In fact, kangaroos are the bane of his life and he’s had a gutful of them.

He says they are virtually taking over his 70 acre property on the O’Connell Road at the fringe of suburban Bathurst.

Angered by the actions of the Australian Society for Kangaroos (ASK) last week in moving to have legal action taken against Bathurst Regional for culling 288 kangaroos in the leading to the Great Race in 2009, Mr Weal believes it’s about time some common sense was shed on the argument.

“I know it’s not going to make me popular with the greenies and do-gooders, but are this mob kidding themselves,” Mr Weal told the Western Advocate.

“The eastern grey kangaroo is hardly an endangered species. The facts prove they are not. If anything, they are in plague proportions.

“They’re everywhere out where I live near the Scots School and are wrecking my fences, eating my pasture. They even come swarming through my house yard destroying the garden and generally causing havoc.

“I’ve had enough of them. I am sick of having to fix the fences and sick of having to answer to council or the police for my stock getting out onto the busy O’Connell Road.”

Mr Weal said the changing face of the rural landscape in the region with more and more hobby farms combined with the urban sprawl means kangaroos are starting to encroach on residential areas.

“I can look out the window and see more than 100 ‘roos on most days,” he said. “But what can I do. We’re too close to town to shoot them and there’s only so many tags you can get to legally cull them. I am in a no win situation

“Then you read the greenies are trying to prosecute council for allegedly culling more than the quota they were given. Come on. We’re not talking about an endangered species here. They’re prolific around here.

“I don’t know the answer. How do you round them up from an area where they are abundant and transport them to a place where they won’t be a nuisance?

“I really feel sorry for our council. They were doing the right thing to manage the kangaroo population and now they are being taken to task for it.”

Mayor Paul Toole said yesterday he has sympathy and feels for Mr Weal’s plight.

“Over the past year there has been 106 permits to cull kangaroos issued by National Parks and Wildlife here in the Bathurst Regional Council area,” he said.

“That shows the magnitude of the problem. And that doesn’t count the others who may have been shot by local farmers who are trying to protect the livelihood.”

Cr Toole said council is adamant it followed stricture procedures in its cull before the Bathurst 1000 in 2009.

“That cull comes on top of a host of other measures put in place to keep kangaroos out of the Mount Panorama precinct,” he said.

“We’ve put in electronic devices such as Shoo Roos to keep them away; constructed special fencing; and herded them into safer zones.

“But the kangaroo problem isn’t only confined to The Mount.

“They are encroaching on acreage that sits on the city’s doorstep, making this a problem that is very hard to address.”