In one of the biggest moves to ever be undertaken in the history of Zoos Victoria – both in terms of its complexity and the sheer size of the animals – all nine of Melbourne Zoo’s Asian elephants have been welcomed to their new home at Werribee Open Range Zoo.
Elephants have called Melbourne Zoo home for the past 160 years, so this move to their new habitat was quite the momentous occasion.
It took around two and half years of meticulous planning, including crate training for the elephants, to see this come to fruition.
The logistics team was made up of many, with Linfox and Membrey’s Transport and Crane Hire tasked with the logistics of moving the herd from Melbourne Zoo in the city’s inner north, to Werribee Open Range Zoo, around 40 kilometres away.
They were assisted by the 21-strong team of elephant keepers, a team of veterinarians, the Department of Transport and Victoria Police.
Three moves took place across five days, to get the entire herd to their new $88 million habitat at Werribee Open Range Zoo.
The impressive 21-hectare space is the size of the entirety of Melbourne Zoo.
The space has been thoughtfully designed to replicate the elephants’ natural habitat, complete with huge open spaces to roam, deep-water pools, mud baths and more.
Leading the on-road convoy for each of the three moves was veteran truck driver Mick Best, 75, who is no stranger to transporting these incredible gentle giants.
Working for Linfox since 1992 – along with a three-year stint with the company back in the 1970s – Mick has seen and done some incredible things across his long career, but he says this project was definitely a highlight.
Mick was involved in this elephant move from the get-go, managing Linfox’s involvement in the project and serving as primary driver.
“I’ve done lots of amazing stuff in my career – I’ve transported elephants before, moved giraffes, worked on the Olympics, bush fire and flood relief, which were all wonderful experiences – but this is by far the most rewarding project I’ve had the privilege to work on,” revealed Mick.
Along with the move itself, Linfox was involved in producing the specialised containers used to transport the elephants. “After Linfox was approached by Zoos Victoria to assist in the move, I met with the zoo to discuss their requirements,” said Mick.
“Then we started the process of converting eight 20ft containers to facilitate the elephant move. They were purposely converted. One was made higher to transport the bull elephant, Luk Chai, and the others were converted to take the females and their calves together.”
Zookeeper Lucy Truelson is project manager for the elephant herd. She told Big Rigs, “We moved nine elephants and three were young calves – so the crates had to be built to support that, so the mothers and calves could travel together and have contact with each other in the crates throughout the entire move.”
To ensure the comfort of the elephants while out on the road, the containers were also air conditioned. “Ahead of the move, it took about six weeks to produce these unique air conditioning systems. We used a quarter of a shipping container for each, then attached a fridge motor onto them, sealed them up and had tubes going into the elephant crates so the air was continually recycled,” explained Mick.
Mick took part in his first big elephant move back in 2006. Eight elephant calves had been brought into Australia from Bangkok – part of global conservation efforts for Asian elephants that aims to nurture genetically diverse populations of the endangered species in protected zoo environments – with three headed to Melbourne Zoo and five transported to Taronga Zoo in Sydney.
“The ones we brought over from overseas were all babies and they’d been nurtured individually with their handlers for the entire trip,” said Mick.
Interestingly, the 15-year-old male bull elephant, Luk Chai – who was the first elephant to be transported to the new habitat at Werribee Open Range Zoo – was born to one of those elephants at Taronga Zoo.
He was transferred to Melbourne Zoo to take part in a breeding program, where he had very great success, fathering three calves.
As Lucy explained, “When Luk Chai joined our herd, there was a plan to breed him with three viable females. We were extremely lucky to have three calves born – two females and a male.
“With elephants, if they don’t breed regularly, they can become infertile, that’s why it was very important to breed them at Melbourne Zoo before we moved. They were all born within a few months of each other. It was also important to know that they’d be 1-2 years old by the time of the move, so they’d be old enough to be trained in the crates. The calves are now all approaching 1 tonne.”
