Living with wildlife

Native animals move through the landscape for breeding, foraging and migration. Rural roadsides provide food, refuge and protection from predators.

• Look out for wildlife signs (usually yellow with a black animal symbol). They indicate that you are driving through a wildlife corridor or ‘hotspot’ and extra care should be taken.
• Use your peripheral vision and be alert. Animals can appear and move suddenly.
• Slow down from dusk until dawn when driving on country roads to reduce the risk of hitting wildlife and damaging your vehicle.
• Slow down or brake (never swerve) if you see wildlife on or near the road.
• If an animal is close or blocking your path, dip your headlights to low beam (high beam dazzles them) and toot a few times if there is no other traffic. This will encourage them to move on, but be aware that they may move back into your path at any moment.
• Never throw rubbish from car windows. It can attract wildlife to roadsides and increase the risk of road-kill.

To report a wildlife emergency, contact Wildlife Victoria on (03) 8400 7300.

You may enjoy regular visits from our unique local wildlife. But the native animals you see in the bush aren’t pets. Wild animals, no matter how timid or small, are capable of inflicting injury. So be careful, no matter how harmless they may appear:

• Move slowly, stay calm and keep your distance, they will be more frightened of you than you are of them.
• Never try to pat or handle wild animals. It is illegal and approaching them too closely can stress animals or cause them to abandon their young.
• Do not corner animals so they feel trapped, particularly kangaroos. Remove any pets from the area as they will add to the animal’s distress.
• It is a prosecutable offence under the Wildlife Act 1975 to intentionally harm, shoot, trap or kill wildlife. Fines and other penalties can be applied.
• If an animal becomes trapped or seems distressed, clear a path to allow it to escape.
• To report a wildlife emergency, contact Wildlife Victoria on (03) 8400 7300.

If you find an injured animal:

• Do not try to care for the injured animal yourself or take it home. It must be taken to a vet or wildlife shelter.
• Stay in your car and keep the animal in sight until a wildlife rescuer arrives. 
• If you are unable to stay, mark the location with a plastic bag, piece of cloth or some other visible material.
• Do not attempt to pat the animal as this will further add to its distress. Injured animals can cause further injury to themselves and should only be approached by a trained person.

Council do not deal with injured wildlife.

If you find dead wildlife on a Council road, please report it to us by calling (03) 5422 0333. If you find a dead animal on a major arterial road (highway, freeway or main road), contact VicRoads on 13 11 70.

People often feed wildlife because they enjoy the close-up experience with wildlife, but feeding wildlife can interfere with their natural feeding behaviours, attract unwanted pests and cause damage to our local environment. There are other ways you can attract native wildlife to your garden. See Sustainable Gardening and Native Plants.

In many species of native wildlife, youngsters rely on parental behaviour to teach them how to find food. You can upset this important part of their development by feeding them, not to mention the fact that the food may not be nutritionally appropriate and could result in disease or illness. 

Leaving out food like seeds or bread for wildlife can also attract vermin such as rats and mice.

Feeding wildlife can cause a dependency on humans for food, lead to dietary deficiencies and can cause wildlife to contract and transmit disease.

Cockatoos

The Sulphur Crested Cockatoo (easily identified with their white body and yellow crest) is particularly prone to becoming a nuisance as a result of being fed by humans. It is natural for these birds to spend a large part of the day browsing for seeds, grass, plants, nuts and insects.

Cockatoos need to chew items to maintain their beaks at the correct length and condition. In the wild, they achieve this by chewing bark and branches in their roost trees. When people give them food, they tend to hang around near where they are fed. This can result in cockatoos chewing on fittings, outdoor furniture, or vegetation on neighbouring properties.

Over the past four years, Wildlife Victoria has been recording a year-on-year increase in ‘hit by vehicle’ cases and it's the most common reason people call their Emergency Response Service.

To address this issue, Wildlife Victoria commenced the Wildlife Road Toll Reduction Project in June 2023 working with Macedon Ranges Shire Council, as well as City of Greater Bendigo and Bass Coast Shire Council, all selected for their high wildlife road toll, to gain a greater understanding of the issue and barriers to change.

