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A Pound Creek woman found two dead koalas 300 metres apart in one night and wants the 100km\/h limit dropped to 80km\/h.<\/p>\n
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\n July 10, 2026
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A Pound Creek mother wants the speed limit cut on the Inverloch-Venus Bay Road after finding two dead koalas 300 metres apart on the same night.<\/p>\n April Harrick has driven the road for 16 years and pulled over countless times to check the pouches of animals killed by passing traffic.<\/p>\n Within a fortnight of finding the two males, a third koala was found dead on the same stretch.<\/p>\n “That was what really sparked it,” she said.<\/p>\n “It wasn’t just the one odd one, it was two in the same night.”<\/p>\n Finding the pair pushed her to start a petition, which closed with 229 supporters after five days, 196 of them in Australia.<\/p>\n The Australian signatures are overwhelmingly local, with the largest blocks coming from Inverloch, Venus Bay, Tarwin Lower and Wonthaggi.<\/p>\n Ms Harrick has since asked the Department of Transport and Planning to drop the limit from 100km\/h to 80km\/h along 3.6km on Inverloch-Venus Bay Road. <\/p>\n “You’ve got lots of eucalypts on the side of the road, quite blind bends, concealed driveways, and it’s 100 kilometres an hour,” she said.<\/p>\n “During the day it’s not an issue, but at night time when animals are crossing we see a fairly significant amount of wildlife that does get hit there.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms Harrick estimates she has seen more than 50 dead koalas on the road over 16 years, with the numbers rising sharply during breeding season when males travel in search of a mate.<\/p>\n A wildlife carer from Tarwin contacted her after the petition launched to say another koala had since been struck there, a female whose joey died on impact.<\/p>\n Ms Harrick said she already drove at the lowered speed limit she was asking for.<\/p>\n “I always drive at 80 kilometres an hour or under at night time,” she said.<\/p>\n “That’s just my blanket rule and it always allows me, even around a corner, to slow down in time.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms Harrick said she understood some drivers would be unhappy with a lower limit, but expected they would adjust quickly once it was in place.<\/p>\n “Once a speed reduction is put in place people just put up with it and then they don’t think twice about it,” she said.<\/p>\n A Victorian parliamentary inquiry into wildlife roadstrikes handed down 32 findings and 18 recommendations in November last year, among them that slower speeds reduce the severity of a collision and that the government examine variable speed limits in high-risk areas.<\/p>\n The Inverloch-Venus Bay Road is state managed, which puts the decision with the Department of Transport and Planning rather than the council.<\/p>\n Ms Harrick said the department’s first response discussed signage, which she had not raised, but invited her to submit the petition and her supporting evidence.<\/p>\n South Gippsland Shire Council told her it was routinely consulted on speed limit changes and would take the petition and the community response seriously.<\/p>\n Ms Harrick also contacted State Nationals leader Danny O’Brien.<\/p>\n “I would be more than happy to advocate on April’s behalf to seek a response to her petition,” Mr O’Brien told the Sentinel-Times.<\/p>\n Ms Harrick said the road had grown busier as the population moved into the area and tourist traffic tracked through to Wilsons Promontory.<\/p>\n The Department of Transport and Planning and South Gippsland Shire Council were contacted for comment.<\/p>\n
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\n ![\"Petition](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/xRkoalaspeed01_2826-2.jpg\")
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\n The deaths of two koalas in one night sparked a petition to cut the speed limit, which closed with 229 supporters.
<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/xRkoalaspeed02_2826-2.jpg\")
The 3.6km stretch on Inverloch-Venus Bay Road where Ms Harrick wants the speed limit cut to 80km\/h.<\/p>\n
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\n July 11, 2026 9:49 am | 10 hours ago
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