Living with wildlife

Drive safely

Wildlife move through the landscape to breeding, forage for food and migration. Rural roadsides provide food, refuge and protection from predators.

• Watch for wildlife signs—they mark corridors or hotspots.
•  Stay alert; animals can move suddenly.
•  Slow down at dusk and dawn on country roads.
•  Brake if wildlife is near but never swerve.
•  Dip headlights to low beam and toot (if safe) to encourage movement.
•  Never litter—it attracts wildlife to roadsides.

Respecting wildlife

You may enjoy regular visits from our 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:

• Wildlife is not tame—respect their space.
• Move slowly, stay calm, and keep your distance.
• Never pat or handle wild animals—it’s illegal and stresses them.
• Avoid cornering animals, especially kangaroos. Keep pets away.
• Harming wildlife is illegal under the Wildlife Act 1975.
• If an animal is trapped, clear a path for escape.

Injured or dead wildlife

If you find an injured animal:

• Do not care for it yourself - report it to Wildlife Victoria.
• Stay in your car and monitor it until rescuers arrive.
• If leaving, mark the location visibly.
• Do not approach injured animals - they may injure themselves further.

Council does not handle injured wildlife.

If you find dead wildlife on a Council road, report it at (03) 5422 0333.

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

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 backyard, find out more information with our Backyard Biodiversity project.

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.

Fences are an important part of managing a rural property. Fences ensure domestic stock are contained and identify the legal boundaries to a property.

Fencing can pose several risks to wildlife. Over 70 Australian animal species have been shown to be injured by fences. This includes birds, possums, gliders, bats, koalas, wombats and kangaroos. Reptiles are also at risk due to their backwards facing scales which can get caught on tight gaps in fencing. 

Improving fences for wildlife can have several benefits including reduced maintenance, lower costs of installation, be visually pleasing and provide local wildlife with freedom to move without the risk of injury.

How can you help?

• Check out our wildlife friendly fencing factsheet.
• Design a fence to allow for animals to pass underneath. Leave a minimum of 40cm between the ground and the bottom wire.
• Choose a plain high-tensile fencing wire. If this is tensioned correctly, this fencing material can contain most stock If barbed wire has to be used, avoid placing the wire on the top two or three strands of the fence or on the bottom wire. This will reduce the risks but not eliminate them.
• Keep the fence low with a maximum height of 1.2m. This will allow larger animals such as Kangaroos to easily pass over the top.
• In high-risk areas such as high quality vegetation and near water, use plain wire or place the barbed wire inside split pipe to protect animals from the barbs.
• Consider retrofitting your existing fence with reflective materials such as CDs and aluminium plant tags. Alternatively, add a white wire to the top. Place these items on the top wire to make it easier for wildlife to see.
• Consider if you really need a fence or if you could define your property using vegetation. Internal fences could also potentially be removed to improve wildlife movement electric fencing can be used with caution. Remember to keep the hot wire above 40cm to allow for small animals to pass under with ease.

There are many places to enjoy our wildlife across the Macedon Ranges. You can browse our many parks, gardens and reserves including dog friendly and off leash areas.

Bushland Reserves

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.

Hanging Rock Reserve

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

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.

If you come across a snake stay calm, and remain a safe distance from the snake. Never try to kill the snake as this is how nearly all snake bites occur. All snakes should be considered venomous and highly dangerous.

Snakes are a protected species by law in Australia and cannot be harmed, taken from the wild, kept without a licence or traded without a licence. 

Snakes are important in the food chain, they consume smaller animals such as mice, lizards and frogs. Snakes also provide food for other animals like birds and reptiles.

Information about what species of snake are found in Victoria is available on the Victorian Government website.

Tips

Some tips to reduce the chance of snakes staying around:

• keep lawns and gardens maintained
• remove piles of wood away from the house
• ensure pet food and water bowls are left away from the home
• enclose compost heaps
• keep aviaries and chicken coops clean as these can attract mice

Snake removal

Council is unable to assist with snake removal. Please contact a licensed snake handler.

Snakes are a natural part of our bushland reserves - if you see a snake in one of our reserves, simply stay calm and keep you distance.

Snakes around the home 

Snakes near your home are usually just passing through on its way to, or from food, water or shelter.

To learn more about living with snakes, watch this video:

The removal of bees and wasps from private property is at the discretion of the property owner. 

Properties managed by body corporates require the body corporate manager to arrange the removal or treatment of a bee hive or wasp nest. 

You may choose to remove wasps with European wasp insecticide dust, which can be purchased at supermarkets or nurseries. Agriculture Victoria have comprehensive information on the European Wasp.

Alternatively, contact a pest control company to treat or eradicate the nest.

On Council land

Council can arrange for the removal of wasp nests and bee hives on Council land, in parks, and around pools or buildings owned and managed by Council. Contact our Customer Service team on (03) 5422 0333.

Power poles

If you find wasps nests or beehives on power poles, please contact Powercor on 13 24 12.

European wasp

What's the difference between a European Wasp and the native Paper Wasp?

Deep Green Permaculture and Angelo Eliades have created a graphic summarising the difference between them 

The City of West Torrens (South Australia) use images to show the difference between the nests of the European Wasp, Mud Wasp and a Paper Wasp nest.

The Victorian Department of Health have more information on wasps and differences between honey bees and native wasps.

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.