General News
26 May, 2026
Flying fox roost frustrates residents
NEARBY residents of a flying fox roost in Mareeba are beyond frustrated after nearly three months of constant screeching and stench.
Flying foxes have been roosting along the Barron River area near the Mareeba Scout Group and council depot for around three months now and nearby residents have had a gutful.
A Kilpatrick Street resident said they had lived on the street for over 20 years and had never seen a roost set up in that area.
“Some days you can’t open the windows, you’ve got to lock the house up because of the smell that comes through,” the resident said.
“And we’re getting woken up every day before six o’clock in the morning – it’s just the constant noise. But as far as that, we’re not the worst, there’s people around here that have them in the trees right next to their house.”
A Mareeba Shire Council (MSC) spokesperson said council was aware of the roost and that the animals had been identified as Little Red flying foxes.
“The flying foxes in this location are identified as Little Red flying foxes. They are very nomadic and do turn up from time to time within Mareeba to forage for food,” a spokesperson said.
“MSC liaises with local wildlife carers who also assist with the monitoring of the location, the breed, and numbers. This also assists council when deciding to attempt to disperse them, which we do when it is appropriately safe and legal to do so.
“Council is asking residents to be patient as they will move in the very near future. Council is monitoring the flying fox numbers daily, and they are decreasing in this location each day.”
The spokesperson said council abided by a Flying Fox Statement of Management Intent, which outlines when and where council can attempt to disperse flying foxes. Some factors council considers before deciding to undertake action at roost sites include:
The wellbeing impacts and concerns that nearby residents are experiencing;
Whether there are any risks to human health or wellbeing from the roost.
Additional factors taken into consideration include:
The cost of various management actions; and who would contribute to these costs;
AdvertisementThe number of each species of flying foxes at the roost, and what council’s intention would be should the flying foxes be breeding or rearing their young; and,
Whether good outcomes may be achieved with minimal management interventions (such as community education) or moderate management interventions such as ‘nudging’ or ‘buffering’, processes by which the impact of an existing roost may be managed by its reduction.
“Furthermore, under the Nature Conservation Act, council and all local governments in Queensland have a code of practice that must be followed strictly when attempting to move on flying foxes in any area,” the spokesperson added.
Although the animals are now beginning to move on from the area, the resident posed the question, “What, if anything, can be done in the future to minimise disruptions to residents’ personal lives?”
“If they move on in the next couple of weeks – please, that’s all well and good – but then what happens next year? Are they going to roost up here again and we have to put up with it again for three months?” the resident said.
“They’re part of the environment, no one’s arguing that fact. The rest of the residents are saying the same, but we just want them moved on – they shouldn’t be in town.
“We live in north Queensland, you want to sit outside at the end of the day and have a beer but the noise pollution from the flying foxes, the smell from the flying foxes – you can’t even relax.
“There’s a lot of frustration. We’re paying expensive rates and we’re having to put up with the smell and the noise.”
ACCORDING to Tolga Bat Hospital director Jenny McLean, Little Red flying foxes are highly mobile and regularly come to the Mareeba area when there is a lot of eucalyptus flowering.
“Their diet is 96% nectar and so they are essential as pollinators of our forests. Not only that, but they are also long-distance pollinators and can fly up to 300km in one night,” she said.
“This means they can mix up the genetic diversity of our forests in a way that bees and other pollinators can’t. This makes them important for forests to adapt to things like climate change.”
She also explained that this particular breed like to hang very close together, which explained the density of flying foxes and the stripped trees in the area where they were roosting.
