Collinsville Fears Flying Fox Roost

Collinsville continues to struggle with a “bat plague” as protected species of flying fox have remained in the mining town for more than seven months, causing concerns the animals may set up a permanent roost.

From March the population of ‘fruit bats’ – who have an endemic population of around 200 to 900 in Collinsville – soared in size, reaching major heights in September.

Numbers were as extreme as 26,000 flying fox before intervention from Whitsunday Regional Council was sought to displace the species.

But council’s Coordinator of Natural Resource Management, Scott Hardy, said they were on the right path as numbers had now dropped to around 18,000 spread across 42 trees in the town after council’s efforts.

Mr Hardy said his team had been trialling methods to remove the foxes from Collinsville, including a “six-metre-tall waving man”.

“Down in Rockhampton at the Botanic Garden, they’ve tried these waving men and it seems to have worked for them,” Mr Hardy said.

“The thinking here is: if we can put these wavey men in back yards, it might save us money in trimming trees. It scares them off. So far, we’ve put the Wavey man up in one property and it worked a charm.”

The wavey man went up over two nights in the backyard of a Collinsville resident which housed 800 bats. In the morning, when Council staff came to pick up the wavey man, there were no flying fox to be seen.

“It’s a lot cheaper option if this device works, rather than trimming trees,” Mr Hardy said.

Tree trimming – which essentially removes a flying fox’s habitat and is the primary bat deterrent technique – is a costly affair if attempted as an immediate form of displacement, according to Mr Hardy.

“The trimming must take place at night when the bats leave, which can cost between $8 and $15 thousand per tree,” Mr Hardy said.

All flying-foxes are a protected species under the Queensland Government's Nature Conservation Act 1992, and are thus covered by state environmental management plans which council must adhere to.

They serve important roles in environmental stability as seed dispersers and pollinators.

One Collinsville resident, Eric McCarthy, who lives on Pelican Street near the main roost in Pelican Park, said the bats had been in Collinsville before, but this time it was in “unprecedented” number.

“My concern is that this will become their permanent roost, like they have in places like Charters Towers, Townsville, Ingham,” he said.

“We started off with a small amount in town here and now they’ve more than tripled. We hope they’re going to go, but we don’t know because we haven’t had them here like this before. They might go and then come back with their babies in even greater numbers next year.”

Mr Hardy said flying foxes are “a problem up and down the Queensland coast” especially in places north of Collinsville.

“In Cairns, there’s 18 roosts where they spend half a million in management each year, trying to move them,” he said.

“In the Sunshine Coast, there’s 40 roosts, and in Brisbane there’s over 30. In Charters Towers there is a very large roost with over two-hundred thousand flying fox.”

Isaac Regional Council have spent over $1.5 million trying to relocate their flying fox population.

There are two species which have set up camp in Collinsville this year: black flying-foxes, who eat fruit, and little red flying-foxes, who eat nectar out of flowers.

Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) coordinate a management network throughout the state where ideas on how local governments can deter or move populations of flying foxes are shared.

Mr Hardy said, amongst contacting Charters Towers Council and even local mine sites, the LGAQ network would be one source of assistance and information which council would be using.

“I share concerns about [the foxes] setting up a permanent roost and we are setting up a plan for Pelican Park for next year. We can go through and trim the trees once they leave, which will be a lot cheaper on the public purse,” Mr Hardy said.

“In the meantime, we are hoping they will leave shortly, and if not, we will go through a prioritised list of trees, and where we can’t trim them, we’ll put irrigation - sprinklers that will act as a deterrent.

“We do think these red flying foxes are temporary; that they’ll move along by October and November at the latest. They are chasing the blossoms.”

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