Project boosts road safety for wildlife

Wildlife at Everton Hills will be safer in coming months, with a project in the pipeline to boost animal crossings, fencing and signs.

As part of the project, along Collins Rd, improvements will be made to an existing fauna underpass, guard rail, exclusion fencing and pedestrian and vehicle gates.

There will also be road marking and stencilling to show motorists where wildlife crosses.

Acting Mayor Jodie Shipway says the project is another step forward in Council’s mission to ‘Go Green As We Grow’.

“Over the last few years, we’ve retrofitted 32 fauna underpasses and constructed 26 rope bridges in key corridors to boost safety for our wildlife as they move around their natural habitat, plus more than 10,000 metres of exclusion fencing and 50 wildlife road stencils in key crossing locations,” she says.

“This is particularly important in leafy suburbs like The Hills District, which is an essential link for wildlife out to our hinterland area.

“With koalas now sadly on the endangered list, I’m proud that we are home to Australia’s most successful breeding program at The Mill but it’s clear all levels of government need to step up and do more.”

More trees

Division 10 Councillor Matt Constance says ­­­Council is also working to boost animal habitats through a commitment to plant another 45,000 trees in the next three years.

“Our local area is home to some of the largest and most densely-populated wildlife corridors in the region,” Cr Constance says.

“We’ve made significant improvements for wildlife safety around Bunyaville Conservation Park, connections with the Cabbage Tree Creek Green Infrastructure Corridor Network, and there’s more in the works around the Samford Conservation Park and the Kedron Brook West Green Infrastructure Corridor.

“This project will also install 364m of guard rail, which is vital to maintaining and improving road safety along Collins Rd.”

Work on the project starts next month and is expected to take about six weeks to complete.

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