CHARTERS Towers residents are being warned that a quick fix is unlikely to rid the town of future flying fox invasions after a new committee to tackle the problem had their first meeting.
The newly formed Flying Fox Advisory Committee includes council members, Mayor Liz Schmidt, Cr Roma Bailey. Traeger MP Robbie Katter, residents and staff from the CSIRO and the Department of Environment and Science.
Cr Schmidt said the inaugural committee meeting was a great first step but warned it was unlikely a quick fix would be found.
The committee was established to provide recommendations to council to address the issues required to manage the significant negative impact of flying foxes in the region.
It comes after a plague of up to 200,000 flying foxes invaded the town in December, which residents described as the worst bat plague in living memory.
The invasion forced the closure of two parks and the swimming pool in the city centre, with the stench and filth leaving residents trapped in their own homes.
Cr Schmidt said the committee would draw on the expertise of its members.
“Experience from 40 other local government regions across Queensland has demonstrated that a simple fix is unlikely and we may not get it right the first time, but we do want to come up with solutions to manage them,” Cr Schmidt said.
“We’re not willing to ignore the impact year on year by allowing the residents to suffer seasonally and then when the impact subsides, leave it until next year.”
The Committee has agreed to meet monthly, with one of the first tasks to understand what has been tried in the past.
“We need to know what has and hasn’t worked,” Cr Schmidt said.
“Past councils have already spent a lot of money on management techniques, including green ants, sprinklers, paintball, smoking, fake snakes, the lot.
“We don’t want to waste more time and money on things that have been tried before without success.”
She said deterring the flying foxes to prevent them from settling in the first place would be the ideal solution.
“With the assistance of the experts in flying fox behaviour, we’ll trial proven methods from other areas to see if we can make our town areas less comfortable in the long term.”
Cr Schmidt said funding management strategies would be a crucial issue.
She said a community survey had indicated that residents would like to see a contribution from state and federal governments or a levy placed on rates to fund flying fox management.
The State Government has made an assurance that funding for a trial will be made available.
The next meeting will be held in early June.