Possum Bridge over Hume - letter to Editor
From: Richard Pew To: Terry Frewin - Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 6:51 PM
I went down Old Cemetary Rd to watch the construction of the rope bridge, and spoke to Dr Rodney van der Vree, Australian Research Centre Ecologist.
He outlined the three year program of trapping some 300 mammals between Euroa and Benalla over a three year period and fitting some 60 animals with wireless collars to enable monitoring. Students from Monash University were involved in the program.
One young student, Kylie Soames, will do a thesis on the squirrel gliders, for her Honours degree.
The rope bridge was manufactured by Nationwide Netmakers of Newcastle. In the July Village Voice the possum bridge was noted as one of only three in Australia, however there are in fact several more in Queensland and NSW.
The July-September 2006 issue of Australian Geographic included a disturbing article about fauna road-kill, and included reference to the first bridge installed by Conservationist Rupert Russell in the Wet Tropics in the mid-1990s.
Ecologist Nigel Weston further developed the design and a number of these rope over-passes have been built throughout the region's forests. The design was recently used by Thiess Pty Ltd as a basis for five aerial fauna bridges over the Pacific Highway in NSW.
A really heartening example of a commercial business taking care of our precious little marsupials. I saw a documentary on TV some time last year, about the construction of a possum bridge, possibly in Queensland - most interesting and informative. Australian Geographic provided funding assistance to Nigel Weston. The links below take you first to Nationwide Netmakers; then go to Wildlife Safety and Welfare, which then includes the secong link to a very comprehensive publication of the Thiess project.
Wonderful to see a commercial business taking care of our precious little mammals. This great example could be used to urge our government to install many more such bridges throughout Victoria, in appropriate sites where road kill of mammals is occuring.
Hope you find this material useful. Richard Pew, Violet Town
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