Author Archives: Eve Kelly

AWPC Call for VicRoads to Cease Clearing Plans on the Mornington Peninsula

*cover photo is of one of the 13 ringtail possums brought into care at stage 1. She had a deep facial injury which eventually recovered; she has since been released back into the wild. She was one of the lucky ones, many animals were mulched alive or run over by the heavy machinery that VicRoads used.
Autumn has arrived and re-planting of the cleared median strip has not commenced, I would assume that it’s because they haven’t yet finished installing the safety barriers. This begs the question why did they go ahead and clear in spring, if they were going to take this long to complete the barriers? They could have left nesting birds to fledge.
Picture by Eve Kelly
VicRoads have tendered new contractors for stage 2 of the clearing. This time the clearing is said to commence from Rosebud back to Dromana.
The AWPC sent an email to VicRoads on the 20th of April and again on the 2nd of May asking for the name of the new contractor, the date they intend on starting the clearing and information about how many zoologists will be onsite. The AWPC have had no reply from VRs about the preparation work that was agreed to in their own ‘Vegetation Clearing Action Plan’.
Page 4 of the preparation plan was for the contracted zoologists to contact wildlife shelters and vets to gauge capacities and organise wildlife intake. To date, no wildlife shelters have been contacted. Wildlife shelters have been clear that we need plenty of time to plan for the wildlife that might need to come into care. With no confirmation date from VicRoads this planning is still up in the air.
However, one of the wildlife shelters who got tired of waiting and contacted via the phone and got contact details of the contractor. She said that the new contractor gave a date around the 13th of May for the recommencement of the clearing. If this is true, they are failing to prepare and are already not adhering to the agreed and consulted plan.
How can VicRoads be trusted to follow the rest of the plan if they are failing in the preparation stages? Again, VicRoads’ communication is very lacking.
I would also like to draw your attention to an article printed in the Irish Times in 2007 about the danger that the wire safety barriers cause to motorcyclists. Back some countries were considering removing these types of barriers from their roads. Why clear vegetation and injure, kill and orphan protected wildlife if they may need to remove the barriers later because they are unsafe?
In 2014, it was reported ‘They are banned from use in a number of European jurisdictions: Norway, France, Denmark and The Netherlands among them.’
 
Whilst VicRoads claim that it was the CFA who recommended ALL of the vegetation to be cleared because it was a fire hazard, we find the CFA has also warned against these types of barriers. It is clear that if the median strip is not replanted and maintained, and grows weeds and grass, this also presents as a fire hazard. Along with the addition of wire barriers, these conditions create more hazards for motorists and will not make the roads safer.
“Mr Chapman warned that if a grass fire breaks out along a highway, motorists will have “nowhere to go”.
 
 
There has recently been a second wave of community outrage about the clearing of the median strip and doubts about the safety barriers. Mornington Peninsula residents feel ignored and blindsided. They feel the now barren median strip has ruined our green gateway to the peninsula. 
 
 
One community member wrote on FB (24/4/18): “Safety barriers? Really? Making what safe? Are they claiming that cars can’t drive through those horrible steel rails? To me they are simply making a mess, ruining habitat, making everything look ugly and fenced off. Seems like a massive waste of time, money and resources. Fix Eastbourne and Jetty Rds instead of this.”
And another: “Vic roads are a joke this has been the longest project for so little work done since last year. Trees were to be planted already but nothing has been done what so ever, its like driving down a tunnel with all the barriers on both sides of the road , night time driving must be hell with on coming traffic blinding the cars on the other side of the road. The whole area looks like a bomb has been dropped on it.”
Brenda Marmion of Crystal Ocean Wildlife Shelter wrote: “Travelling to Mornington on Sunday where vegetation completely cleared were two corpses of juvenile kangaroo joeys”
 
Wildlife volunteers are not satisfied with VicRoads’ response to our concerns, they have failed to communicate and adhere to the plan that they funded. There is no point in having a plan if they are not following it. 
 
Picture by Eve Kelly
The AWPC wants the plans to clear the median strip of the freeway to cease immediately and for VicRoads to re-think the entire project. 
 
Sincerely,
 

Eve Kelly, Secretary

Australian Wildlife Protection Council Inc.

