The [short] Story of Doris – Norfolk Island’s beloved turtle By Hannah Taylor

13 April 2023

A dying juvenile Green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas)* named Doris was rescued from her home in Emily Bay on 12 September 2022. Doris was afflicted by a condition** that appeared to be ‘rotting her from the inside out’ and was truly as grotesque – and putrid – as it sounds. Despite her prognosis being extremely poor and her depressed state, it was decided to give her a chance.

As Doris’s condition was also indicative of the health of the ecosystem, concern for the decline of Doris’s home - a coral reef lagoon ecosystem***, and the cause of this decline, grew too.

It was touch-and-go for the first five weeks. After five months of treatment and care - Norfolk Island’s first ever turtle rehabilitation attempt #operationdoris - Doris was released on 20 January 2023 in miraculous defiance of the odds against her.

The community rallied to support the lifesaving intervention in a variety of ways - everything that was needed for a make-shift turtle hospital was brought together. Children lent Doris their paddling pool. Even Norfolk’s cows found a water trough they could spare! Travelers went out of their way to help source or transport urgent prescription food, medical supplies and filtration equipment. Freezers and first aid kits were rummaged through.

Other critical supplies were donated. Doris was the talk of the town, from Bun Pine - to daun’taun - to Cascade.

An army of volunteers formed to help maintain an around-the-clock check and care schedule. Turtle rehabilitation experts guided and aided from afar, even pulling over on to the side of highways en route to other turtle rescues to pause to provide guidance and encouragement through tricky parts of procedures. A specialist vet travelled over to assist with a delicate surgery.

As Doris’s appetite increased, families fished off the pier to catch fish especially for Doris, and fishermen saved offcuts which were her favourite. Morning walkers selected the juiciest pieces of pigface to offer to Doris. Farmers rose early to pick fresh green beans for our fussy little miss. Doris’s disposition had changed – she was showing curiosity again and was even beginning to play games.

While Norfolk Island’s resident turtles have long inspired local art and cultural expression, the ways Doris inspired the community were very moving, particularly the way she encouraged creativity and generated loving expression. As The Sydney Morning

Herald's Julie Power wrote in an article about Doris and her 'forgotten reef', ‘Children visit daily to sing the turtle back to health and leave hand-drawn cards.’ These cards and artworks were stuck up above Doris’s tanks. Doris’s primary carer Hannah, the Park rangers, and the team of volunteers often paused to admire them while caring for Doris, and Doris probably did too! She undoubtedly felt the love of a community.

The impact of Doris and her fight for survival on the community was profound, as Norfolk Island Time and local filmmakers have explored. On social media, updates about #operationdoris attracted millions of views from around the world and extra visitors flooded to www.norfolkislandreef.com.au

As The Norfolk Wave's Nat Grube says in the exquisitely made 10-minute film ‘Just One Turtle’, “Doris has ignited something special in auwas community and she has become quite the local celebrity, especially amongst auwas yang salan”. Many of the children drawing pictures of and for Doris were around the same age as Doris - about 10 years old. They will, hopefully, share several decades more of this life.

Often Hannah (dubbed “Doris’s Mum” and “Turtle Girl”) and Doris were kept company by a young visitor who just wanted to sit quietly nearby. Something deeper, and exceptional, was going on. Turtles have been swimming the world’s oceans for more than 100 million years. Looking into Doris’s eyes, one could perhaps even see the universe unfolding, or the philosophy of time.

One little boy, inspired by Doris from afar, was fighting cancer during Doris’s rehabilitation. According to his family, Doris was a welcome distraction for the young patient, who looked forward to each new video of Doris eating fish and coming up for air. Doris was heart-warming inspiration for hospital room decoration. This brave little boy hugged his plush toy turtle ‘Doris’ as hard as he could. Some weeks following Doris's release, his cancer went into remission.

