Program History & Achievements 

Roadside Environment Resource Kit
The Roadside Environment Resource Kit provides a suite of practical resources to assist councils when undertaking road related environmental assessment and planning activities. In particular, it aims to assist councils to comply with key Commonwealth and State environmental legislation and to facilitate the early identification and assessment of environmental values and impacts by councils when planning and designing road construction and maintenance programs.

• Regional Roadside Environment Policy template
• GIS Attribute Layer (to assist with the spatial identification of environmental issues)
• Review of Environmental Factors (REF) templates for routine maintenance activities (slashing and grading). NOTE: an electronic REF template is currently under development
• Management guidelines addressing:
  • Water Crossings
  • Wetlands
  • Protected Areas
  • Fauna
  • Threatened Flora
  • Vegetation Management During Road Construction
  • Vegetation Management During Road Maintenance
  • Re-establishing Vegetation
  • Salinity
  • Acid Sulfate Soils
  • Erosion and Sediment Control - Road Construction
  • Grazing
  • Environmental Law
• Roadside training manual

• Roadside Environmental Management Policy template
• GIS Roadside Attribute Layer Review of Environmental Factors templates
• REF Shoulder Grading
• Management Guides
• Training Manual

Regional Roadside Environment Strategy
The Regional Roadside Environment Strategy provides the strategic framework, direction and priorities for implementation of the Regional Roadside Environment Program. The strategy incorporates a suite of recommendations to meet and address the needs and management issues and builds upon existing roadside management initiatives, programs and systems identified during literature reviews and consultation processes. The strategy aims to:

• Build a consistent and comprehensive understanding, suite of skills, and information resources within councils to facilitate improved environmental assessment, protection, management and rehabilitation of council managed roadside environments
• Recognise the considerable potential that exists for collaboration and resource sharing between councils to achieve multiple benefits including cost savings and efficiencies, avoidance of duplication of effort, and consistency in policy and practises

The Strategy includes an implementation plan that focuses on developing tools and resources to enhance the capacity of councils to assess, manage and protect the environmental and NRM values that are found within roadside environments, and to promote a culture of information and resource sharing between councils in this regard.

A copy of the Strategy can be downloaded through the following link:

Regional Roadside Environment Strategy  

Consultation with Councils - Identification Of Roadside Management Issues
Over 70 council staff from all member councils (including road planning, construction and maintenance, road and traffic engineering, land use planning, environmental and natural resource management, GIS management, vegetation and asset management, community support, weed management, environmental health and environmental assessment) participated in a consultation process that identified local and regional roadside environmental  management issues and improved management opportunities.

The consultation objectives were to:

1. provide councils with an overview of the Regional Roadside Environment Program, including its background, scope and objectives, and to engage their participation in the Program;
2. identify existing management processes and practices being implemented by councils in regard to the environmental assessment, protection and management of roadside environments;
3. identify the management issues being experienced by councils in attempting to manage and protect roadside environments and the values they contain;
4. identify the optimum means and resources required by councils to contribute to ecosystem management in roadside environments, whilst meeting their primary timing, budgetary, legislative, and policy obligations in regard to roadside construction and maintenance; and
5. identify existing natural resource management (NRM) and environmental information and data to inform the identification and assessment of roadside environmental values throughout the region.

The report identified that considerable opportunity exists for regional collaboration between councils to implement enhanced roadside environmental management initiatives. This is particularly true in the areas of training, materials purchasing, community education and awareness, and the development of regionally consistent policy, planning, and environmental assessment and management tools.  Such collaboration has the potential to generate significant cumulative resource and financial savings for councils across the region. 

A copy of the consultation report can be downloaded through the following link: 

1. Evaluating a range of high quality vegetation remnants (icon sites) located in roadside environments and Travelling Stock Reserves (TSR's);
2. Updating and developing roadside and TSR planning instruments and management tools; and
3. Providing accredited training for staff responsible for managing and maintaining roadside environments and TSR's.

• Of the 28 sites surveyed (see figure) , all were high quality (i.e. large in size, species diverse, structurally complex, and in good health and condition). In addition, two sites contained features of Aboriginal and European heritage significance; 
• The sites surveyed were all generally biodiverse. A total of 417 plant species were recorded, representing 12% of all species identified from previous systematic surveys completed in the region; 
• All sites surveyed were either in a multi-age or mature growth stage indicating that all were healthy as they contained a mix of regenerating, mature and senescing trees;
• The level of connectivity between vegetation on roadside sites and patches of vegetation in the surrounding landscape was good, with 18 of the 28 sites recording a moderate to high level of connectivity within either a 1 or 5 kilometre radius band; and
• Low levels of disturbance were recorded at 25 of the 28 sites surveyed. Weed invasion was identified as the main factor impacting overall on the health of the roadside environments that were surveyed.

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