Gympie residents are pleading with state and federal governments to act as one of Australia\u2019s largest flying fox colonies takes over parts of the regional city.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The citizens in the Queensland city have been plagued by bats in recent years, as the pest increasingly makes the town unlivable for many residents.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
Complaints centre on constant screeching and droppings, which pose noise and health risks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to Gympie Mayor Glen Hartwig, the colony has devalued properties to \u201cbasically zero\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The colony, located in Commissioners Gully near the city centre, reached an estimated 320,000 bats during a 2021 count, according to Gympie Regional Council.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Flying fox droppings can carry viruses such as Lyssa and Hendra, both potentially fatal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Hartwig said residents\u2019 welfare and safety are at risk, while laws make removing the bats extremely difficult.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cResidents were there first, and the bats have moved in,\u201d he told the Daily Mail.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir mental health is suffering, their properties have been devalued to basically zero and the opportunity to move these bats on is restricted significantly by the legislation in place.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Local resident Christopher Nevin described the situation as \u201cshocking\u201d after buying a home in Gympie four years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a mortgage, it would only be okay if we could pay off the entire mortgage and set ourselves up for a new place, because if we are financially worse off that would be horrible,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He and his partner found dead bats in their yard and suffered damage to their home from fallen branches.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The council is now pushing for a government buyback scheme.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a problem we\u2019ve been dealing with for a number of years,\u201d the Gympie Mayor said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking to advocate to the state and federal government to change legislation so that the residents there will no longer continue to suffer. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s time the government pulled out their chequebook.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Hartwig stressed that homeowners must come before the bats.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir lives are more important than the bats,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Flying foxes in Queensland are protected under the Nature Conservation Act and at the federal level. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Some species, including the grey-headed flying fox, are classed as vulnerable. \u00a0<\/p>\n
They play a key role in pollination and seed dispersal, supporting local ecosystems.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Councils can manage flying foxes in towns, but only using non-lethal methods such as trimming tree branches or sprinklers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The council hopes that by lobbying for a buyback program, authorities will finally take decisive action to protect residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
SkyNews.com.au reached out to several council members. \u00a0<\/p>\n
One confirmed a decision would be made following their meeting on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gympie residents are pleading with state and federal governments to act as one of Australia\u2019s largest flying fox…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,16468,106176,160315,173806,701,128,338],"class_list":["post-304783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bats","tag-flying-fox","tag-gympie","tag-gympie-council","tag-queensland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}