March for action on flying fox invasion
F R U S T R A T E D C h a r t e r s Towers residents took to the streets at the weekend in a march against the management of flying foxes.
Residents marched along Gill St demanding help from the State Government after hundreds of thousands of bats have taken over the town, forcing the closure of many public areas.
Charters Towers Regional Council Mayor Liz Schmidt said over 100 members of the community rallied to draw attention to the problem.
“Nobody seems to be able to give us any answers,” she said. “It’s an absolute disaster, the stuff of nightmares.”
Cr Schmidt said the fine print of the D e p a r t m e n t for Environment and Heritage Protection’s flying fox roost monitoring guidelines meant the council’s hands were tied.
“The community will think we’re just slacking off and not doing anything,” she said.
“Council is working really hard within the confines of what we can and can’t do to fix this.”
Cr Schmidt said that while the Government was in caretaker mode during the state election it had been nearly impossible to get help.
“We just need someone to tell us why there’s 200,000 bats here,” she said.
“If we can’t find out why they’re here then we can’t fix it.
“It’s not about a knee- jerk reaction, it’s about doing something for the long term.”
The council hopes to work with the community to have a solution implemented as soon as possible, with more than 1500 survey responses to be taken to the Minister for Environmental and Heritage Protection and the Premier.
“The more ammunition we have the better,” Cr Schmidt said.