No animals killed by Rally: report

Volunteer Katherine Kermode (seated right), speaks to rally organisers before the event about animal welfare along the different stages.

DAVID NIELSEN

NO THREATENED animals were killed during the Repco Rally according to a preliminary report from environmental scientist Dr Stephen Phillips

Groups opposed to the rally argued the event had the potential to impact on threatened fauna along its route.

Dr Phillips and 40 volunteer wildlife monitors positioned in strategic locations along the rally routes recorded the deaths of animals during the rally.

The routes were surveyed before the cars went through and again after. Special guardians stood next to trees koalas were known to live in.

“All-up for the 344 km of rally activity we recorded a total of two lizards, four snakes, nine birds and a single mammal (killed), which was much less than expected for this number of competing vehicles,” Dr Phillips said.

Volunteer Kathryn Kermode guarded a koala and a joey on Homeleigh Road for the afternoon sessions on the second day.

Ms Kermode said the joey was very active during the event.

“The joey was unsettled. It moved between its mother and the upper branches,” Ms Kermode said.

Another koala, she said, stayed in the same tree for four days after the event when normally they move nightly.

Dr Phillips said the monitoring was one of the most thorough operations undertaken anywhere in the world and the results validated the findings of his original environmental impact report, which found the rally would have no significant impact on threatened species.

Dr Phillips puts the low-level of road kill down to the build-up of activity on the roads on the morning of each day of the event.

The monitoring did not include roads used by spectators, competitors and officials connecting the rally stages.

“That means there must also be a broader area of engagement by local and State Government levels with this issue which might otherwise be singularly associated with a rally event,” Dr Phillips said.

Reports on road kill will be sent to the Federal and State Governments, Kyogle and Tweed councils and conservation agencies over the next weeks, a rally spokesman said.