By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Casey Council officers have been urged to remove or eliminate a noisy flock of Indian myna birds nesting in a nature-strip tree in Hallam.
At the 6 June council meeting, councillor Wayne Smith successfully moved for action against an estimated 150 of the introduced pest species as a “matter of extreme urgency”.
Residents in Charles Avenue were concerned about the “prolific” noise as well as the health risks from the thick coat of bird droppings on the road and kerbside under the tree, Cr Smith said.
He said Casey officers’ response that “there’s nothing we can do” didn’t meet the ‘pub test’.
“This is a situation where the council made it quite clear that the nature strip is council property and a tree on that land is council’s tree.
“We can’t say we can’t do anything about it. It is our problem.”
Cr Rosalie Crestani said people were allowed to kill Indian mynas – if they could catch them.
City planning manager Nicola Ward said the birds were actually hard to catch and there were a “whole lot of risks” associated with the exercise.
She warned of the risk to Casey’s reputation, noting a much-maligned push to exterminate native corellas from a Cranbourne site.
That campaign resulted in a Berwick News front page depicting a corella with a gunsight on its head, Ms Ward said.
There was a lot of work to do to get a program in place, including a risk assessment of the “ethics of destroying the birds”, Ms Ward said.
“It’s difficult to action immediately.”
A myna extermination program in Cardinia Shire had been developed over three years, leading to the purchase of traps as well as costs to dispose of and euthanase the birds, she told the council.
In response to the perceived media backlash, Cr Amanda Stapledon said there were many community groups against the Indian myna.
Cr Smith’s motion was passed unanimously.
