Isolated Woolnorth road the devil roadkill capital of Tasmania

A road only 25km long accounts for a quarter of all the Tasmanian devil roadkill deaths, with 158 skittled in the past 18 months alone. WARNING: GRAPHIC

A 25km stretch of road in the far North West is the state’s deadliest for the Tasmanian Devil with almost 160 disease-free marsupials mowed down in the last 18 months alone.

Woolnorth Rd, which leads to a wind farm, a massive dairy operation and the Cape Grim air research station, accounts for a quarter of all the devils which become roadkill in Tasmania.

Local wildlife carers like Alice Carsen say trucks have been clocked at speeds over 150km/h on the isolated rural road and the heads of devils have been found 30m away from their decapitated bodies.

Dead Tasmanian devil roadkill on Montague Rd near West Montague in Tasmania's North-West. Picture: Supplied

Baby devils are among the dead and not all animals are hit at night.

“It is crazed out there on that road,” Ms Carsen said. “I saw where a vehicle did a wheelie over a platypus. It’s horrific.”“We definitely need a reduction in the speed limit out there but maybe we need to do other innovative things like wildlife underpasses as well. We have to do something.”

On Wednesday the government announced it was launching a new campaign to reduce roadkill of Tasmanian devils at Woolnorth.

And diary company Van Dairy is working to implement mitigation strategies to reduce devil deaths.

Van Dairy owner Xianfeng Lu said it was crucial to continue advocating for devils through driver awareness and lower speeds in high-risk areas.

“In June this year, we launched our ‘Drive Safe for Devils’ community awareness campaign to encourage all road users to slow down between dusk and dawn. We also continue to communicate internally and through our regular newsletter with our staff and contractors above driving to the conditions and being devil aware.”

Isolated Woolnorth road the devil roadkill capital of Tasmania

Environment Minister Roger Jaensch said the government had partnered with the Circular Head Council, Cradle Coast Authority, key industries,and other stakeholders to encourage drivers to slow down in “Devil Country”.

“The multi-faceted campaign follows an increase in the number of Tasmanian devils reported killed on roads in the Woolnorth region and will focus on a range of initiatives to help reduce the number of devils killed,” Mr Jaensch siad.

“Woolnorth is home to the largest population of Tasmanian devils in the state and is one of the last regions not impacted by Devil Facial Tumour Disease, which has caused declines in other regional devil populations in Tasmania.

“That’s why we need to protect the local population of this threatened species.

“The focus of the campaign will be on what we know to be the most effective methods to reduce roadkill: driver awareness and slowing down between dusk and dawn.

“As part of the campaign, the Tasmanian Government has funded the installation of signage in hot spot locations to alert drivers to the risk and encourage them to slow down.

“This initiative will complement a social media campaign, installation of virtual fencing by Circular Head Council, voluntary reduction in speed by Fonterra staff driving in the area, and other actions to help the devil population in the Woolnorth area be as resilient as possible to the impacts of DFTD.”

Revealed: Toursists role in vaccine research for Tassie Devil disease

ECO-CONSCIOUS travellers at a luxury East Coast lodge are helping secure the future of the Tasmanian Devil by funding breakthrough local vaccine research.

Senior Research Fellow Dr Andy Flies, who leads the Tasmanian devil immunology research group at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, said tourists had helped it make significant advancements in vaccine research for Devil Facial Tumour Disease.

“We’ve made some exciting progress towards a vaccine, which was boosted by Covid-19-related technological developments, and look forward to testing a new experimental vaccine,” Dr Flies said.

DFTD was first detected in North East Tasmania in the mid-1990s, and since that time, sightings of the Tasmanian devil in the wild have declined by more than 80 percent.

The north-east region has experienced a drop in sightings of around 95 percent

Dr Flies said his research was funded from a range of sources including visitors to the luxury east coast lodge Saffire Freycinet.

EMBARGO FOR TWAM 03 SEPTEMBER 2022. FEE MAY APPLY. Saffire Freycinet luxury resort in Coles Bay, TAS. Aerial. Source: Supplied

“Saffire has been supporting the research at Menzies since 2014 and its guests have donated $175,000 towards our quest to develop a vaccine for Devil Facial Tumour Disease,” Dr Flies said.

Saffire is home to a one-hectare, free-range devil enclosure which houses mature devils that have been part of the devil breeding program and whose genes are now well represented within the insurance population.

Saffire General Manager Ross Boobyer said the enclosure allowed guests to see the devils in a natural setting and invited them to make a difference to the future of the species by participating in the resort’s devil adoption program.

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Those who adopt are kept informed of the progress in research with regular newsletters.

“We currently have five resident retired devils living a life of luxury at Saffire with the most recent addition, Moltema, arriving earlier this month,” Mr Boobyer said.

Saffire is now committing an additional $25,000 over the next two years to further support the Menzies research.

Dr Flies said the new vaccine being developed could be delivered to devils in an edible form such as an oral bait vaccine, to maximise vaccine uptake by wild devils.