cockies top the talk

I was invited to chair the Triennial General Meeting of the Kallista Mechanics Hall Committee of Management, which was held last Thursday. The committee have done a fine job managing the hall and have done much to increase the number of bookings for the hall.

I also had the job of presiding over the elections and was pleased to announce John Lloyd as the President and Venetia Barnard as the Secretary/Bookings Officer for the next three years.

There was much talk about many things, the committee is starting to focus on the centennial of the hall coming up in 2014, an exciting time, which will be a great celebration of a much loved community hall.

Hot topic of the night was the cockatoos and their unrelenting attacks on the hall. Since I last visited the hall the cockatoos have managed to chew completely through to the top finial (see blog 21 June 09), in a matter of only days it has gone completely.

As reported in an earlier blog entry I am seeking a meeting of agencies and MPs so something can be done to address this issue. To date the Shire is waiting to hear back on availability.

In my most recent visit to Kallista on Saturday (27 June) I noted that the committee have since covered their railings with metal capping in an attempt to stop the damage. The scattered chips of wood over the stairs showed how much damage the cockatoos had done to the banisters.


These cockatoos have no fear and weren’t concerned about me being close to them at all. The cockatoos have become so used to people they could be considered semi-tame.

This is a upright at Kallista Village Green, the cockatoos have done an extreme amount of damage to the infrastructure in this area.

The Kallista Mechanics Hall, now without its finial, the cost of replacement places an unfair burden on the Committee of Management and their very tight budget. Only days ago this finial was intact.

The same day I decided to visit Grant’s Picnic Ground to see what the cockatoos were up to there, this group were chewing away on a retaining wall well away from the feeding area.

How much longer can our community be expected to pay for this damage?