ocean currents.
See the chunk missing out of this one’s shell? It won’t grow back, but the edge will heal a bit. I think this turtle was just about ready to go the main tank in the aquarium. They put the turtles in the tank to be sure they will adapt to having predators nearby before releasing them into the ocean.
Did you know sea turtles can’t retract their heads and limbs into their shells the way land turtles can?
The hospital cared for turtles from the very young to those decades old.
We were fascinated and among the last to leave.
I could have happily spent the rest of the day there, watching the sea turtles and learning more about them.
If I remember correctly they said sea turtles could hold their breath for an hour. We were delighted when several of them kept surfacing as we watched. They were adorable. That doesn’t seem like the right word, but that’s what they were. Adorable.
The tanks contain some less saltwater than in the ocean. They mix in extra freshwater to help the turtles recover more quickly.
There was a small area with a bit more information on the different kinds of sea turtles.
The x-rays were fascinating.
There was even an old shell you could pick up and look at.
The turtle hospital was probably my favourite part of our visit to the aquarium. They only open the hospital to visitors a couple of times a day, so if you are visiting make sure to check the schedule. See the other parts of our visit to the aquarium here and here.
The Townsville Aquarium, part 2
Part one is here. Upstairs at the aquarium there is a hands-on area. There’s also a playground. We had a browse around while we waited for the talk to start. Surprisingly, I don’t actually have pictures of the kids touching the various sea creatures we were allowed to interact with. I was too busy enjoying the experience and monitoring a two-year-old. Sometimes you just have to step back from the camera. We watched the man climb into the tank and he taught us how to shuffle our feet through the sand to avoid stepping on stingrays and other creatures. LadyBug was swallowed by a gigantic fish. Not to worry, she recovered nicely.
We found Nemo’s cousin in another anemone.
His siblings were being invaded by all sorts of strange children.
There’s a rock fish in this tank. More than one, actually, although I think there’s only one in the picture. See him?
They blend in so incredibly well. Can you imagine climbing around in the water and stepping on one? Yikes!
We looked at the seahorse tank and wondered if they had come from Seahorse World that we’d visited in Tasmania. When we were there they told us they supply seahorses to aquariums all over the world.
These are those fish that swim around in formation. They were fun to watch.
That fish was swallowing my kids again.
At least it wasn’t the shark that got them.
Then we headed back downstairs for the dangerous creatures talk and a trip to the turtle hospital. We learned that certain kinds of cone snails can cause fatalities in humans. Never pick up a cone shell you find on the beach!
One more try of the dive helmet!
Then we were off for a visit of the turtle hospital next door!
The Townsville Aquarium
We’ve skipped visiting aquariums until Townsville since we’d heard that this was a good one. The Reef HQ Great Barrier Reef Aquarium is the world’s largest living coral reef aquarium. There’s a lot to see with talks scheduled throughout the day. We were able to attend several of the talks and learn about all these fascinating sea creatures. Of course, when you see an old diving helmet begging to be worn you must try it on…
So much to see at this aquarium! There were large tanks where you could admire the coral and all the sea creatures.
Nemo was there hiding in his sea anemone home.
The caravan park we stayed at on the Gold Coast had a large tank that had several of these blue starfish. We loved them and would look for them every time we walked by. They are such a striking blue. And look at all the different types of coral!
There were interactive displays where you could learn about the different sea creatures, or you could just stare at the tanks for ages and soak up all the gorgeous colours.
This purple and orange fish is called a royal dottyback. What a name!
I loved the pattern on this angelfish. Apparently it’s a juvenile and the pattern will change as it matures.
There was a ‘river’ tank as well, with freshwater fish and turtles.
We admired the different types of coral, they can grow into such different shapes!
We marvelled over all the creatures in the smaller tanks. These sea urchins were huge! Also in this room was a large tank with a small crocodile that we got to watch them feed. He could jump so high! I thought I had a picture but it’s disappeared. JitterBug especially loved that croc.
These jellyfish look like they are inside out or upside down.
Ummm, teeth? No thanks.
Then we made our way to the large tank. One of those that forms a tunnel you can walk through. There was a sea turtle on one side, we found out later that he had been rehabilitated at the aquarium and would soon be returning to the ocean.
The poor turtle had buddies that would cling underneath him when he swam. We saw him bringing his flippers together underneath him to try to shake them off.
I thought I had pictures of the sharks but this is the only one I can find, not such a good pic. But it’s proof there were sharks in the tank!
The super big fish are always so amazing to see!
Awwww….
These fish always look like they are smiling! There were divers in this tank filming a video. Those orange and black fish crowded around them the whole time they were in the tank.
We even saw some mermaids!
More to come!
Townsville Lagoons: Free Swimming All Year Round!
The Strand in Townsville boasts a waterpark at one end and a seawater lagoon at the other. We visited the waterpark first (no pictures) and the kids loved it because it had one of those huge buckets that dump freezing cold lovely refreshing water on you every couple of minutes. We also made a visit to the Rock Pool, an enclosed lagoon of ocean water that is filtered continually. This means you can swim in the salty ocean water without worrying about crocs or stingers. There were signs saying the stingers can still get in but since we were there in the winter we didn’t have to worry too much. The lagoon has a beach entrance, but the floor is concrete. TurboBug loved it. The other end was a couple of metres deep which made it safe for jumping into. Which the others did and enjoyed. I believe the beach next door has nets to keep out crocs so there’s a safe place to enjoy the beach as well.
