South Australia's Riverland, the home of wine producer Banrock Station, may seem a long way from the Great Barrier Reef. But this innovative company realised that its actions can reverberate far afield, on our precious coastline.

WWF-Australia’s partnership with Banrock Station supported pioneering research to protect the Great Barrier Reef and the marine turtles that call it home. Through the Banrock Station Environmental Trust, Banrock Station contributed to the Rivers to Reef to Turtles research initiative, a four-year program that identified and measured the key pollutants in rivers, the Great Barrier Reef and in green turtles themselves.

 

 

Partnership wins

Banrock Station funded the Rivers to Reef to Turtles project from 2014 - December 2017.

 

 

The bottom line

Without clean water the Great Barrier Reef’s marine turtles simply won't survive. After floods, massive quantities of soil and chemicals are washed from farms, industrial and urban areas out onto the Reef. This can pollute and destroy huge areas of seagrass and coral – where marine turtles live and feed.

The Rivers to Reef to Turtles research project aimed to identify and measure the key pollutants in rivers, the Great Barrier Reef and in green turtles themselves. The data collected will help us better understand the sources and impacts of pollution on the Reef and on turtles. This will allow us to invest in actions that will most effectively improve water quality to boost the resilience of the Reef and turtles, too.