Need for feed

Sulphur crested cockatoos seen at St Ives, suburban Sydney, Australia. Photot: Richard TaylorA TOURISM operator says a call to ban feeding sulphur-crested cockatoos at a picnic ground in Kallista would be ‘disastrous’ for the Dandenongs tourist trade.

Yarra Ranges Council last week approved a move to call on the State Government to intervene on a 20-year licence which allows bird feeding at Grants on Sherbrooke.

At a meeting last Tuesday, 13 April, Lyster Ward’s councillor Samantha Dunn moved the motion saying the feeding was having a detrimental impact on the birds’ health.

But Dandenong Ranges Tourism’s Michael Axel said it was a bigger issue than the birds.

He said there would be a massive cost to the area if the State Government followed through on the request.

“We have a significant amount of visitation just for the bird feeding,” Mr Axel said.

Mr Axel said it wasn’t just about the bird feeding, but an experience that was offered to local visitors, and from interstate and internationally.

“It’s at the top of their list of things to do when they get here,” he said.

This latest decision comes after years of campaigns to stop the feeding at Grants as it’s believed to be linked to cockatoos chewing on nearby houses and infrastructure.

Grants on Sherbrooke owner Cheryl Campbell said the proposed by-law would have a huge impact on the Dandenong Ranges in general, not just Grants Picnic Ground.

Tour operators, bed and breakfast operators, local businesses, and even Puffing Billy, all rely on visitors coming to the Dandenongs. Ms Campbell said Grants attracted an additional 600,000 plus tourists to the area.

“We believe that it would be almost impossible to somehow stop only Cockatoo feeding (which would be fantastic) while not affecting other birdlife,” she said.

Ms Campbell said there had been numerous petitions over the years by some locals against bird feeding, but Grants had received 10 times that amount of support in writing, in favour of the feeding.

“It just makes me angry,” she said.

Ms Campbell said the ban would have a massive impact on Grants.

She said three out of 10 people came to enjoy a picnic, three out of 10 came for bush walking and the rest to feed the birds.

A Parks Victoria spokeswoman said the lease was signed in 1999 by the then Minister for Conservation.

She said the lease would involve the agreement for the lessee to undertake controlled feeding in accordance with Parks strategy. The spokeswoman said the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) had researched the issue and continued to do so.

“DSE considers the problem to be caused by many separate households throughout the Dandenongs providing food for cockatoos, rather than the feeding at Grants,” she said.