Queensland's One-Way Fauna Escape Hatch Innovation Goes Statewide

Written By Johanna Heeres

April 20, 2026

Credit: Endeavour Veterinary Ecology

When a wild koala in Moreton Bay pushed through a small one-way hatch to safely escape a roadway corridor, it validated years of design work and experimentation and marked a turning point for wildlife infrastructure in Queensland. This world-first footage proves a simple design can help solve a complex problem.

The Fauna Escape Hatch—affectionately dubbed a koala "doggy door"—was developed by Endeavour Veterinary Ecology for the Queensland Government Transport and Main Roads Coomera Connector Stage 1 project to address a persistent challenge: How do we help koalas and other species who find themselves trapped in busy highway or rail corridors? They find their way in through gaps or over fencing, but they have trouble finding their way out.

The answer turned out to be remarkably straightforward. The hatch features a durable frame with suspended, independently moving tines that allow animals to pass through in one direction only. Following a successful 12-month trial, testing showed koalas used the one-way hatch 100 percent of the time when it was available. Field trials by the City of Moreton Bay recorded not just koalas, but echidnas, bandicoots, possums, antechinus, and even kangaroos successfully using the 16 installed hatches.

In December 2025, the Infrastructure Sustainability Council verified the design as an Australian First Innovation. More significantly, the Queensland Government incorporated the hatch into its Fauna Sensitive Transport Infrastructure Delivery Manual - making it available as a standard solution for road projects statewide.

Designed and manufactured in Brisbane, the maintenance-free hatch is now being rolled out across all Coomera Connector Stage 1 packages and has already been implemented on other major projects, including the Pacific Motorway M1 Varsity Lakes to Tugun upgrade and within the City of Moreton Bay. The innovation is also being adopted beyond Queensland, with Transport for NSW now implementing the design.

This milestone represents a significant step forward in embedding innovative wildlife-friendly design into standard road-building practices, reinforcing the commitment to protecting Australia's iconic koalas and other native species.

Watch the footage:    Koala Hatch: From Trial to Statewide Use

Learn more:

Authored by: Melissa Butynski

This case study was synthesized from publicly available sources, including the Department of Transport and Main Roads Queensland Coomera Connector Project and the Fauna Sensitive Transport Infrastructure Delivery manual.

Edited by: Melissa Butynski

Cite this case study:

Butynski, M. (2026). Queensland's One-Way Fauna Escape Hatch Innovation Goes Statewide. Edited by Butynski, M. Transport Ecology.info, Accessed at https://transportecology.info/case-studies/one-way-fauna-escape

Johanna Heeres
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