Wildlife rescuers in Western Australia’s South West say flawed design and construction of fauna protection measures along the Wilman Wadandi Highway are putting animals and motorists at risk.<\/p>\n
In a bid to accommodate wild kangaroos, the $1.46 billion road features fauna underpasses and 64,200 metres of fauna fencing.<\/p>\n
There are also 19 rope bridges built for the passage of endangered western ringtail possums.<\/p>\n
Animal care group FAWNA president, Suzanne Strapp, said the group had responded to “countless” calls about injured kangaroos and echidnas since the highway opened in December 2024.<\/p>\n
The rescuers described the underpasses as dangerous because they were dual-use culverts that allowed animals to come up onto the four-lane highway before reaching the other side of the road.<\/p>\n
“Once they’re in there, it’s very hard for them to get out. So they panic and become quite a road hazard,” Ms Strapp said.<\/p>\n
Suzanne Strapp says calls about injured wildlife have continued. (ABC South West WA: Jacqueline Lynch)<\/p>\n
Transport authority defends infrastructure<\/p>\n
The state’s transport authority has defended the highway’s “comprehensive suite” of wildlife protection infrastructure.<\/p>\n
A Main Roads WA spokesperson said consultation on the plans came from the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, and were approved by the state and federal environmental protection authorities.<\/p>\n
Monitoring involved more than 50 cameras recording several hundred movements of possums and other creatures.<\/p>\n
The spokesperson said the location and design of the structures prioritised “the shortest and most practical connection points for fauna, based on known movement patterns and local conditions”.<\/p>\n
But they conceded the works on the fauna infrastructure were not entirely complete, despite the highway officially opening seven months ago.<\/p>\n
“Some fauna infrastructure is still being finalised as part of ongoing finishing works,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Kangaroos get trapped or injured on the highway, increasing the risk of dying by the roadside. (ABC South West WA: Madigan Landry\u00a0)<\/p>\n
Fauna design doubts<\/p>\n
Roo Rescue WA founder, Kim Grant, said she was receiving about a dozen calls a week about kangaroos trapped on the Wilman Wadandi Highway when it first opened.<\/p>\n
She said she now regularly relocated the animals that were not already dead on the roadside.<\/p>\n
“I don’t relocate [the carcasses]. I’m a volunteer, I’m here to care for the living,” Ms Grant said.<\/p>\n
“I can’t do all of the government’s work for them for free.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kim Grant says she was averaging a dozen calls a week for injured kangaroos when the highway opened. (ABC South West WA: Madigan Landry)<\/p>\n
In addition to the problematic underpasses, Ms Grant said the possum bridges failed to begin and end in healthy possum habitat.<\/p>\n
“They’ve put them into dead trees and things, looking for structural integrity in that respect \u2026 but the arrival and destination have to be living trees,” she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Underpasses open up inside of the fauna fence line on the Wilman Wadandi Highway. (ABC South West WA: Madigan Landry)<\/p>\n
Ms Grant and Ms Strapp both have doubts about Main Roads WA’s consultation process for fauna protection.<\/p>\n
“Main roads used consultants like ecologists to forecast what was going to occur, but it seems a lot of it was lost in translation, or was just to sort of meet or to tick a box,” Ms Strapp said.<\/p>\n
“The erection of all these mitigating constructions is just a slap in the face, and even worse, when you drive along the Wilman Wadandi Highway you see some really beautiful artwork of birds and animals.<\/p>\n
“I think the number of animals that have been killed or injured on that road speaks for itself.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wildlife rescuers in Western Australia’s South West say flawed design and construction of fauna protection measures along the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,5706,5705,5699,5701,5704,5702,5700,128,45,338,5703],"class_list":{"0":"post-3961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-borr","11":"tag-fawna","12":"tag-highway","13":"tag-kangaroo","14":"tag-main-roads","15":"tag-native-wildlife","16":"tag-possum","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-wa-news","19":"tag-wildlife","20":"tag-wilman-wadandi"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}