Corella cull planned on Murray Bridge’s riverfront
After years of problems, from the noise to the destruction of property, the city's council has bowed to public pressure.
The Murray Bridge council will carry out a corella cull on the city’s riverfront this summer.
After years of public pressure about the noise they create, and their destruction of the city’s lawn tennis courts, council staff have resolved to try the solution of last resort.
A professional pest controller will humanely cull some of the corellas as scout birds begin to arrive in the coming weeks.
Culling will be carried out between 9.30 and 11.30am on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays, in an area which will be temporarily closed to the public.
A cull will also be carried out between the old courthouse and the hotel at Wellington, another area where the birds are a nuisance, between 2pm and 3pm Monday to Thursday.
The council’s city assets manager, Sue Reynolds, said while corellas were a native bird, the visiting population had become unsustainable.
“The number of little corellas visiting these locations is increasing each year and it’s having a significant impact on our residents and environment, causing extensive damage to reserves, trees and infrastructure,” she said.
“The most widely accepted and most effective strategy to discourage little corellas is to prevent large flocks establishing a permanent roost site.
“This involves careful monitoring of the birds and the implementation of deterrent humane culling strategies as soon as the first birds arrive.”
In the longer term, the council still hopes to create one or more sanctuary sites for corellas in less populated areas, such as at Mobilong or Monteith.
But the noise created by the pesky birds, and their destruction of Murray Bridge's lawn tennis courts, have been a problem for at least eight years.
The council spent ages waiting for experts to come up with a state-wide solution, and tried all sorts of alternative methods, but in the end there was no easy answer – corellas just love the same sort of open, grassy spaces humans do.
- More information: www.murraybridge.sa.gov.au/corellas.
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