By Dennis Amor
Have
your say
LIKE birds of a feather, the southern grey nomads are flocking to
Queensland to enjoy the winter sunshine.
But their feathers are being well and truly ruffled by one noisy species
of native wildlife at Hervey Bay.
Caravanners at the 3.5-star Scarness Beachfront Caravan Park are
complaining about thousands of screeching rainbow lorikeets keeping them
awake in the early morning.
"It's the most beautiful spot for a caravan park, but I'm not coming back
until the birds are gone - and I'm telling all my friends," squawked one
sleep-deprived grey nomad, who also grumbled about the amount of bird
droppings soiling his car and caravan.
And another commented: "We travel up from Victoria every year because it's
a paradise here, but those pesky lorikeets are spoiling our peace and
quiet. We certainly don't regard them as birds of paradise and can well do
without their particular dawn chorus, which is just horrendous and a
screeching racket."
But locals were unsympathetic. "Best thing these tourists can do is stay
in the city where they belong," suggested one in a message to his local
newspaper.
"This is obviously the lorikeets' natural habitat and if they can't
cohabitate for a matter of days or weeks then it is probably best they do
move on ... straight back to the smog, car fumes, traffic and the rat
race!"
Meanwhile, managers of the council's foreshore caravan parks are helping
guests clean their cars and caravans of the daily deluge of bird poo, or
relocating them to sites away from the offending lorikeets or to other
caravan parks.
Fraser Coast Mayor Gerard O’Connell pointed out that lorikeet numbers in
the region had "ballooned" in recent years.
"They are causing a problem and we have to adapt to living with them," he
said.
"Rainbow lorikeets are a protected native species so any control program
has to meet very strict guidelines.
"In view of the possible economic loss from tourism one of the options we
will investigate is a Damage Mitigation Permit from the Department of
Environment and Heritage Protection.
"Council has tried a number of times to move the birds, but has not been
successful. We've tried pruning the roosting trees to move the birds but
they just move the nearest tree."
Cr O'Connell said that when lorikeets became familiar with a roost then
deterrents such as flashing lights and noise machines had no affect.
He praised the caravan park managers for their efforts in trying to help
disgruntled guests.
