A NEW South Wales caravan park hosted an unusual guest recently ... an endangered green turtle.

The sick juvenile was rushed to the Ballina Beach Village and Wilderness Camping Park by local Evans Head fishermen who rescued her from the beach.

Park wildlife carers Scotty Bowdler and Jess Hawkins quickly performed turtle resuscitation – hosing down her carapace and placing wet towels over her until she could be collected by the marine division of Seabird Rescue.

The turtle was heavily barnacled, indicating she had been ill for sometime due to either swallowing plastic or acquiring a bacterial disease which would cause her to bloat and swim in the top couple of metres of water where barnacles attach themselves.

The caravan park's co-owner, Rikki Grimberg, said treating the sick turtle was a fascinating process.

"First she is rehydrated by being put on a saline drip. Then she is coaxed into eating, with squid being a food of choice as it fattens the turtle up," she explained.

Ms Grimberg said the Ballina Beach Village and Camping Park would always take in wildlife in an emergency.

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