Audio transcript

You're with Cat Feeney on ABC Radio Brisbane in Queensland. Let’s travel to an island now.

Queensland is your oyster so where is good to go? How about a visit to one of this state’s 250 national parks? Well, that’s usually the focus of this Park Life segment. We tell you about a place that you could consider taking a trip to. But today’s incredible site is actually located in a pretty treacherous spot, for a start. It’s an island surrounded by waters that have wrecked many ships in years past. Even if you could get to this island, chances are you wouldn’t be allowed to set foot on its stunning white sands and Kat Robertson can tell us why. She is the Acting Program Manager for the Raine Island Recovery Project. Kat, thank you for joining us. Why can’t we go to Raine Island?

Thank you for having me today. Why can’t we go to Raine Island? Well, it is, like you said, a very special and unique place. It has really high natural and cultural values. It is what we call a national park (Scientific), which means that people can’t go to the island, to protect those values. Raine is home to a stone beacon constructed in 1844 by convicts. It is the most important seabird nesting site on the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. And it’s a very important cultural and story place for the traditional owners from Wutathi and Miriam nation. What people might know, if they have heard of Raine Island, is that it supports the world’s largest remaining green turtle nesting site.

I want to talk a little bit more about the turtles and the other things you’ve mentioned, but can you give us an idea of where exactly Raine Island is.

It’s about 620km north of Cairns and 120km offshore of the Cape York Peninsula. It’s right on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef and it’s really difficult to get there, even for us as park rangers.

So you are allowed to go there because your work involves the preservation, protection and scientific exploration of Raine Island. How did you get to be one of the very few people in Queensland, in Australia, who get to go to Raine Island? How did you get involved, Kat?

I got involved through the Raine Island Recovery Project. The Queensland Government sought funding to involve a collaboration between private and public entities to preserve Raine Island. Researchers and scientists found that there was a problem there for the green turtles that were nesting on the island. We became concerned that although you had thousands of turtles nesting on the beach you actually weren’t getting many hatchlings, so we developed a 5 year project between BHP, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the traditional owners, and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation to work on that project. So that’s how I got involved. I’ve been working on it for 6 years now.

Kat Robertson is with you. She is the Acting Project Manager for the Raine Island Recovery Project. You’re hearing a bit more about Raine Island as part of our Park Life segment where we take you to one of the national parks in Queensland, usually to inspire you to explore your home state, but in this case, it is an island park that is off limits to the general public and for very good reasons, which you’re about to hear. Kat, can you tell me more about the turtles. How are things going? What happens? Set the scene, paint a picture, take us to Raine Island, seeing as we can’t!

Well, the turtles come up during the summer. They are there to lay their eggs. Ninety percent of the northern green turtle population nest within the Raine Island National Park (Raine Island and Moulter Cay). You can be on the beach, we do what we call tele-counts, where we walk around the beach. In December last year, we counted 12,000 turtles on the beach in one night! So, to paint a picture, you’ve got lots of turtles on the beach, there’s sand flicking everywhere, and they’re up there trying to lay their eggs.

Well, pretty incredible. As you said it’s a very significant site for the traditional owners of the lands. Tell me a bit more about the significance of Raine Island.

The traditional owners are from Wutathi, which is in the Cape York area, and Miriam nation in the Torres Strait. So it’s a very significant place for them. The stone beacon which was built by the convicts is part of the island’s shared cultural history, and it has engravings of some of the traditional owners’ names from when they used to go out and visit the island themselves. So, the tower has so much history, just in this one little tower.

What is this tower? I’ve got this picture in my mind of this gorgeous island in the Great Barrier Reef, relatively small, beautiful soft-looking sand, a bit of greenery, it supports birdlife and turtles and it has this strange rock tower ‘sprouting’ out from it. What was the point of this tower? When was it built, what did it do? Tell me a bit more.

It was built in 1844 actually by order of the British Admiralty at the time, because the area around Raine, there’s obviously a lot of reefs, was really treacherous for ships coming through in that time. There were numerous shipwrecks that occurred around there. There are some old shipwrecks on the reef there at Raine Island. So they built it for safety. Its 40m tall so you can see it from quite a distance away.

Very interesting. It’s been really great to find to a bit more about Raine Island from you, Kat. If I could just get your favourite part of the island, your favourite site or the feeling you have. Can you give me your favourite bit of Raine Island before we say a fond farewell?

I would say it’s when you see the turtles coming up, sometimes they will struggle to lay eggs, and when you actually see, she digs the chamber, she lays her eggs, she fills it in, and she heads back to the water. And you know she’s done her job, and she’s helping making the future generation. It’s pretty special.

Pretty special indeed, Kat thank you so much for taking us to Raine Island.

It’s been a pleasure.

Kat Robertson, Acting Program Manager of the Raine Island Recovery Project. One of your national parks but it’s a national park (Scientific), which means sadly its off limits to the general public, but, as you heard, for very good reason. What an interesting touchstone as well – the collision of Indigenous culture and heritage, colonial culture and heritage, and the way in which that island is used by the creatures that have been nesting there, making new life, for many, many, many generations. Queensland is such an interesting place!