 

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AWPC Help to Stop Habitat Clearing and Loss of Wildlife

The Australian Wildlife Protection Council were very busy last week trying to put a halt to clearing on the median strip of the Mornington Peninsula Freeway. This vegetation is home to wildllife including possums, nesting birds, echidna and reptiles. We were outraged that VicRoads used a ‘forestry machine’ to clear everything in it’s path and that the works commenced in Spring when birds are nesting.

VicRoads had already cleared a large area but we managed to stop the clearing going any further. Although a lot of animals were displaced, injured and killed, we are thankful that VicRoads listened to our (and other’s) outcry and ceased the project.

 

Thanks to Klarissa Garnaut at WHOMP, Brenda Marmion at Crystal Ocean Wildlife Shelter, PLAN and everyone else who helped, contributed and gave us the support we needed to speak out!

 

Check out this story…the article is on pg 9

https://issuu.com/southernpeninsulanews/docs/spn_10_october_2017

Update story

http://mpnews.com.au/2018/02/12/hand-clearing-for-freeways-centre-strip/

 

 

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AWPC Newsletter September 2018

Check out our latest newsletter

Click here for the Newsletter Sept 2018 Vol 28

 

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AWPC Speak Out Against the Culling of Kangaroos in Cape Schanck

In October 2017 the Australian Society for Kangaroos were contacted by a neighbour of a property owner that was to use an Authority to Control Wildlife Permit (ACTW, cull permit) on Eastern Grey Kangaroos that were accessing his land at Cape Schanck on the Mornington Peninsula. He asked the organisation to help with trying to save the kangaroos.

In communication with ASK, the AWPC went to inspect the property with the cull permit and found some alarming inadequacies with the fencing, weed and rabbit control. All of which would appear to be contrary to good land management practices.

The property is bordered on one side, across a small dirt road, by the Mornington Peninsula National Park where there is an abundance of kangaroos. The fence alongside the National Park has been vandalised with 4 large holes cut out, presumably by someone trying to allow the kangaroos access back onto the land. The kangaroos are indeed accessing the land via the holes in the fence. DELWP consulted an Independent Panel of Experts (IPE) who advised the owner NOT to fix the fence because it was likely it would just be vandalised again. So now it seems that DELWP’s solution to criminal vandalism is to cull native wildlife.

The property owner claims that he intended to use the land for horse pasture and horse training but with the kangaroos eating grass and spooking horses he has incurred ‘substantial financial losses’ to his business with the kangaroos being there.

But why are landowners setting up a horse training facility on land that is known to be abundant with kangaroos?

With large holes in the fence, it would be impossible to contain horses on the land. There is also an overgrowth of invasive sweet vernal grass, which is toxic to both stock animals and kangaroo, some of which is spread into the National Park reducing the natural grasses the kangaroo rely on to eat. Rabbits are hopping around and burrowing into the ground on and around the property, which begs the question, how does the landowner and/or DELWP attribute grazing food being lost to kangaroos and not rabbits?

The fences in the area are in a terrible state and fence wire is strewn on the ground on public land, posing a great hazard to kangaroos as they go about life in their natural habitat.

Why is DELWP giving out cull permits to landholders who clearly are not maintaining fencing, failing to properly manage their land for weeds and rabbits and are actually causing unnecessary hazards and suffering for wildlife? The balance is completely in favour of the human economic and/or recreational benefit and once again the wildlife loses.

[Read the first article about this case here:]

The fencing was ineffective because it was vandalised with holes.

The AWPC were happy that another article was run in the local newspaper and was happy to raise awareness about the case.

[Read the Mornington Peninsula News Group article here:]

On October 25th 2017, the AWPC sent a letter to the Environment Minister, DELWP secretary and DELWP wildlife officers. AWPC Letter to DELWP about Kangaroo Cull Cape Schanck

I received the following reply:

 

 

The AWPC will be attending the meeting which is expected to be held next year. In the meantime, we are still in communication with DELWP about this particular permit and also involved in the ATCW Review that is set to begin in the near future.

