Scarborough will come alive with turtle talk, educational displays, and an outdoor film screening next month, as the Moreton Bay Turtle Awareness Expo returns on Saturday, 9 May.
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Running from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm, the free community event will be held at Queens Beach North in Scarborough. Guest speakers, information signage, and educational displays are on the program, with Associate Professor Daryl McPhee among those presenting on local turtle habitats.
Lights, Camera, Turtles: A Movie to Cap the Day
As the sun goes down, the event moves to the Redcliffe Amphitheatre beside Settlement Cove for an outdoor screening of A Turtle’s Tale: Sammy’s Adventures, beginning around 5.00pm. Entry to the film is also free.
The 2010 Belgian-French animated adventure follows Sammy, a young green sea turtle, as he navigates ocean life over five decades, making friends, facing threats, and eventually watching his own hatchlings find their way to the sea. With a score by Game of Thrones composer Ramin Djawadi and a soundtrack featuring Bruno Mars, it is an animated family film with a conservation message at its heart. According to organisers, this will be the first time the film has screened in Australia.
A Beach With a Story Worth Telling
The expo’s location at Queens Beach North is itself significant. Back in 2010, hundreds of real turtle hatchlings emerged near Queens Beach North around 11pm, only to become disoriented by the glow of city lights and street lamps. Instead of heading seaward, they veered inland towards Flinders Parade. Residents and local authorities rushed to the scene to redirect them back to the ocean.
Moreton Bay committed $250,000 to alternative street lighting in the area in the aftermath.
Colin Scobie, Vice President of Rotary Redcliffe Sunrise, one of the event’s key supporters, said understanding turtle habitats matters not just for today but for future generations, particularly as climate change is expected to affect nesting patterns along the beach’s high dry sand embankment.
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Now in its fourth year, the expo began as a family fun day and has expanded to include a conservation focus and, this year, a film screening. The film screening has been added to the program following a growing awareness of turtle hatching season, according to organisers.
The expo is supported by the City of Moreton Bay, Rotary Redcliffe Sunrise, and other community partners. Prizes will be up for grabs on the day.
Both events, the daytime expo at Queens Beach North and the evening screening at the Settlement Cove, are free and open to all ages.
Featured image credit: Pexels/Belle Co
Updated 1-May-2026