A local recently confided that they had been suffering from an acute flare up of a particularly severe form of depression and had been off island receiving an invasive treatment as a last resort. Doris’s fight for survival, her subsequent release, and the song by Kath King ‘Tertl Tertl’ had helped them find the strength to fight what they had expected would finally claim them. Tertl Tertl is the song the release crew spontaneously broke into singing; a touchingly apt hymn for such a moment shared upon the sea. The lyrics sung were:

“Tertl Tertl daun Blaek Bank, kam raun ya sii mii. Ai daun ya wieten, mii worn… wael mii an dem oefi. Fait dem saf, dumain hau big, an miebi lawli tertl, yuel tiich mii hau f lew”.

[“Turtle Turtle down Black Bank, come and visit me. I’m here waiting alone… well me and the oefi (trevally). Fight the tumultuous sea, no matter how big, then maybe lovely turtle, you can teach me how to live.”]

Incredibly, Kath wrote this song over two decades ago. It is inspired by a turtle she regularly saw off Black Bank. The grace and beauty of the turtle reminded her how of how much the natural world has to teach us, if only we listen. As Nat highlighted in The

Norfolk Wave’s release footage****, is it also a song that speaks of Norfolk’s history and the community spirit that has seen acklan through hard times. It is this community spirit that saved Doris; it’s this community spirit that gave Doris the chance.

Folk near and far have asked for a pathway to keep the Doris-inspiration flowing and the channel for the expression of Doris-love open. The #drawingfordoris initiative honours this request. The story of Doris is one that connects us all - and connects with us all.

So, dare to be inspired by #operationdoris and #justoneturtle and do a #drawingfordoris – be brave and share a #drawingfordoris and perhaps even then challenge another to do the same. It’s open to all.

Perhaps, keeping the love alive will help the community get the help it needs to reverse the accelerating ecosystem decline and heal Doris’s home, as this is what is required to prevent Doris getting sick again and ensure she is able to live a long life. Afterall, Doris’s health, and that of her home ecosystem, is intimately connected to our health and well-being. Doris’s fight for survival is not over. Fortunately, she has an island of allies; an island that does not stand alone.

*Green sea turtles are a ‘keystone’ species and are a listed threatened species and recognised as endangered on the IUCN Red List. The Australian Government has recently identified Green sea turtles as a Priority Species under the 2022-2032 Threatened Species Action Plan: Towards Zero Extinctions. World Turtle Day is held on 23 May each year.

**The particularly deadly condition is being seen in marine turtles who live or feed in places where toxic algal growth and harmful blooms occur, and places which have received sediment laden and heavily polluted stormwater inflows. Doris lives in a part of Emily Bay where pollution concentrates and circulates - or eddies. For this reason, she was released between The Cord and Black Bank (Dumcombe Bay). It was known that there was a fifty percent chance she would swim back to her hoem. And swim straight back to her ‘spot’ in Emily Bay was exactly what she did, and she has been seen regularly in the bay since. While her overall condition is yet to be assessed, considerable algal growth has already appeared on her carapace (shell). The health of the four resident turtles in the lagoon, including Doris, is being actively monitored by regular swimmers. For more information, please ‘Like’ or follow Drawing For Doris and Norfolk Island Turtles on social media and visit www.norfolkislandreef.com.au

*** The subject of the ongoing Norfolk Island Reef Health Assessment

****The footage of her release and the song Tertl Tertl can be viewed at: https://fb.watch/jUasfJ936B/

Postscript: #operationdoris would not have been possible without the support of Norfolk Island Veterinary Surgery, Norfolk Island National Park & Botanic Garden, Park rangers and volunteers, Parks Australia, Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre and, of course, the whole community of Norfolk Island. Support was also kindly provided by many others including Burnt Pine Pharmacy, St John Ambulance Norfolk Island, the Australian Seabird and Turtle Rescue (Ballina), Alstonville Veterinary Hospital, and Turtles in Trouble Inc (Hervey Bay).

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