When Wayne and his wife first bought their Port Macquarie home in 2019, they knew it backed onto a flying fox camp, but were keen to live by the nature reserve, despite the noise and smell.
They had done their research, talked to neighbours and walked around the property they were going to buy.
Some neighbouring residents told Wayne, who did not want to disclose his surname, that they couldn't leave their windows open, hang washing on the clothesline or leave their cars outside due to excrement from the flying foxes.
They decided they could live with that.
However, after moving into their property, it wasn't long before they realised the extent of the noise the flying foxes made in the early morning.
"When they come in to roost they are particularly noisy, arguing with each other about who was going to hang from which branch," Wayne said.
"They make a terrible noise between 4:00am and 5:00am."
When the early morning screeching became too much, Wayne accessed help via the Port Macquarie Hastings Council.
Its Kooloonbung Creek Flying Fox Camp Management Plan offers subsidies for electricity, water bills and other items like clothes dryers, air conditioning units and even carports.
It's an approach to help mitigate the impacts of the flying fox habitat for residents living within 60 metres of the camp.
As a protected species, flying foxes cannot be disturbed, so the council's management plan helps balance the conservation of the Kooloonbung Creek flying fox population and the peace of residents.
Wayne organised double glazing on the home's windows and he and his wife have been pleased with the results.
"I don't notice the noise [now] during the day until someone mentions it — unless there's a loud screech from one of the males fighting over his girlfriend," he said.
Flying fox population increase
The flying fox population in the camp is expected to reach 20,000 in the coming months after dwindling to just under 6,000 last year but is slowly recovering after the drought.
Flying fox numbers have decreased dramatically over the last 50 years due to a continual loss of habitat and changing climatic patterns.
The grey-headed flying foxes are now listed as being vulnerable to extinction.
The council's flying fox camp management plan, which was adopted in 2019 from a state government template, has aimed to manage community concerns and create an understanding of the critical ecological role of flying foxes.
"It's difficult to live next to a flying fox camp, there's no question about that," said council ecologist Byron Reynolds.
However, Mr Reynolds said the flying foxes were crucial to the long-term survival of many threatened species, such as koalas, as they were great pollinators for their food and habitat trees.
"They're always rubbing up against the flowers and pollen would get on their fur," he said.
"Similar to a bee, and as they go from flower to flower they're spreading that pollen around.
"They can disperse up to 60,000 seeds in one night and they eat [fruit and seeds from] about 50 different kinds of trees."
Mr Reynolds said the flying foxes had been tracked and were found to travel from Bundaberg in Queensland down to Bairnsdale in Victoria and even across to Adelaide's botanical gardens.
"They're really important for koala habitat to ensure that pollination for all their food trees is occurring over large distances not just locally," he said.
More help needed
While double glazing on his windows has helped, Wayne said the flying fox droppings were now a problem he's seeking help with under the management plan.
"At certain times of the year, I don't know what they're eating, but it's a black substance and it sets like concrete on our tiles and it's very hard to get off," he said.
"I was going out with a wire brush after soaking it to try and get it off."
Wayne has now applied for a high-pressure washer to assist with cleaning the excrement.
"[It's] industrial strength and we're hoping we'll be able to get the black marks off our concrete and tiles," he said.