As Lucy revealed, the idea to move the elephants to Werribee has been many years in the making, “We already had the land but we needed the funding – and it was a pipe dream until we secured that funding from the Victorian Government.”
The whole basis of the new habitat was to replicate how elephants would live and behave in the wild. “It was about going back to nature and looking at how elephants thrive – and that’s in a multi-generational matriarchal herd unit,” said Lucy. “All related females remain in the herd, with the matriarch being the oldest female – in this case 52-year-old Mek Kapah who weighs around 3.2 tonne. All the females then play a part in raising the calves. Then the males move between herds.”
With this in mind, Luk Chai was brought to his new home by Mick and the Linfox team. Weighing in at a whopping 4.28 tonne, he is the heaviest in the herd.
Bringing him in first was a deliberate decision. As a solo bull, it gave him the opportunity to explore his new habitat on his own, before the rest of the herd followed.
Then two days later, the next group was transported – a mother and calf in one crate, and another female elephant in the other. Then another two days later came the final move, where two mothers travelled with their calves in two of the containers, and the matriarch Mek Kapah in another.
Linfox compliance manager Michael Stephenson worked with the relevant road authorities and road managers to obtain travel permits for the transport task.
“This was a really coordinated effort. Everyone was really focused on getting it done, and getting it done as safely and smoothly as possible. It’s not your usual oversize container move. Luk Chai is a big boy and the total combination ended up at 4.4 metres high,” he said.
“We worked with the NHVR and Department of Transport to confirm the best route. You’d think moving elephants would be a nerve-racking process, but the way it was all coordinated across all the teams, was just incredible and the move went smoothly.
“And when it came to moving the mothers and calves, we could see on the cameras that they were holding trunks.”
The elephants were transported by three Volvo FH prime movers, with three drivers involved. For two of the drivers, it was their first time working with Zoos Victoria. “They hadn’t been involved in zoo moves before but found it really rewarding – to get them all there, and to see the elephants all together, mixing in their new environment,” said Mick.
The team from Membreys also travelled in convoy with the trucks, keepers and police escorts, to be on hand in case there were any hiccups. But thankfully, it all ran smoothly, with everything precisely coordinated down to the finest details.
VicRoads even assisted with traffic light control, to ensure that by leaving at the prescribed time, the vehicles would have green lights for the entire journey.
“A lot of work went on behind the scenes,” said Mick. “It was one of the most professional teams I’ve ever had the privilege of working with – including the Linfox team, the zoo team and Membrey’s. To work with that group from the zoo, they just live and breathe their work. It was an amazing sight.
“They had cameras in each container, and the person sitting with me in the truck was watching the elephants the whole way and letting me know they were all okay.”
Mick also spoke of the heartfelt moment when the elephants were reunited, “It was extremely emotional for me to see all the elephants back together in their new enclosure. A lot of us couldn’t look each other in the eye!”
The elephants were given some time to explore their new space before the habitat recently opened to the public. “The elephants have settled in beautifully. We stand there and are in awe of them,” said Lucy. “It’s quite a thrill for all of us to watch them as they discover all these new spaces. They’ve moved like a herd of elephants would in the wild, with matriarch Mek Kapah leading the herd through the landscape.
“And for Mek Kapah, what a journey she’s been on. She was brought into Melbourne Zoo as a young female in 1978. We’ve learnt and grown this herd around her. It’s an incredible sight to see her in this expansive environment, grazing on grass with all these calves around her – that’s exactly how it should be!”
The new larger space will also give Werribee Open Range Zoo the chance to continue to breed the elephants and grow the herd. “We have our beautiful bull elephant Luk Chai, who will be able to wander in and out of the herd – and we can see biology run its course,” added Lucy.
She also praised the efforts of the logistics team. “It took a whole team to make this happen. The empathy and the care everyone showed for the elephants is something we’ll never forget. We are so grateful,” said Lucy.
“It was a highlight for everyone in this team to be involved in such an incredible event.”