CORELLAS are proving to be a bigger headache than normal at Horsham ovals and reserves this summer.
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Horsham Rural City Council parks and gardens superintendent Rod Lawson said the damage birds had caused was close to the worse he had seen in the area.
“They have made a huge mess on a lot of our ovals and reserves at the moment,” Mr Lawson said.
Coughlin Park, Sunnyside, Horsham College Oval, Horsham City Oval, Horsham Lawn Tennis Club and the city’s croquet clubs have all been affected.
Mr Lawson said Sawyer Park had been churned up like a fallow paddock.
“We’ve had a fair bit of damage over the years but I think things have certainly been worse this year,” he said.
“The major duties for some of our staff has been to go around to fill in divots to try to make things a little bit safer than what they would be to train or even walk on.”
Mr Lawson said Sunnyside and Coughlin Park have copped the brunt of the damage.
“We’re almost better off sending out our guys just to try to scare the birds away at the times they first like to show up at the different grounds,” he said.
“They will go to Coughlin Park early in the morning before going to city oval, and the tennis club and the croquet greens a bit later .”
The lawn tennis club made a callout to members via Facebook on Wednesday afternoon to be on corella watch.
Horsham Saints Cricket Club president Glenn Carroll said corellas had been a problem at Coughlin Park for many years.
“This season it really started to get bad in about the second week of December,” he said.
“When the kids finish school there is no activity so they just take over. This has been going on for years and we bough ourselves a scare gun two or three seasons ago, but if you use it all the time they get used to it.”
Mr Carroll and four others spent three hours on Tuesday evening filling in holes on the oval’s surface.
When he returned on Wednesday morning, 30 of those holes had been dug out again.
“There were some holes we filled that were the size of dinner plates and about 15 centimetres deep,” he said.
Mr Carroll approached council and was told the ranger could not do anything because they did not have the right permit.
He has been advised the club will need to apply for a populous place permit for vermin control.
“That application process will take us seven or eight weeks through,” he said.
“So that will really be something for the seasons to come.”
The state of the ground has led the club to move its Saturday B Grade game elsewhere.
“It’s not safe to play here at the moment and there is really very little we can do other than continue to try to scare them away and fill in holes,” Mr Carroll said.