A Queensland woman has achieved a Guinness World Record for the largest collection of turtle and tortoise-related items.
Tania Murphy has 5,373 items — and she's still collecting.
Ms Murphy is planning to open her "Turtle Treasury" to the public.
It all started when Tania Murphy was five years old and refused to give her sister's stuffed toy turtle back.
Now aged 55, Ms Murphy holds the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of turtle and tortoise-related items.
She holds the record for 5,373 individual items in her Hervey Bay home, 300 kilometres north of Brisbane, and is still growing her collection.
Ms Murphy said the achievement had "been a long time coming".
"It became an obsession probably about 20 years ago, when somebody visited my home, saw all the turtle items all over my house and said, 'Oh, you should go for a Guinness World Record'," she said.
Ms Murphy initially took the comment as a joke, but "it just exploded from there".
From a large wooden statue to tiny ceramic figurines, plates and glasses, artwork and soft toys, Ms Murphy welcomes all memorabilia.
She collects them from her travels, op shops and garage sales.
"And people give them to me for birthdays, Christmases, or just because," she said.
