BWA | JUL 2026 9 not only about building a road, but about limiting the physical disruption of that road on the communities above it. Victoria’s Big Build says the tunnels are being built to preserve more parkland and recreational areas from Borlase Reserve and Banyule Creek in Yallambie through to the Yarra River precinct in Bulleen. The most visible symbols of that tunnelling effort are Zelda and Gillian, the two tunnel boring machines working their way from Watsonia to Bulleen. Zelda began tunnelling in August 2024 on the northbound tunnel, followed shortly after by Gillian in September 2024 on the southbound tunnel. Each TBM operates around the clock with crews of operators, electricians, mechanics, ring builders and tunnel engineers. The latest Big Build tracker shows just how far the machines have advanced: Zelda has excavated 5,064 metres of a 5,098-metre drive, while Gillian has excavated 4,449 metres of a 4,948-metre drive. Those figures make the project feel very much alive. North East Link is no longer just a plan, procurement model or artist impression. It is now a tunnelling operation nearing the end of one of its most technically important phases. In October 2025, the Victorian Government said the two 15.6-metre-diameter, 90-metrelong TBMs were well over the halfway point, having travelled more than three kilometres each and installed
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