HORSHAM Rural City Council has plans to take a non-lethal approach to fix the corella problem.
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The birds wreaked havoc on the region in January last year causing 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 corella populations were affecting recreational areas, tourism and rural properties.
Horsham Rural City’s development services director Angela Murphy said the community should “understand and accept” that there was no “magical silver-bullet’ solution to bird control.
Ms Murphy said the council was developing a suite of non-lethal options to help manage problem corellas.
“No management option used by itself is likely to be wholly effective, but integrated with other options, may prove to be effective against an animal that is classed as a ‘learning bird’ and one which has proven to be adaptive and responsive to previous attempts at management,” she said.
Ms Murphy said the options developed will inform a new corella management strategy, which could likely include habit manipulation and engineering solutions rather than traditional control measures.
“Corella food source management is one of options being considered and is likely to be one of the tools for the council and user groups to embrace for protection of their assets,” Ms Murphy said.
“The Department of Sustainability and Environment trials with food source minimisation during 2006 showed encouraging results in reducing damage by foraging corellas.”
Ms Murphy said the council has liaised with key sporting and user groups to provide information and support while requesting they take responsibility of their own facilities and ovals.
Horsham Lawn Tennis Club has been using a gas scare gun on loan from the council.
Meanwhile, Horsham Saints Cricket Club has received a populous place permit to use a firearm to control corella numbers at Coughlin Park.
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