A HUNTER Valley park once home to one of the region's most important Remembrance Day ceremonies has been turned into a stinking, screeching hell-hole by an invading colony of bats. The flying foxes and their constant bombardment of droppings have forced organisers of this year's Singleton memorial service to shift venues away from Burdekin Park _ site of the town's World War I-era cenotaph.
With the army's School of Infantry nearby, the park is one of the region's focal points every November 11.
But Singleton RSL sub-branch president Mick McCrone said this year's troublesome Anzac Day service was the final straw for dozens of ex-Diggers and their families.
"The bats were that bad that a lot of people said they won't ever come back for another service, or they wouldn't allow their children to go while the bats were still there,'' he said.
"They defecated on the whole crowd _ on the soldiers, on the cenotaph on everything.''
It's not the first event that has fallen victim to the Burdekin Park bats.
A 60-year tradition of adorning park trees with Christmas lights and decorations was abandoned in 2009 after the roosting bats stripped branches of their foliage.
Singleton Council has been trying to get rid of the creatures for more than a decade, but options are limited because the grey-headed flying fox is protected as a vulnerable species in NSW.
"We've put sprinkler systems into the trees, we've used different noises to move them along, we've created another environment for them in another part of the local government area to try to get them to move,'' a spokeswoman said.
"There are a number of different things we've attempted over the years to try to peacefully encourage them to relocate, but not with a great deal of success.''
