Question details
North-Eastern Metropolitan Region
(876) My question is to the Minister for Transport Infrastructure, and it relates to the North East Link toll road and its disastrous environmental impact on the Koonung Creek wetlands and its diverse ecosystem. Mycelium is a long, branching root-like structure of a fungus. Its tiny threads seek nutrients needed for the fungal reproductive organ, the mushroom, to penetrate the surface of the soil and release its spores. Mycelium also wraps around and bores into the roots of trees, which feed carbon to the fungi in the form of sugar. In return not only does the mycelium provide trees and other plants with nitrogen, phosphorus and other essential minerals, but its network structure also enables trees to transfer water, nutrients and electrochemical messages to kin and to cousins alike. This symbiotic relationship is known as the mycorrhizal network, and it is crucial to a healthy, diverse ecosystem. Can you provide any evidence of having considered the project’s impact on the mycorrhizal network currently being destroyed at the Koonung Creek wetlands?
I thank the Member for North Eastern Metropolitan Region for their question and for their advocacy for this important project.
The 6.5km North East Link tunnels from Watsonia to Bulleen will fix the missing link in Melbourne’s freeway network, take 15,000 trucks off local roads a day and reduce travel times by up to 35 minutes.
Upgrades to the Eastern Freeway will include new express lanes, smart technology and a seamless connection to the North East Link tunnels. The project will also deliver Melbourne’s first dedicated busway to slash travel times and improve public transport in Melbourne’s east.
The Valda Wetlands will be reconfigured, expanded and joined with a rebuilt Koonung Creek. The 43,700 square metre wetland precinct will be reimagined as a living waterway with indigenous trees and plants, new seating areas and new and upgraded pedestrian paths.
In line with the North East Link Project’s 2019 Environment Effects Statement, the project aims to avoid, minimise and offset impact on vegetation and ecological communities. Wherever possible, native vegetation patches are left undisturbed, and are protected by Environmental No-Go Zones. Vegetation roots and soil will be retained in these areas, which will protect mycorrhizal networks living in these protected patches.
In areas impacted by the project, the project will take steps to promote the fast regeneration of biodiversity and minimise our long-term impact. There are many aspects to the project’s environmental restoration strategy that will benefit fungal communities, including:
- Planting native tree species to restore canopy. Native saplings often have existing micro fungi on roots that will inoculate the soil when planted, increasing native fungal diversity; and
- Reusing mulch from trees removed in the project landscaping, which helps promote healthy soil and its microbiome.
Finally, as spores are released in autumn from the fungi in retained protected native vegetation patches and the wider region, new fungal networks will germinate and connect throughout the disturbed areas.
Hon Danny Pearson MP
Minister for Transport Infrastructure
13/06/2024