The Ballina Shire Council will approach the state and federal governments for funding to construct fences along local roads to protect koalas.
With the Pacific Highway upgrade set to be constructed through key koala habitat areas, despite pressure from the Save Ballina’s Koalas group and Friends of the Koala, opponents have turned their attention to local roads.
Cr Jeff Johnson told councillors yesterday that statistics gathered by the Friends of the Koala group showed that the number of koalas dying on key local roads was increasing.
‘The statistics show that road spikes along four or five local roads are increasing so the council or state government need to provide funding to fence off these areas,’ Cr Johnson said.
‘The Roads and Maritime Service is proposing to spend millions of dollars on koala measures for the new highway and they need to allocate some of that money to local roads.’
A majority of councillors supported Cr Johnson, with Crs Ben Smith, Paul Worth Robyn Hordern and Sue Meehan voting against.
Cr Johnson said Ballina’s Koala Management Strategy had identified koala fencing as a key measure to preventing fatalities and ‘now is the time to implement this important strategy’.
He said the number of reported fatal road kills was 2 in 2013, 3 in 2014 and 6 in 2015, with the actual number likely to be several times higher as injured animals could remain undetected.
He said there was a real concern that koala road hits hhad been under reported in the past, and that high levels of road hits may have been the norm in this area for many years.
As a result of the motion, the council will now liaise with the Friends of the Koala group to identify the priority roll out of fences.
Staff will investigate the costs of installing fences, and whether matching funds from the council might be necessary to make them a reality.
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