A CALL to allocate $45,000 over a three years to help control corellas has been rejected by Moyne Shire councillors.
A motion was put to councillors at their May meeting last week to commit $15,000 each year over a minimum of three years to fund corella control projects in Port Fairy and Mortlake.
The motion was not passed, but instead, councillors decided to look into non-lethal methods of corella control .
Moyne Shire mayor Jim Doukas said a decision would be made about which non-lethal method would be the most appropriate to begin the task of dealing with the corella problem.
"We will look at the options available and see what they are going to cost and how effective they may be," Cr Doukas said.
"It might be that we try scare guns at a couple of places and see if that can make an impact.
"I think this is a better approach than spending $15,000 for three years. It's a lot of money without guaranteed results."
Cr Doukas highlighted the fact that Warrnambool City Council had spent a lot of money on its own corella problems, with each method proving to be only temporarily effective.
Methods used by the Warrnambool City Council in its seven-year culling project included gassing the birds and laying poisoned oats. Councils require an Authority to Control Wildlife permit from the Department of Sustainability and Environment in order to control or cull the corella population .
The issue of corellas was raised last June at a meeting of the council's Conservation and Environment committee.
The meeting raised the issue of the damage caused by corellas to sporting facilities, Norfolk Island pine trees and in some cases, houses.
While Port Fairy and Mortlake have been identified as problem areas, Koroit has also had an ongoing battle with corella over-population .
The town's cricket club has had a long-running battle keeping corellas off its turf wicket, with a number of methods achieving only limited success.