RBGV Case Study in Effective Road Ecology Solutions
As part of RBGVs commitment to biodiversity conservation, growing our services harmoniously in co-existence with our native wildlife, and becoming industry leaders in mindful community nature connection, we designed this project to overcome one of the key threats to Australian wildlife at Cranbourne Gardens.
Nestled amongst 340ha of remnant Australian vegetation, the driveway to reach the botanic display gardens takes visitors on a winding 1.8km journey, immersed in iconic Aussie bushland, shared by wallabies, koalas, reptiles, birds and of course, our endangered, flagship species, the Southern Brown Bandicoot.
But while all this natural beauty creates a relaxing, memorable drive for human visitors to Cranbourne Gardens, it presents huge risks to wildlife trying to cross the landscape, now fragmented by an increasingly busy roadway.
RBGVs Environmental Systems team, and Research Ecologist, driven by a decade of monitoring rising wildlife road fatalities with increasing garden visitation, set about finding a way to keep 'everyone' safe on our road way. After 3 years of design and installation of wildlife specific infrastructure, the RBGV can very proudly share this case study.
Specifically targeting small to medium sized, terrestrial wildlife (those most represented in site fatality records) the project combines 3km of fauna drift fence alongside 6 custom-built underpasses. It is arguably the first initiative of its kind in Australia.
And with permanent camera monitoring and ongoing research since project inception, we confidently share our findings in the hopes that fellow land, and road, managers may benefit from our work by modelling against our highly effective road ecology solution.