Carly Wilson - wildlife films and activism

27/01/2025

MON REPOS !! I finally got to go to magical Mon Repos a few weeks ago after so many years of wanting to. I knew it would be amazing but it was still so much more amazing than I had expected.

Mon Repos is basically the biggest natural sea turtle maternity ward in Australia where so many mamma turtles come to lay their eggs, season after season, decade after decade. The program has been running for fifty years and all sea turtles that come to lay are tagged and studied. This program has been incredibly important in our understanding of sea turtles, globally.

Through the nesting season the beach is open to the public during the day but closed down completely at night unless you are part of a guided ranger tour. Once the sun goes down the rangers walk up and down the beach looking for turtles and when they find them, they start inviting guests, in groups, to travel down with them to witness the egg layings (or to see the hatchlings, depending on the time of year) in a way that is safe for the turtles. We had to stay close together, walk by the moonlight only (no torches) and approach the turtle from behind so she wasn't aware we were there (apparently sea turtles cannot hear the human vocal range - they pick up on lower tones. Something I never knew).

We learned that our turtle was 66 years old and had not been seen in Mon Repos for eleven years. Before she started to lay, the rangers (while she was still digging her nest hole) placed a light under her carapace (shell) without her seeming to have any idea. She just kept digging. Then suddenly she stopped digging and everyone's jaws hit the gound as we started to watch this big white ball shaped egg come out of her - and then another and another until more than 60 (which they later told us was a low number) had been laid.

Absolutely one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life.

The mama turtle then hobbled back to the sea and the rangers and a scientist looked over all of the eggs, counted them, made notes, and then re-burried them. Apparently they have a two hour window to do any observations or relocations of the eggs that are needed and then they must stay put while nature does the rest.

Amazing

08/12/2024

Epic evening out, celebrating the release of Envoy to Netflix. This film answered so many questions I had about Australia's shark mitigation program.

Awesome to have Senator Peter Whish Wilson in the room to explain what he is working on from a legislative POV and Jonno from Sea Shepherd who was key in bringing this film to the world.

I also brought two of my ndis participants (the Conservation Heart Films sister business) along and it was beyond awesome to see the wheels turning in their heads.

Keep active, stay involved, and keep caring all 🥰🌎✌️

08/12/2024

Hi folks, I'm doing some background research for a film I am working on. Curious for people who live outside of Australia - are there first home buyer grants in your area to help with the cost of a down payment? And if so, are you restricted to only purchase a brand new home? So far I can see that this is the case in Ireland and Australia, but I'm not sure where else.

07/12/2024

Scribbly Gums = bug art

🐛🎨

I love them 💗 💗

05/12/2024

Raccoons!! My favourite little ratbag bandits! 🥰🥰

https://www.facebook.com/100064585124481/posts/993575726138589/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

📷 Donna Eberle/ animals_of_ashburn on Instagram

05/12/2024

Film screening alert!! Tomorrow!

This brand new Gold Coast based documentary exploring in detail everything you need to know about the insane barbaric shark net and drum line programs in Australia is out on Netflix!! Woo! Even better - an abridged version is screening tomorrow night - Friday 6 December - at 6pm in Southport with live Q&A to follow.

Ticket link here (just $10): https://events.humanitix.com/shark-defence-screening

Two of my friends are in this epic film and Senator Peter Whish Wilson who was super supportive of Rubber Jellyfish will be part of the Q&A. I have so much respect for the contributions of these three folks to shark conservation. This doco has helped answer questions I have had for years about shark nets. Its a must watch for anyone who lives in Australia, anyone who surfs, anyone who cares about marine conservation, and anyone who respects Mother Earth.

Reduced length educational docos are especially great for kiddos so bring them too if you can. No excuses - its not a school night people! 🤗🤘

Please come tomorrow if you can. Please watch on Netflix if you can't!

Party on, shark lovers!

30/11/2024

*scroll down for petition link*

When I made Rubber Jellyfish, I upset a lot of clowns. I literally received a lot of hate mail from actual real life clowns.

I would like to commend the king of clowns, Ronald McDonald of McDonald's fame for making a lot of positive strides for sustainability. It's been awesome to see the roll out of paper straws and the amount of plastic toys in Happy Meals has gone way way down which is something to celebrate - however! the McHappy Day balloons need to stop. When I made RJ, balloons were listed as the number one toy product that causes choking fatalities in children - it is just incredibly hard to get a balloon fragment out of a small child's throat. So much so that I believe they just should not be legal and I cannot possibly see in what universe they should be considered an ethical child product.

The harm that balloons cause to wildlife is equally disturbing which is why I spent four years making a documentary (Rubber Jellyfish - the Movie) to explain it all in great detail.

Even worse - sea turtles are particularly attracted to orange and red colours because these are the colours of squid - a tasty favourite snack for our favourite endangered critters.

