Tassie devil roadkill tragedy ‘too tricky’ a problem to solve

An environmental tragedy – the death of 158 endangered Tasmanian devils on one stretch of road – is finally provoking official action, but councillors and bureaucrats are blocking the key measure sought.

A Tasmanian devil. Picture: David Caird

An environmental tragedy – the death of 158 endangered Tasmanian devils on one stretch of road – is finally provoking official action, but councillors and bureaucrats are blocking the key measure sought by locals.

Late last year, The Australian revealed 158 devils – from a vital population free of the tumour disease that has wiped out 80pc of the species – were killed by vehicles on a 25km stretch of road in northwest Tasmanian road in the space of just 18 months.

Residents have since campaigned to have the speed limit on the relevant road reduced, especially at night when devils are most active.

On Thursday night, the Circular Head Council supported reducing the speed limit from 100km/h to 80km/h but on only a 3km of the stretch on West Montagu road, with no change on Woolnorth road.

Wildlife carers and residents believe the move is insufficient to halt the “senseless” scale of roadkill threatening a rare healthy devil population.

Calls to reduce the night time speed limit to 60km/h along the most deadly sections of road were rejected, after state government bureaucrats advised the council it was “tricky”.

The state Transport Department advised the council: “The Tasmanian speed zoning guidelines do not identify roadkill as a justification for reducing the speed limit and it is a tricky precedent to set.

“Further, it is difficult to set proposed times – 6pm to 6am – that meet all year requirements. If we are aiming to cover the dust to dawn period, the timings would need to be varied with the seasons (as) sunset is after 8.30pm at this time of year.”

Concerned residents said the very limited 80km/h limit was totally insufficient.

“If we could just drop the limit to 60km/h from 6pm to 6am in the three high-density areas for devil kills that would make so much more of a difference,” said Alice Carson, a West Montagu wildlife carer. “It also has to be enforced because we know the speed limit at 100 was not enforced.”

Other measures were also urgently needed, including installing noisemaking ribbed strips on sections of the road to alert the devils, and a night-time curfew on milk tankers.

Ms Carson said there had now been 181 devils killed along the stretch of road in the past two years, while most vehicles were linked to the Woolnorth wind farm, for which the road was originally bituminised, and the Chinese-owned Van Dairy.

Van Dairy supports an 80km/h speed limit but said a night-time curfew on milk tankers was a matter for milk processors, such as Fonterra.

Fonterra, which had already directed its drivers to keep to 80km/h at night, did not respond by deadline.

Circular Head Mayor Gerard Blizzard said council was guided by government advice, meaning the prospects of 60km/h night time speed limits were “slim”.

A government spokesman said speed limit decisions, ultimately made by the Transport Commissioner, were “based on a range of factors including road use, traffic volumes, roadside development and road width and alignment for each application”.