While we worked to upgrade the City Loop over summer, a family of brushtail possums was found living at Flagstaff Station.
Crews affectionately named the mother possum and her baby, Bristol and Bruce.
In Melbourne’s city environment, there are about 12 possums per hectare. In a possum’s natural environment, they tend to be much more spread out, at about one possum per 12 hectares.
Bristol and Bruce were found sleeping on a ledge on site and eventually joined a group of existing possums in the area.
Protecting biodiversity on projects.
We always consider the impact our works could have on the environment and native wildlife nearby and put measures in place to protect local biodiversity.
The project’s Environmental Advisor, Sam Chitty, made sure the possums were safe throughout our works.
‘We make sure workers don't interact with the animals on our projects and organise trained wildlife handlers to remove animals found and release them back into nature. If the animals are keeping to themselves and not disrupting works, we leave them be.
Fortunately, the works didn’t disturb the family of possums over the 2 weeks that major upgrades occurred, so there was no need to relocate them.
Upgrading the City Loop
While Bristol and Bruce explored their new home at Flagstaff Station, crews were busy completing safety upgrades inside the City Loop.
Upgrades included the installation of modern smoke detection, extraction, and sprinkler systems at Flagstaff, Melbourne Central and Parliament stations.