Grow cloths being laid on the Parliament House forecourt to deter seagulls. Photo: Parliament House.
You’d think Canberra’s wildlife bears a grudge against Parliament House.
First it was the bogong moth – starting well over three decades ago. Unsurprisingly, distracted by the bright light on the big hill during their annual migration, this species would swarm the building, finding their way into the air-conditioning vents and offices before dying and leaving their carcasses as food for pests like carpet beetles and clothes moths.
These, in turn, resulted in more infestations, mess, and “significant damage to the fabric in the House of Representatives”, according to one 2005 report.
It reached the point in 1990 that CSIRO suggested two of the four flagpole lights, a number of other external lights, the street lighting along Parliament Drive, and all “unnecessary office and suite lighting” be turned off at night.
Then the ducks arrived.
They repeatedly bombed the grounds with such a level of effluent that birds of prey, including peregrine falcons, barking owls, and goshawks, were hired in 2019 to “intimidate or scare” off the ducks, according to Paul Janssen from the Department of Parliamentary Services’ landscaping team.
“[The ducks] come into our lovely forecourt here, and they leave a lot of droppings that we’re spending a lot of money cleaning up,” Mr Janssen told the ABC in September 2019.
Now, it seems it’s the turn of the seagulls to reach near-plague proportions.
As the weather warms and the breeding season gets underway, the birds have decided the ‘island’ in the middle of the forecourt’s water feature serves as the perfect nesting ground – and they’re “creating a lot of mess, a lot of noise, and harassing people for food” in the process.
Not a seagull in sight – but only because it’s raining (rest assured – they’ll be back). Photo: James Coleman.
“We’ve seen them on the forecourt and on the grass ramps. They roost and nest on the island in the forecourt and then wander around on the grass ramps,” Maintenance Services acting director Daniel Gaire says.
Landscapers have resorted to covering the grevilleas on the island in the middle of the forecourt with grow cloths, and it’s also become a morning task to pressure-wash the combined seagull and duck poo from the concrete.
“We came across the idea of using cloths in 2020, when the grevilleas were attacked by some insects and knocked about by the frost through winter, so in early spring we put the cloth over the top of them to give the plants a bit of a head start – at the same time as the seagulls came in,” Mr Gaire explains.
“And the seagulls decided they didn’t like it very much, so we’ve been doing that ever since.”
Grow cloths on the garden beds at Parliament House. Photo: James Coleman.
Mr Gaire has worked in the maintenance and landscaping team at the building for 28 years, and says birds – of all stripes – have long been pests.
“We’ve had quite a few problems with birds over the years, inside the building, particularly when we have a high bogong moth season, with currawongs particularly coming in through the glazed linkways hunting the moths,” he says.
A few years ago, one pesky currawong even took up residence in the Senate chamber for about a month, and every time staff attempted to capture “the damn thing”, it would fly into the atrium at the top.
“Thankfully, it just flew out by itself in the end.”
The seagulls, however, are more recent, first descending en masse at Parliament House in 2020.
Chris Davey from local ornithologist group Canberra Birds says seagulls are far from limited to the sea, and Canberra’s resident population used to breed on boats on Lake Burley Griffin before choosing Spinnaker Island as their go-to spot.
But this year, “there is no sign of them breeding there”.
“My view is that they tried to nest on Spinnaker Island and there was a disturbance of some sort – something happened which spooked them – and so they’ve moved, but I’m still trying to put the puzzle together,” Mr Davey says.
Meanwhile, Parliament House is “virtually a predator-free area”.
“The major predator, which does occur on Spinnaker Island and we know has caused breeding failures, is the swamp hen, and there are no swamp hens around Parliament House … And the seagulls obviously don’t mind human presence.”
Parliament House acting director of maintenance services, Daniel Gaire. Photo: James Coleman.
In a statement, the National Capital Authority (NCA) says it has “not noticed an increase in seagulls in the National Triangle”.
But it adds, “Seagulls seem to gather in certain areas of the lake more than others, particularly in the built areas such as the area around the Yacht Club.”
Apart from covering the garden beds and taking extra time to hose off the concrete every day, there’s not much more the APH staff can do about the seagulls.
“It’s just the way it’s going to be,” Mr Gaire says.
“We live in the environment.”
His one message to visitors?
“Don’t feed them.”
