Bathurst's bat boom forces Australia Day events to be relocated | Video, photos, pictures

The numbers of flying foxes (a species of bat) has grown to a staggering 3000 animals since early December and Bathurst Regional Council has been left concerned for the public.

Councillor Alex Christian, who is part of the city’s Australia Day committee, said the decision was made to relocate the celebration.

“Australia Day will now have to be held at BMEC [Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre],” he said.

“Our major concerns were the bats, the health risk and the smell of faecal matter.

“On a hot day, people will naturally seek to stand in the shade and you can’t stand under thousands of bats.”

Cr Christian said there was simply not enough time for council to organise an alternate outdoor site for the Australia Day celebrations.

“BMEC is as close to the park as we could get,” he said.

“Certainly BMEC is a one-off and then in the future we’ll look at Peace Park.”

Fellow committee member, Cr Ian North said he thought the “easy option” had been taken by moving the celebration to BMEC, rather than another outdoor location.

“I would have wanted to see it in the Adventure Playground or Peace Park, but it seemed the decision has already been made,” he said. “We’ve got the staff to do this, we can put on a big event outdoors.

“It’s [BMEC] not conducive to families and Australia Day is a family day.”

Cr North said in his 15 years of being a councillor, and during his time as a Bathurst resident, he could not recall Australia Day events being moved from the park for any other reason than rainy weather.

“I’m disappointed that it’s occurred,” he said.

However, the councillors agreed that more should be done about the bats before they became a long-term problem for the city.

“What damage is this doing to our historical park, I just think we should work harder with the authorities,” Cr North said.

Cr Christian said flying foxes may be a protected animal, but “in this scenario I’m calling them vermin”.

Meanwhile, the 8am breakfast barbecue at Eglinton will go ahead as planned, as will the free entry into the Bathurst Aquatic Centre from noon until 3pm.