The outcome of this work culminated in a Wildlife Road Toll Reduction Toolkit. The toolkit is designed for local governments to help them gain a greater understanding of the issue and to document what mitigation strategies are available. 

The next stage of the project aims to continue this work to reduce the wildlife road toll by moving into an implementation stage and capturing data that measure the output and effectiveness of the strategies implemented. However, further funding is required prior to the roll-out of the implementation stage of the project.

Wildlife Road Toll Reduction Toolkit(PDF, 2MB)

On Friday 23 February 2024, Macedon Ranges Shire Council and Wildlife Victoria hosted a community forum at the Newham Mechanics Institute. The forum discussed strategies to reduce the rising wildlife road toll in our region. Read the Reducing the Wildlife Road Toll Forum report(PDF, 224KB).

Lisa Palma - CEO Wildlife Victoria

Linda Healy - Macedon Ranges Wildlife Network

Dr Kylie Soanes - University of Melbourne

Eng Lim - Manager Engineering and Resource Recovery, Macedon Ranges Shire Council

At the Australian Local Government Association’s National General Assembly in July 2024, Council submitted a motion calling on the Australian Government to include wildlife trauma and fatalities metrics in Federal road safety funding models.

You can view the original motion in full on page 10 of 27 March 2024 - Council Meeting Minutes.

This push aligns with Council considering wildlife in its recently endorsed Mobility and Road Safety Strategy, and collaborative discussions at the Reducing the Wildlife Road Toll Forum (see above). Council will also write to several relevant Federal and State Ministers advocating this point.

Everyone is welcome to visit any of our bushland reserves to gain an appreciation of our unique bushland areas. They are great places for activities such as wildlife spotting, bird watching, bush walking and nature photography.

There are many bushland reserves in our shire, all of which offer unique wildlife spotting opportunities. For more information about each reserve, including its location and features you can search our reserves using the map feature.

Our bushland reserves are owned and managed by Council for the conservation of local flora and fauna.  Bald Hill Reserve and Black Hill Reserve are a some of our larger reserves.

Black Hill Reserve 

Black Hill Reserve is 260 acres of rare bush land and amazing granite rock formations approximately 5km north of Kyneton.  It is home to a variety of wildlife, including many bird species, wallabies, kangaroos, echidnas, phascogales, sugar gliders, possums and one wombat.

There are a number of well-defined walking tracks for visitors to explore and enjoy the natural beauty of the reserve. 

Bald Hill Reserve

Bald Hill Reserve is valued by the community as an ecologically, geologically and culturally significant location. Widespread land clearing practices during early European settlement has resulted in very little remnant vegetation remaining in the Kyneton region. The Bald Hill Reserve has a mix of remnant and regenerating forests. Bald Hill Reserve provides low impact, passive tourism opportunities for bird watching, photographers, naturalists and education. There are many threatened flora and fauna species at the reserve such as Brown Toadlet, Powerful Owl, Brush-tailed Phascogale, Tussock Skink, Clover Glycine and Matted-flax Lily.

Hanging Rock

Hanging Rock has numerous walking paths and trails weave through the reserve, allowing you close access to the flora and fauna.

Even the wildlife loves Hanging Rock, with native species such as koala, kangaroo, wallaby and echidna making the occasional appearance. Over 40 species of birds around the reserve, including bright rosellas and cockatoos, while mammals like the greater glider enjoy the relaxing surroundings and towering eucalypts.

Macedon Regional Park boasts lush forests, granite lookouts and spectacular scenery. Mount Macedon and the Camels Hump lookout are two of the highest peaks in the area and easily accessed for panoramic views.  There are destinations within the park for all abilities, there is nothing better for your health than getting out and enjoying the nature within this park. Keep an eye out for local wildlife. You may be lucky to encounter kangaroos, wombats, echidnas, possums or some of the many birds including rosellas, galahs and tiny blue wrens.