Moreland’s only kangaroo mob under threat as Fawkner Cemetery expands

The habitat for what is likely Moreland’s only mob of kangaroos is under siege by a cemetery expansion. What does it mean for these resident roos?

POSSIBLY Moreland’s only kangaroo mob could be on the move as a cemetery expansion threatens its habitat.

The eastern grey kangaroos occupy grassland bordered by Fawkner Memorial Park, the Western Ring Rd and Sydney Rd.

But the Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, which controls the cemetery, is building into the otherwise unoccupied space, which will likely force the animals out.

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Fawkner resident John Englart said that on regular bike rides in the area, he had counted as many as 18 kangaroos on the land.

Last week, Leader counted eight kangaroos less than 100m from construction.

Cemetery expansion continues. Picture: Ellen Smith

“This is perhaps the last mob of kangaroos permanently living within the bounds of the municipality of Moreland,” Mr Englart wrote on his blog, Sustainable Fawkner.

“(The land is) a little bit of kangaroos wildness in our rapidly urban consolidating municipality.”

Merri Creek Management Committee manager Luisa Macmillan said a small mob was seen in Reservoir and Fawkner but she wasn’t aware of any other permanent kangaroos in Moreland.

Two kangaroos look over the construction work. Picture: Ellen Smith

Cemetery trust infrastructure and development director Pelagia Markogiannakis said there was a management plan in place and pointed to a land corridor underneath the ring road to nearby Jack Roper Reserve as a way for the marsupials to relocate.

She said the trust also planned to improve waterways, reinvigorate the wetlands and maintain the corridors used by the kangaroos moving through the site and finding new land.

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