Continued.

Then a cruise boat tried to operate as a floating hotel in a lagoon near by our instillation. I had a permanent booking for a skipper for the sub, & rotated the skippers on a regular basis. This worked until the hotel operation failed.

Next I installed a luxury mining sight type accommodation unit on the pontoon, along with a generating plant, water & waste facilities etc, but staying out there was not popular with skippers, after the first time or two.

Then I got lucky. I found a totally sex obsessed skipper, who had recently taken up with a young tourist girl similarly obsessed. I hired him, & shipped them both out to the reef pontoon. For over a year I had no worries about gannets, guano, or anything else out there. I did maintain a room in the staff quarters of a resort for them. We would bring them in during prolonged bad weather, when we could not take tourists out there. Otherwise they were perfectly happy playing Adam & Eve among the fishes, out the reef.

The skippers told me they had a minor worry. There were a couple of occasions when the nature boy & girl had forgotten to dress when the tourists arrived, & they would nervously study the pontoon with their binoculars, as they approached, to make sure this had not happened again.

Unfortunately, after a bit of an argument, she climbed onto a passing prawn trawler, bound for the gulf, & was never seen again. It had been such a bonus for me, having them out there that I always wanted to ask Allan if it had been as good for him as it was for me, but was worried he may not see the joke, & take it the wrong way.

Thanks Belly, for reminding me of Allan & his nature girl, my fight with birds, & some of the funnier bits of my time in the tourist industry.

Belly

I am very happy to hear about your little piece of paradise. We're more on the same page than off it.

I love my little place here in the ranges as much as you love yours, paid rent for too long also.

Yes knew what your problem would be hasbeen mine is different birds and in truth not as bad, due mainly to my little Lady's.
Too bad, no its not, they are little foxy females.
Strange,not your Alan but a boss, owners a fair sized firm down here, is living on one of those barges looking after tourists.
A GOOD BLOKE, HATES UNIONS, but my mate, nearly died pressure of work.
Took of and loving it, he has much in common with your Alan.
I would like to hear from coast livers who have these pests, remember we have native mynas they are no problem.
Ammonite think you will see few of these in the hills.

I have done quite a lot of research between posts.
And the issue is puzzling me.
Any Googleing will see plainly these birds are a pest.
Councils, quite a lot of them, are lending traps and informing us how to kill and dispose of these birds.
Worth noting they warn be careful, these birds carry illnesses.
You can not buy poison to kill them.
Can not shoot them in near townships, they live in townships.
In near by parks 1080 baits are spread, sometimes , believe me, to kill Dingos,you will not hear of it but true.
Dingos have killed pet dogs on Beach's, in front of owners on holidays, tourist dollars count more than residents health.
I will break the law, not get caught but will explore poison plants
I would only use one that kills quick not after great pain or suffering.
But what if, what if these thousands of exposed tank water drinkers do one day get very sick.
No bird I am aware of threatens water as these do.

http://fennerschool-associated.anu.edu.au/myna/minimising.html
Ludwig, like your opinion on this link mate.
It is apparent you do not have these numbers in your area, maybe none of them.
This link even stopped me in my tracks but is one of hundreds telling off them

Belly, thanks for seeking my opinion.

For many years, in fact all of the 28 years that I’ve been in north Queensland, I’ve been hearing about mynas and how bad they are supposed to be. But it just doesn’t add up.

They are abundant in Townsville and throughout the towns and canelands of the Wet Tropics up as far as the top end of the cane country at the Daintree River, and up onto the Atherton Tablelands.

Strangely, they are abundant in the lower Herbert around Ingham, north of Townsville, which is an intensive sugarcane region, but absent from exactly the same sort of country in the lower Burdekin, southeast of Townsville. They are absent from Mackay and Rockhampton, then present in an isolated population at Childers and common in Brisbane and extending a long way inland from there.

I’ve seen mynas in Sydney other places in NSW, and around Melbourne. I get the impression that they like the warmer climates and are much more abundant (with a higher population density) in north Queensland than further south.

However, everywhere that mynas occur in the north, a considerable variety of native species also occur, even in environments that are very highly anthropogenically altered.

So I would think that while mynas have no doubt been shown to have some negative impacts on native species, it is pretty minor, all considered.