Tilly the turtle's excellent adventure

By Jodie Minus
Updated November 5 2012 - 6:16pm, first published September 16 2008 - 11:26am
Lindsay Smith with Tilly the loggerhead sea turtle, who washed up on Corrimal Beach in June. Picture: GREG TOTMAN
Lindsay Smith with Tilly the loggerhead sea turtle, who washed up on Corrimal Beach in June. Picture: GREG TOTMAN

The adventurous Tilly the turtle will today farewell the Unanderra couple who nursed her back to health following an amazing journey, a dramatic rescue, a shock disappearance and a fight to survive.The journey of Tilly, a three-year-old loggerhead sea turtle from Far North Queensland, ended when she washed up on Corrimal Beach in June, 2500km from home. Rescued from the sand, she was taken into care at Lindsay Smith and Janice Jenkin-Smith's Unanderra home.The couple - president and secretary of the Southern Ocean Seabird Study Association - immediately began a rehabilitation program. "She was floating which is always a serious concern, and we believe she may have ingested some plastic," Mrs Jenkin-Smith said."We eventually got her to eat some food and obviously she did the right thing - she did her business - and then she started to sink down a little and now she sits down on the bottom of the tank."Tilly's health continued to improve but later in June she disappeared."She was gone from the tank and there was no way she could have got out on her own," Mrs Jenkin-Smith said.A frantic search ensued and 48 hours later Tilly was returned by some neighbourhood boys.Tilly thrived over the next 12 weeks, growing more than 4cm in length, meaning it was time for her to return home.Today she will travel by car to Taronga Zoo before continuing on to Queensland where she will hopefully live out her next 147 years.

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