Platypus group issues plea to builders on construction waste

A PLATYPUS advocacy group is calling for greater protection from construction and other rubbish for the aquatic mammals living near a residential development west of Bacchus Marsh.

The Bacchus Marsh Platypus Alliance wants more attention paid to the issue of rubbish blowing on to habitat after a recent clean-up day at the confluence of the Korkuperrimal Creek and the Werribee River close to the Underbank residential development collected more than 16,000 litres of waste – much of it from construction sites.

It was the third volunteer clean-up activity there in little more than a year and followed a similar event last August, which basically cleared the area.

Alliance president Jodie Valpied said the August clean-up had been preceded by the first event in March.

“It gets a tiny bit better each time but it’s like three steps forwards, two-and-a-half steps backwards,” she said.

Dr Valpied said platypus habitat was also used by Rakali (a species of native water rat), birds, turtles, kangaroos and wallabies.

“It’s an immediate entanglement risk for platypus,” she said, adding that rubbish also posed a long-term toxicity risk for all the animals through ingestion of polystyrene – particularly from microplastics.

“We know there are at least 30 platypuses between Bacchus Marsh weir and the beginning of the Melton reservoir.”

Dr Valpied said entanglement was recognised as the leading cause of death for platypus in Victoria and some had died from it in parts of the Werribee River further downstream.

“So it’s a very real danger; it can happen very easily and very quickly, and we don’t want it happening in Bacchus Marsh,” she said.

Dr Valpied said more than 30 people participated in the most recent clean-up, with waste taken to a transfer station.

She said over 50,000 litres of construction waste had now been removed from the area.

Dr Valpied said the alliance was planning to submit a report on the problem to the Moorabool Shire and would probably call for stronger enforcement.

“There are a number of councillors who are on board with this and realise that it’s a serious issue, and they’re trying to advocate for change as well, I believe,” she said.

Dr Valpied said the alliance was asking builders to put all their construction waste in cages or skip bins and close the lid, with polystyrene either wrapped or constrained in other ways to stop it escaping.

“A lot of builders are doing the right thing, but there are some that need to lift their game because they’re spoiling it for everybody else,” she said.

Dr Valpied said there would be further clean-ups in the area.