Driving long distances across the Australian Continent for the last 50 years we avoid hitting Kangaroos and Wombats and Wallabies, the list of species goes ever on, by understanding where we are and what the habitat that we are driving through tells us.

In the bush avoid driving at night if you can and slow down. On long journeys we plan to stop our drive, particularly in the north of Australia, by say 5pm. That is enough driving anyway as going on gets dangerous as fatigue sets in.

We never fail to be shocked by the behaviour of other drivers. Driving through a national park in Victoria recently and at the speed limit (which was far too high), there was a double line and no overtaking lane for several kilometres, a ute sits a meter or two from the back of our vehicle. The Wallabies are feeding at road edge, if a Wallaby jumps into the road there would be no way of avoiding it. And our friend sitting on our tail does not care. The situation is incredibly dangerous for us all. Sadly that is pretty much the standard behaviour.

The numerous trucks, now bigger than ever, race through the bush, day and night and in all weather conditions.

Our own observations tell us that over the decades the number of dead native animals on roadsides in remote places has declined, this is likely to be because the animals are no longer there, some lost and gone forever. The road kill in Tasmania can be utterly shocking in its scale and scope. In Queensland and New South Wales the exclusion fencing traps Australian wildlife in road corridors. There can be only one outcome.

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So the large number of road deaths, horrific injuries are commonplace, as is a lingering and painful death, adds to all the other ways Australian wildlife is being killed. So if you hit an animal stop and help it and contact a wildlife rescuer if you can.

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Turning our attention to Victoria, Wildlife Victoria, the states largest wildlife rescue organisation, compiles the statistics for the animals it has helped. Wildlife Victoria and the RACV report that:

“Wildlife Victoria data shows that the number of animals killed or injured by a vehicle has surged in the last four years, but the true number is likely to be much higher”.

A friend shouts out to a couple ignoring the plight of a little joey standing next to its dead mother near the roadside:

“Are you going to leave that there? Yes, absolutely I am, screams back the woman”.

Another joey stands on roads edge, one eye hanging from its eye socket. The drivers race by.

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The number of wildlife injured, that Wildlife Victoria know about in the 2022-2023 financial year (the animals they helped) was 10,643, up 15 per cent from the previous year. We might estimate that 50,000 or so of the larger native animals, including birds, emus are a target for run downs, are killed and injured by vehicles in Victoria each year.

This number is not included in the general statistics we provide on the Nature Knowledge Channel so they are additional to the mass slaughter of legally protected Australian wildlife already occurring through a number of Victorian Government mechanisms.

While the Victorian Government stays silent on the matter of road kill and injured wildlife and largely ignores wildlife in its planning activities, they have decided to defund Wildlife Victoria from the already meagre amount this government was providing, pushing the cost of wildlife rescue on to individuals and the general public who donate to wildlife rescue. We find this utterly disgraceful and a marker of the Victorian Government’s attitudes to Australian wildlife.

Wildlife Victoria’s statistics also show that the species most commonly rundown in Victoria are:

• Kangaroos;
• Wallabies;
• Wombats;
• Ringtail Possums; and
• Brushtail Possums.

Remember that these animals also have joeys, more than often in the pouch.

A Koala run down filmed by the individual as he was doing so at the Tower Hill Game Reserve in western Victoria did make the media, on appeal the individual responsible had his sentence reduced to community service.

It goes without saying that we have a large collection of photos of protected Australian wildlife killed as they cross roads or feed on the roadside. Remember that when an animal is lucky enough to survive someone has to help. Responsibility, empathy and kindness are the path.

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