Mon Repos is french for 'My Rest' or 'My Retreat'. The area where Turtle Sands now stands was originally owned by the French Government. It was the site of the Nova Caledia Co's undersea cable station which linked Australia with New Caledonia around the turn of the century, thus forging a milestone in this country's communications with the outside world. The creek at the southern end of the beach is still known as Cablehouse Creek. Ruins of the old cable station and the cable officer's cottage can be seen here today at Turtle Sands.

Bert Hinkler, the world's famous aviator, was born in Bundaberg and it was here at Mon Repos that he first flew - his fragile glider being launched from the sandhills at the northern boundary of Turtle Sands. These first few hesitant airborne yards were the beginnings of a career that was to thrill the world with his daring exploits and forever commit his name to glory and immortality.

The Giant sea turtles have probably always nested here , but it is only been realised in recent years that the density of nesting on the one mile of Mon Repos Beach makes it by far the most important turtle rookery on the mainland of Australia. In fact, of the eight known species of the entire world's sea turtles, four of these have been recorded as nesting at Mon Repos, a record held by no other place in the world.

The 3km long stone wall at the northern boundary of Turtle Sands was actually built by slave labour. In the late 1800's thousands of south sea islanders (known as Kanakas) were forcibly removed from their peaceful islands and used as indentured labour, often to endless toil and suffering on the canefields of Queensland. Many of these walls have been removed or destroyed, but this particular one is in a remarkably good state of repair.