WYLD Projects helps youths connect to country through turtle protection

Australia Broadcast Center

15-07-2025

Lailani Johnson did not expect to spend her days crouching on the bank of a river, digging up and relocating endangered turtle eggs.
The 18-year-old envisioned being a nurse after high school, but has taken on a job protecting the next generation of freshwater turtles.
"Being outside and actually doing it, like hands on, [is what] I enjoy," she said.
Ms Johnson completed her Certificate II qualifications for conservation and ecosystem management through WYLD (Where Youth Live Dreams) Projects while still in school.
The Bundaberg-based not-for-profit organisation helps protect the environment while educating young people and teaching them about caring for country and culture.
"WYLD was birthed out of crisis," founder and director, Brad Crosbie, said.
He said he had noticed some young people were losing sight of the right path.
At the same time, rural communities were doing it tough in the drought.
"I just started taking young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth out on country, just to give back to people that were being affected by natural disaster events," he said.
He has focused on protecting white-throated snapping turtle, known as milbi in Taribelang Bunda language.
The endangered turtle species is thought to only live in the Burnett, Mary and Fitzroy rivers in Queensland.
"We don't involve our youth in a lot of the decision-making and future plans.
"For us, it's that legacy-based learning that we bring back into our youth and passing on that knowledge.
WYLD Projects, which was established 10 years ago, has been offering Certificate II training for the past four years.
Student Steven Lane said the program had helped him connect with his ancestors.
He said his grandmother was part of the Stolen Generations.
"She wasn't taught as much about her culture, so I wasn't able to learn it off of her, so this course really helps me understand a lot better about my people," he said.
Tara Cattell said she enjoyed the hands-on experience of the conservation efforts while learning about the milbi.
"They're critically endangered and [we're] helping them to come back and to have more of them," she said.
WYLD Projects indigenous project officer Bruce Waia said it was vital the students learnt about the relationships between humans and their environment.
"The value of having the youth understand that they do have a place in this universe, that they do belong to something much greater than them," he said.
Mr Waia said the milbi represented many life lessons.
"It's a shame that we've moved away from knowing that we can't live without nature to then just pillaging off it, to now trying to reconnect the dots, trying to get back into that way of life," he said.
"So this turtle is just one gateway that we're using to understand that.
Ms Johnson said finding a clutch was an incredible experience.
"It's exciting because you don't know where it is and you've got to be careful of where you step," she said.
She said the necessity of protecting the nests hit home when she found predator tracks around already-relocated nests.
"The next day, we came out and the hole was dug up again," she said.
"That was scary — and it was a goanna because we saw the tracks.
"We need to keep them safe."