Here they are, all lined up. I’m a wimp when it comes to cold water so I barely got my feet wet. There were not a while lot of people swimming when we were there.
Splash, splash!
After a swim and a play at the nearby playground the kids enjoyed warming up in the sun. Two kids…
Three kids…number four in the background is noticing them all lined up and me with the camera.
So he ran over to join them.
We also visited (on yet another day) the Riverway Lagoons while we were in Townsville. Totally free outdoor swimming pools. There are three different pools though only one was open while we were there due to maintenance. The one we swam in was huge and even had a section reserved for lap swimming. The other pools were more casual with a beach entrance and sand. What an amazing attraction for Townsville residents! I imagine they are crowded in the summer months when the stingers make it hard to enjoy the ocean. We were able to ride our bikes to the lagoons on bike paths from the convention centre we stayed at. The paths were good and allowed us to see a bit more of Townsville. We were told they have the best pools anywhere in Australia, definitely worth visiting!
The View From Castle Hill
Driving into Townsville you can’t help but notice Castle Hill. It’s an iconic granite monolith that’s apparently just metres short of being classified as a mountain. We drove to the top for a view of Townsville from above. I’ve realised that although I have heaps of pictures of the view, I don’t have any pictures of Castle Hill itself. You can see pictures of it here. That means I also don’t have pictures of The Saint painted on the side of the hill. Ooops. We wondered about that graffiti, it seemed so out of place! This is the view looking north. That’s Magnetic Island out there, you can take a ferry out and enjoy a day on the island, most of which is a national park. There’s a WWII observation post that still stands.
That’s not another island out there. The coastline curves around to form a spectacular bay.
See the rock? The granite has a pink hue to it.
There were heaps of people at the top taking in the views. There were also heaps walking up the hill. Another one of those fitness tracks popular with the locals, we’ve run into a few of those.
We had fun pointing out some of the places we’d been. We could just make out the waterpark where the kids had loads of fun getting drenched.
I think this is the view looking south and a bit west. Townsville has a population of about 200,000 people and it felt huge compared to all the small towns we’d been in lately. That river is the Ross River. Yes, the one that Ross River Fever was named after.
While we were there we were lucky to see a couple of sky divers come in for landings on the beach. There are two in this picture, bit hard to see. They both seemed to make good landings from what we could see!
This monument is in the carpark, it says that Townsville was named after Robert Towns and this monument was moved to Castle Hill from his grave in Sydney. Apparently he only spent three days in Townsville but they named the city after him since he provided financial assistance to the fledgling town. Townsville is such a generic name I hadn’t guessed it was named after someone with that name!
See all the people in the background? I was surprised how many people were up there, it was such a busy spot. A short, steep drive with great views!
Birthdays in the Caravan!
All the birthdays in our family fall in the second half of the year. The first three birthdays are weeks apart. TurboBug was up first, turning two. We were on the Sunshine Coast for his birthday. We did our best to make the day special for him. We decorated the caravan while Dad took him for a walk. We know how much 2yo’s love balloons, so we surprised him with plenty of balloons to play with when he returned.
Look at that photobomb! A new book, ‘Who Sank the Boat?’. See the red shirt he’s got on? That was a new Thomas the Train shirt and he wanted to wear it immediately!
Another photobomb and a new stuffed wombat. Every souvenir shop we would go to it seemed that TurboBug would latch onto the stuffed wombats. One memorable time in Tasmania he was quite upset at having to put it back on the shelf. So it seemed like the perfect gift. It’s not quite as important to him as his bear, though.
His new truck. This was worth climbing on the table for.
A train cake for my train-loving boy.
A couple of very loooooooooong weeks later, we celebrated JitterBug’s eighth birthday. He could barely wait, he was so excited. We’d been telling him for ages that for his next birthday we’d be at the top of Australia somewhere. We ended up celebrating his birthday while we were in Cooktown.
TurboBug did not understand why he didn’t get to open JitterBug’s presents. Last time we had presents they were all for him to open!
My boys are sooo into Star Wars. Now they’ve made the various characters into Hot Wheels. I can’t believe they didn’t think of this decades ago. This is one of JitterBug’s favourite characters. He also got some new Lego Technic sets.
I was happy when he said he wanted a minion cake. That I could do! I didn’t bring cake decorating supplies with me so my cake abilities are limited right now. But a minion I knew we could figure out how to do. We made it to match his lovely minion, he was happy with it.
We even did the banana-flavoured cupcakes that come in a kit from the supermarket. They tasted better than we thought they would! They were my backup in case of a cake fail. 🙂
Then a couple of weeks later it was Dad’s turn. He was turning, um, another year older.
The kids very much enjoyed helping with the brownies we made for him.
C’mon Dad, give us a proper smile.
That’s better.
The anticipation on TurboBug’s face. Brownies with chocolate frosting? With ice cream? Yes, please.
That’s half of us down, half to go!