Driving them batty: Regent Street's flying fox nightmare

Residents have been complaining for years about a camp of up to 20,000 flying foxes who have made the street their home.

Endless nightly screeching is causing loss of sleep for residents, constant faeces dropping is impacting cars, pools and outdoor areas, and the terrible smell means residents can't even open their windows.

The bats have been camped in the area since 2019, and Maitland City Council has been receiving complaints since 2022 when the camp size increased.

Part of the camp is directly in resident Bree Hickey's backyard.

Mrs Hickey describes the noise the flying foxes make as "horrific".

"During summer it's really bad because of the smell and we have at least one of our trees covered with flying foxes," she said.

"We can't have our windows open, we can't do our washing and we have to have our air conditioning running all the time because we can't get fresh air through."

Last summer, Mrs Hickey had 42 dead bats in her backyard, and as the flying foxes are protected she has been told she can't prune or trim her trees.

"I was basically told to put the kid's play equipment inside every night, to use my clothes dryer, things like that," she said.

"People don't realise how bad it's actually got here... the smell is disgusting, I can't even explain what it smells like.

"We've just gotten to the stage where we're just over it, the kids are getting sick, we can't get fresh air in the house." On Tuesday, May 14 Maitland councillors unanimously supported a motion to develop and implement a camp management plan for the Regent Street flying fox camp, which will cost $40,000.

Funding will come from the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water ($25,000) and Maitland City Council ($15,000).

The plan will minimise problems for residents while avoiding unnecessary harm to the bats.

As flying foxes are a native species, they are protected from harm under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (NSW) (BC Act), and the grey-headed flying-fox is specifically listed as a threatened species under Schedule 1 of the BC Act and the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Commonwealth).

Sarina Klages owns The Regents Park, a guest accommodation property on Regent Street.

Ms Klages said guests write reviews saying they loved the accommodation, but to bring earplugs because the bats are so noisy.

"Since reopening after COVID, occupancy has gradually declined by about 30 per cent," she said.

Ms Klages said the flying foxes have been coming and going since 2019, but in 2021 they came in their thousands and never left. "The numbers fluctuate occasionally but the camp is also occupied, it's never ever empty," she said. On her property, Ms Klages has all three species - the grey headed, the black and the little reds.

"It's the little reds that are the most chaotic and do the most damage," she said. "The smell is terrible, particularly when it rains. There's faeces everywhere and broken branches. "The flying foxes are protected but they are very destructive. "I want my guests to enjoy the gardens, these gardens are very established, very old and I want them to be a community asset."

During preparation of the management plan, Maitland council will conduct further consultation with residents, the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Division, wildlife groups and the Local Aboriginal Land Council. The draft plan will be reported for public exhibition.