00:01Some call them the rats of the sky.
00:04They often leave their unsightly calling cards on statues and landmarks.
00:08And in the town of Pinaroo, in South Australia's Murraylands region near the Victorian border,
00:14pigeons have bred in huge numbers, leading to concerns about contaminated water supply
00:20and rising clean-up costs.
00:22Todd Dooley runs the post office in Pinaroo and joins us from there.
00:26Todd, g'day, so when did you move to Pinaroo and what attracted you to it?
00:31Hi, I've been here just over four years, wanted a bit of a change, wanted to get out of the
00:39city life.
00:40And how quickly did you notice an issue with the pigeons?
00:45Well they've been a problem for a lot longer than I've been here, but over the last four
00:50years there's definitely been an increase in the numbers and, yeah, of them around the
00:56place.
00:56Yeah, and so where do they get into and what do they do, what are some of the issues?
01:03Along the main street, lots of old 100 plus year old buildings, so any sort of gap in roofs,
01:09they'll get in, do a lot of damage to ceilings, doing a lot of damage to irrigation and landscaping
01:15the local school and sporting facilities.
01:19And even leading to some concerns about possible water contamination in some situations?
01:27Yeah, there was a, for a small period of time where school was really proactive, they were
01:33having a lot of damage done to the irrigation and to tanks, and so there was concern about
01:38water, drinking water for the kids.
01:40Yeah, and so what's your theory as to why Pinaroo is a bit of a pigeon magnet?
01:47Probably a lot of feed around from being a big agricultural area, lots of, particularly
01:51this time of year, lots of grain, and yeah, no real competition for them.
01:57Yeah, and what efforts have there been over the years to get rid of them?
02:02Council's been pretty proactive lately of trying to, having people come in to remove them,
02:08try and control their numbers, but there's so many around, not just town but local farms,
02:13that yeah, they're a continual problem.
02:16And would you like to see a renewed effort now to get rid of them somehow?
02:22Definitely needs to be done.
02:23I know that they have recently been having a go at it, but it's one of those that's going
02:30to be a long-term effort, I believe.
02:31And how are they around the post office?
02:34Have you got to kind of get out there every morning and clean the footpath or anything?
02:39I do get a lot of it around the footpath there.
02:42My building itself is over 100 years old, as is buildings on either side, so any gaps
02:49they get into, so definitely every morning having to clean up after them.
02:54Still happy with your decision to move to Pinaroo?
02:57Yeah, definitely a great decision.
03:00And so what's good about the town setting aside the pigeons?
03:06Just a great local community, really friendly, typical country, country town.
03:13Everyone's welcoming.
03:15And so when you were looking around for a place to settle down and get out of the city,
03:20how did you come across Pinaroo?
03:24I was looking at post offices and small businesses and it was just an area that attracted me.
03:31Yeah.
03:32And yeah, aside from the pigeons, it's pretty nice.
03:35It is, yes.
03:37Good stuff.
03:38Okay, Todd Dooley, thanks for having chat to us and good luck with getting rid of the pigeons
03:43somehow eventually.
03:45All right, thank you.
03:46You give me a Astronomy.
03:46I think he looks OK.
03:46I feel free for you, too.
03:47So, thanks a lot to me when I wanted to get rid of your pigeons and adventure trip né
03:48from Lynn Fitzgerald.
03:48Thoughts after being me.
03:48You're aware of the sleepless bands I can actually estimate next year.
03:48There is, sort of a way to do this video though.
