Bruce Highway—Cooroy to Curra Environmental documents

Environmental documents for Section A: Cooroy southern interchange to Sankeys Road

The Section A project was completed and open to traffic in April 2017.

Following completion of Section A, TMR carried out a review of fauna fencing installed. The review identified that improved fencing would further complement the existing fauna management measures. Tenders were called in December 2019 and the construction contract was awarded to Ford Brothers Fencing Pty Ltd in April 2020. Works started in May 2020 and were completed in August 2020. This project complemented the $2.2 million koala habitat planting works on the Section A project.

Fauna protection

TMR is committed to the management and preservation of native wildlife and has worked closely with local wildlife groups to identify areas of risk between the Cooroy southern interchange and Sankeys Road.
TMR awarded Ford Brothers Fencing a construction contract to retrofit existing fencing with exclusion panels and install additional fencing to prevent native wildlife from accessing the highway. The upgraded fencing will direct wildlife away from high-speed traffic and encourage it to safely return to nearby bushland.

Construction started in May 2020 and was completed in August 2020.

These important fauna management measures, when combined with a koala habitat offset program already underway as part of the Section A project, represent a considerable investment to conserve koalas in the local area.

The koala habitat offset program involves revegetating 12 sites between Federal and Coles Creek (owned by TMR) with native trees and managing these areas until the bushland is self-sustaining and capable of supporting koalas. More than 98,000 native tube stocks have been planted as part of this initiative. Importantly, these koala habitat sites have been classed as high nature conversation value and are protected from future clearing under environmental legislation.

Environmental documents for Section C: Traveston to Woondum

In January 2015 the federal Minister for the Environment determined Section C required assessment under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act (EPBC Act) due to impacts on the koala, grey-headed flying fox, Mary River Turtle and the Mary River Cod. We have supplied the then Department of Environment (now the Department of Environment and Energy) with documents outlining how we have planned to mitigate these impacts.

An advertisement seeking public comment on these documents was published for 10 business days on Friday 10 July 2015. Comments were received and addressed in revised documentation.

The revised documents are available below.

On 24 December 2015, Section C was granted EPBC Act approval with conditions (approval number EPBC 2014/ 7394).

Condition 12 of the approval requires the Department of Transport and Main Roads to prepare and publish an annual report that demonstrates compliance with each of the conditions of the approval. The compliance reports are available below.

EPBC Act compliance reports

Additional reference documents

Land Offset Research Proposal

* This document has been amended to protect intellectual property and commercial interests.