Eve Kelly

Secretary, AWPC

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AWPC’s Response to The Weekly Times Article ‘Victoria aids wildlife victoria while permitting pest culls’ by Eve Kelly

https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/victoria/victoria-aids-wildlife-victoria-while-permitting-pest-culls/news-story/c1c74dd536c9420a25185e148bd73860


This article speaks volumes of how little some farmers consider animal welfare. Wildlife rescue is an ethical welfare issue. Leaving a kangaroo hanging on a fence to die and/or leaving her joey in her pouch to die from exposure in is inhumane. Wildlife Victoria volunteers work hard to lessen the cruel impact that humans have on Australian Wildlife. They experience this suffering everyday and realize our wildlife’s desperate need. They pay their own money, time and energy to help these vulnerable and voiceless animals. They should be commended and supported by the government and the public.

Pic by E. Kelly
Pic by Y. Dellaportas
Pic by J. Oswald
Pic T. Calder


Why does it have to be funding one thing over another? The state government should fund pest management of foxes and rabbits on crown land separately. Landowners are responsible for the control of introduced pests on their own land as per state regulations. Some farmers need to understand that a hole in the ground from a wombat or a damaged fence from a kangaroo, does not justify maiming and killing indigenous species. These animals have kept the environment healthy for millions of years and without them the farmers wouldn’t have the land to work from.



The government shouldn’t be allowing the mass culling of native species. They bring in billions of tourist dollars nationally. With ecologists reporting a species extinction crisis worldwide it is an irresponsible way to mange our ecosystems. All extinct and threatened species were once ‘common’ species; they all need protection. Most native animals are not counted and if they are the numbers are far from accurate. Not ALL farmers treat native Australian wildlife in this way. If farmers, who make millions of dollars off the land, choose to farm in Australia they must adapt to work alongside wildlife.

It is worth noting that it’s in the government’s, some farmers’ and industry’s best interests to malign native animals as ‘over abundant’ ‘pests’. This government ‘asset’ makes them money and also gets in the way of development and logging. ‘The gross value of production for the kangaroo industry in 2014 was A$174 million’ according to www.kangarooindustry.com. Wildlife activist groups and Wildlife Victoria volunteers don’t have vested interests or big budgets to fund their agenda. The kangaroo industry funds the ‘native pest’ ideology in educational institutions and in the media because it is economical viable to do so.

  • Orphaned bat E. Kelly
  • Pic A. Kuiter
  • Pic D. Brealey
  • Pic E. Kelly
  • Pic N. Hogart


For the record, to clarify what ‘rescue’ means. Wildlife Victoria volunteers would never re-release a fox. It is the case that foxes are caught in leg traps, poisoned or cubs orphaned. The suffering is immense. The reason Wildlife Victoria volunteers are called upon to assist introduced species is because the RSPCA Victoria and local councils don’t have trained and equipped rescuers to go out and help. Wildlife Victoria provide a service that the public expects but the government doesn’t provide. Wildlife Victoria will refuse these cases if resources are best used for native species. If they do assist a fox, or non-native rat, the animal is taken to the vet and left in the hands of the veterinarian to euthanase. Authorised wildlife shelters in Victoria are not permitted to rehabilitate introduced species.

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Caring for Wildlife- Maria Taylor visits two local heros of animal medicine and welfare in south-east NSW

Maria Taylor visits two local heros of animal medicine and welfare in south-east NSW in this excerpt from her forthcoming book.

‘What are kangaroos like personally?

I ask him what is his experience with macropods, the kangaroos on a personal, behavioural level? They are all different, he answers — physiology, behaviour, different age groups, and response to treatment or anaesthesia requiring different levels of sedation and post-operative care — which makes his work such a specialised field. “They are all individuals, not just a furry opportunity to kill something.

“Talking about Eastern Grey kangaroos, being the ones that get the worst rap usually, they’re lovely creatures in fact. They are quite endearing, very gentle in their behaviour. Just because some large male kangaroo that is protecting the mob gets cranky when people invade, that’s normal.

“From our perspective, we’re dealing with them all the time, they are very gentle and quite tuned into human behaviour and needs. Even though they come from the wild, in a very short time they adapt to what we need them to do, with feeding and so forth.’

See the full article here:

https://districtbulletin.com.au/caring/

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