The concept of the road-effect zone has been developed and researched predominantly in the Northern Hemisphere. This study measures the extent of road impacts into a temperate eucalypt forest ecosystem in southeastern Australia. The Epsom-Barnadown Road is a two-lane arterial road connecting regional centres in northern Victoria to the City of Greater Bendigo. Passing through the Bendigo Regional Park, the Epsom-Barnadown Road carries more than 1,600 vehicles per day. Transects of 1 km in length cited perpendicular to the road were established to measure road impacts on the flora and fauna of box-ironbark forest. Exotic vegetation was found to extend about 50 m from the road. Traffic noise and light penetration varied according to topography and vegetation cover, but averaged of 350 m and 380 m, respectively, from the road. Mammal surveys indicated there was an increase in species richness once traffic noise reached ambient levels (40 dB) and traffic light penetration ceased. Bird surveys resulted in the identification of four species (9%) that only occurred within 150 m of the road (edge species) and 21 species (58%) that only occurred at distances of 150 m or more from the Epsom-Barnadown Road (interior species). A core habitat area for bird species was identified at about 900 m from the road. It was found that the average width of forest in the Bendigo Regional Park impacted by the Epsom-Barnadown Road was 1800 m, which translates to an area of 1.8 km² per kilometre of road.

The Slaty Creek Wildlife Underpass was built into the Calder Freeway, Macedon, Victoria, to facilitate safe passage for species between forest block, now affected by this new section of freeway through the Black Forest. A 12-month monitoring regime was established, consisting of 14 monitoring methods to detect a variety of animals. Intensive sampling was conducted for one week per month, within the underpass, and with two control sites on either side of the underpass, along the Slaty Creek. The monitoring sampled for mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds, encountering a total of 116 species within the Black Forest region, with most of these also being detected within the underpass.