In short:
An open water channel in central Victoria has become a wildlife graveyard.
A wildlife carer says a kangaroo-proof fence could protect other wildlife from drowning in the waterway.
What’s next?
A local MP and a researcher want wildlife to be better considered during infrastructure and housing development planning.
Wildlife rescuers are calling on authorities to build a kangaroo-proof fence around a central Victoria waterway to stop animals from drowning.
On Monday, wildlife rescuers were called to the Coliban Water Main channel in Faraday, 116 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, where 10 kangaroos were trapped and eight died.
The animals had become stuck on the muddy floor within the concrete walls of the channel.
The 70-kilometre-long channel takes water from the various storage facilities near the Macedon Ranges from Malmsbury to Bendigo, where it is treated for human use.
The water is also used for agricultural irrigation.
Sam, who requested their last name not be used, helped rescue one kangaroo that survived and said it was not the first time animals had drowned in the channel.
“Birds, kangaroos, wallabies, possums, you name it. Various animals [are] getting trapped in the channel,” they said.
The wildlife carer said the clean-up, which involved caring for two injured animals, was an “incredibly frustrating” ordeal, given they had previously raised concerns with Coliban Water several times with no response.
Sam said, ideally, Coliban Water should build a fence similar to the rabbit and dingo-proof fences built in Australia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
“Maybe a model like that would help prevent these animals from ending up in the water,” they said.
Water authority backs crossings
A Coliban Water spokesperson said the water authority was committed to the protection of wildlife.
“There are currently 47 wildlife crossings along the 70-kilometre-long channel designed to provide safe passage,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson also said more work would be carried out “to better understand the movement of wildlife in the area” so that more wildlife crossings could be installed.
Northern Victorian Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell raised concerns about the open water channel in the Victorian Parliament earlier this year.
Ms Purcell said she requested a copy of the map identifying the 47 wildlife crossings, but it was yet to be forwarded to her office.
“We don’t know where those wildlife crossings are, and, importantly, they are clearly not being used,” she said.
The ABC is awaiting further comment from Coliban Water about the wildlife crossings.
Urbanisation and habitat loss
Ms Purcell said she believed issues around urbanisation and habitat loss were also an important part of the conversation.
According to an analysis by demographer AreaSearch, the population of the central Victorian town of Castlemaine, near Faraday, had grown by almost 5 per cent since the last Bureau of Statistics census in 2021.
In Gisborne, another central Victorian town, population growth had also exploded, and the council expected the population to double in the next two and a half decades.
Ms Purcell will chair a parliamentary inquiry committee examining wildlife strikes on the state’s roads.
“More and more native animals are being hit on our roads,” she said.
“Now, that’s not a coincidence.
“It’s because our areas are growing and our government hasn’t considered how we can build the infrastructure that we need while also considering the needs of native animals and how we can protect them.”
Academics, such as Euan Ritchie, professor of wildlife ecology and conservation at Deakin University, have previously raised concerns around how housing construction in growing neighbourhoods has impacted wildlife.
“We know we’ve got a housing crisis, we’ve got an increase in population and we need to find homes for people, but we are also lucky that we have a lot of wildlife in and around our cities,” Professor Ritchie said.
“There’s a real challenge there, I think, about how we develop areas but in a wildlife-friendly way.”
Professor Ritchie said many native animals became landlocked when infrastructure and development were not adequately planned for their movement.
“We can, of course, set aside areas as part of estates that animals can move through,” he said.
“It doesn’t mean people have to give up their houses.”
Professor Ritchie also said dry conditions across the state, particularly in the west, were also playing a role in the movement of wildlife, perhaps leading desperate animals to search for water in unlikely places.
Coliban Water has been asked if the kangaroo drownings pose any risk to humans. According to their website, all water from the channel is treated before human consumption.
Direct risk to human health? who bloody well cares!