Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to thank the Standing Committee on Environment and Energy, but, as the member for Hunter said, I do not think the recommendations have gone anywhere near far enough. We need action and action now. Right across the eastern states and especially within Flynn, flying foxes are arriving and nesting in rural and regional communities. I do not know why they have to settle in towns. There seems to be some attraction to the bats who settle in towns. There are so many trees between Emerald, Rockhampton and Mackay, but they still do not want to go there; they will go to where the towns are settled. They come in groups. First a scout will come and then two scouts. The next day there will be 10 and the next day there will be 110 or 1,000. They come in huge numbers and they are a real concern to the communities. In places like Moura, they have come to rest in the trees above the kindergarten. Last weekend I came through Duaringa and they were over the park—millions of them. It is an absolute plague. There is a colony in Cabra, outside Rockhampton. Gayndah has been fighting the flying fox plague for the last five years. They were all along the Burnett River. I visited a lady who had a lovely home. Her house was between the river and a big fig tree. The bats got into the fig tree. They were actually flying through the windows of her kitchen to windows on the other side of the house. She had to knock down the beautiful old fig tree that had been there for probably 100 years. Wowan has still got a problem around the preschool and Calliope has them in the caravan park. They are setting up around houses, over water intake valves and in kindergartens. This is a problem that we must address and it cannot wait another 10 years to do that. There is the grey headed bat, the red headed bat, the speckle headed bat and there is the black headed bat. They all seem to be having babies and when they are having babies you cannot move them according to the laws of the environmental departments. It seems to me that they are continually having babies bats and once that happens, of course, you cannot move them.

This is the problem, so what is the solution? Some people come up with their own solutions, like having a carbide light. Has anyone ever smelt carbide? In a flammable situation it really stinks. You can make all sorts of noise; you could put Joe Cocker's band underneath the trees and after the third night they would probably move. You can start a chainsaw up and leave it under the tree; that works. If you put a helicopter over the top of them that would move them. It nearly brings the helicopter down though, so that's not a good solution if you are in the helicopter! Another good way of moving them is to use a wood sizer that sizes down timber; that really screams. A unique way of getting bats out of the trees is if you can find a bunch of meat ants and you put the meat ants up the tree. That also moves them and is nature working. Bright lights are another way of moving them. Of course, smoke from burning horse dung or cow dung in a tin under the tree can move them. The Deputy Speaker might even suggest putting flamethrowers around the nest, and that would also move them on, I imagine. You could probably burn the bodies at the same time. That would be a good way of getting rid of them.

Hendra virus, lyssavirus and rabies are carried by these bats. They can be transmitted to humans and, of course, to horses. Lyssavirus was identified in 1996 and found in all kinds of flying foxes and the fruit bats. The viruses can cause serious illness, convulsions and death. There have been four people killed by lyssavirus. Since November 1996 three people have died as a result of this infection. Hendra virus is slightly different and it can be contracted through horses. Vic Rail was a famous horse trainer who trained a horse called Vo Rogue, which was a real front-running horse. It won the Turnbull Stakes and Australian cups. That is how good it was. It was a Queensland favourite. Vic contracted the Hendra virus. People in Hendra in Brisbane do not like calling it the Hendra virus because they think there is something wrong with their suburb, but it is where Vic had his stables. That is why they call it the Hendra virus. Vic fought a brave fight but in the end he succumbed and he died, unfortunately.

Ben Cunneen, a 33-year-old vet, also died after treating a horse in the Cleveland area of Brisbane. A lady who was with Ben at the time survived but was very ill. Alister Rodgers, who was mentioned by the previous speaker, the member for Capricornia, was in the Rockhampton area where bats had defecated into the feed bins of the horses. The horses ate the feed out of the feed bins and the then got sick, so the vet was called. Unfortunately, the vet was Alister Rodgers, and he died shortly after. So these things cannot be taken seriously enough. People are worried about having bats roosting in their gardens, defecating on their roofs and generally causing issues around public places.

I had an unfortunate incident with a fruit bat myself a few years ago. I came home late one night, at about 10 o'clock, got out of the car and disturbed a bat that was in a palm tree outside the garage. He flew out of the tree and—bang!—hit me in the face. I did not know what was it was; I thought Muhammad Ali had hit me. But when he started to climb up my face I knew I had a bat. I threw him on the ground—I thought I had killed him but I had not—and then, as there was blood running down my face, I went straight to the hospital. The nursing staff did not know what to do, so they cleaned me up and sent me home.

The next morning I was on my way to work and I got a ring from the Brisbane hospital saying, 'Mr O'Dowd, you have been hit by a bat.' I said yes. They said: 'We don't want you to move. We want you to go straight to the Gladstone hospital again.' With that, they sent the rabies needle up on the first plane available. Man, I had never had so much pain. I thought I was in pain the night before, but when they started jabbing me with needles I really did have pain.

It was a very sobering incident, so I will never forget the fruit bat for that. Fortunately, he did not carry the disease, so I was lucky in that way.

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