The giveaways of red balloons to children by McDonalds just needs to stop now. Please.

Click here to sign the petition: https://www.change.org/p/mcdonalds-please-stop-using-balloons?recruiter=656545955&recruited_by_id=e7928f40-cbc0-11e6-be79-478ddae2ba08&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=share_for_starters_page&utm_medium=copylink&fbclid=IwY2xjawG311tleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHevB50XIBNNkPyGo8womehMAxxMSXqq6y7lfyEvLaVsH6pg-0NRFPtghOw_aem_Fo9iLn6OLAvnWnY-xy4KAQ

plasticwouldbeturtletastic

30/11/2024

What a fun day .. roaming around the rainforest with another indie filmmaker and team on the set of a local upcomming production. - you should be so proud of all that it has taken to get to this point. So exciting to see your vision coming to life 🙌 ✨️ awesome work 👏🏾 💫

01/11/2024

Always a bit fun and exciting to come across one of these beauties :)

19/10/2024

Lazy Sunday? Not sure what to watch on Netflix? Watch and learn more about our wonderful sharks in Australia and what we can do to help protect them

18/10/2024

Australia is the only western country on the UN's list of deforestation hotspots. We have the highest rate of mammal extinction anywhere on Earth an in the last 200 years, half of Australia's forests have vanished.

Half.

I travelled South recently to attend a vigil of grieving residents at Manyana Beach, NSW in response to learning that a proposed deforestation they have been fighting against for years had, despite all their efforts, been given the green light.

Its not all completely bad news .. the developers are not able to go ahead quite as they had hoped, after passionate community members made the federal government aware that the forest contains a critically endangered rainforest type that is becoming increasingly rare. The developers will now need to rework their plans to some extent to reduce their impact on the endangered forest type. However the campaigners are arguing that the ecosystem requires all of its pieces in order for it to work - with one campaigner arguing that you can’t remove a cog from the clock and expect it still to function.

I have been slowly (very slowly) chipping away on a film Australia’s deforestation emergency for the past five years, since I first started working toward a goal of home ownership. I had worked for several years prior to this as a fauna spotter where I was tasked with capturing and relocating animals that came down in trees felled during tree clearings. I eventually reached a point where my mental health was affected too much to continue. Turns out I wasn’t alone and many others that I knew also left the industry out of dismay and heart break.

When it was time to buy a home, I was devastated to learn that first home buyer grants in Queensland were only available to people purchasing brand new homes - like all the ones the trees were felled for on the projects that lead to me to leave the industry. I realised how much the government was fuelling the deforestation crisis by literally refusing these incentives to anyone not willing to buy into a land clearing scheme.

Here is a brief snippet of my travels down to Manyana Beach earlier this month.


Manyana Matters

09/10/2024

Lights Camera Action! its getting a bit exciting over here as we are rolling our sleeves up in the studio for Film #2 🤗

04/10/2024

8 hours of footage reduced to 53 seconds.

All tropical plant enthusiasts like myself get the same excitement when we spot a new baby leaf ready to unfurl.

I filmed this pretty girl off and on for two days. Of course all hell decided to break loose at work on the third and final day when she opened fully and I missed it but still quite amazing and magical to see just how much these baby leaves move each day and how they seem to put themselves to bed each night.

04/09/2024

Cleveland/Redlands/Brisbane/GC folks .. doco sceeening + live Q&A to follow with rescuer John Knights and the legendary Debbie Pointing of the Redlands Koala Action group (whose efforts have been incredibly persoanlly inspiring to me).

Screening event is this Sunday, 8 Sept at 4pm at Victoria Point Cinneplex - link to book is in the image above (low cost).

Ill be there - lets hang out and learn together.

01/09/2024

Took my children to experience peaceful protest on the site of yet another proposed deforestation of koala (and so much more) habitat in Northern NSW.

It hurts my heart to witness paving of untouched wildnerness. I know it is a complex issue but I also know there are other ways to house our beautiful people.

I was truly touched by the passionate compaigners on this project. I can't wait to share more with you all.

25/08/2024

Flashback to last year's Bali trip. When we would order takeaway, it came by motorbike in reusable containers. The next day, they would return to collect the dirties. No waste! I can't tell you how happy this made me.

Imagine if this sytem was rolled out worldwide, what a cleaner place this world would be 🌎🍴💖

21/08/2024

FYI - for those of you who like myself always get an early start on Christmas shopping, these super cute Sea Shepherd shirts (for kids) are 2 for $40 right now through the SS website! (link below)

https://shop.seashepherd.org.au/collections/kids-tees/products/classic-youth-long-sleeve-tee?utm_source=Sea+Shepherd+Australia+Subscriber+List&utm_campaign=1f0b974582-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_04_16_01_36_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-f9e630252d-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D&mc_cid=1f0b974582&mc_eid=0f3f60d23c