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A MANAGEMENT plan is Horsham Rural City Council next solution to resolve the corella problem.
It comes after extensive damage to Horsham’s Coughlin Park, Horsham College Oval, Horsham City Oval, Horsham Lawn Tennis Club and the city’s croquet club.
In other parts of the region, mass corellas populations are wreaking havoc on Wimmera recreational areas, tourism and rural properties.
Horsham council was using drones to move corellas out of Horsham. However, a two week drone trial, which cost council $4,200, was unsuccessful.
Planning and economic director Angela Murphy suggested council develop an integrated management plan for the next corella season during the current calendar year.
Ms Murphy said the drone trial showed early results, but the birds eventually became accustom to its presence. She said council also offered a scare gun to sporting groups and encouraged them to obtain a populous place permit to stop corellas causing damage to infrastructure.
“I am suggesting we develop a management plan for the future. West Wimmera have developed a integrated management plan and we need to look at that and what the other five councils are doing. Speaking to the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning this is an issue across Western Victoria and it’s an issue we need to work together on,” she said.
West Wimmera Shire started its corella management program at Edenhope in early March to mitigate the havoc the birds were inflicting on the area.
Councillor David Grimble said council needs to continue its discussion on how it can manage corella numbers.
“When they get out of balance the birds are damaging community assets and our community are getting sick of that. They are destructive and aggressive,” he said.
“There is no easy fix for this but there is a completely different threshold to what is acceptable in a rural environment as compared to what is acceptable in an urban environment.
Councillor Alethea Gulvin said council needed to find alternative solutions if the birds are becoming accustom to current approaches. However, she said she did not like the idea of killing the corellas because they are causing a disturbance.