Kim Kelleher and Ruth Stuart hope the state government will strike a better balance between the rights of residents and bats when the policy is released this week.

Last year Ms Kelleher was left utterly helpless when a colony of up to 100,000 flying foxes set up camp at her Blair Athol Estate bed and breakfast near Inverell.

She said the colony was the biggest on the eastern seaboard and the 150-year-old trees in which the grey-headed megabats roosted had not recovered.

“It was very harsh there for a while,” she said. “I was never one for saying that they should be killed, but I do believe in balance and I do believe it was out.

“I don’t think bat colonies and residents live well together. They have a place in nature, but not in someone’s backyard and not in those numbers.”

According to NSW Health, three NSW residents have been bitten or scratched by bats carrying the potentially deadly lyssavirus this year.

“This highlights the importance of avoiding bat bites and scratches,” said NSW Health’s director of communicable diseases, Dr Vicky Sheppeard.

“Lyssavirus infection can result in a rabies-like illness which is very serious and, if not prevented, is fatal.”

In 2012, King George V Ave resident Ruth Stuart dared not leave her house without an umbrella to protect her from the droppings of a 5000-strong colony.

She said wildlife officers had already been to her property this year with boom boxes to play loud sounds in a bid to move a small colony on.

“That was an enormous help to me because I would not have survived if they had moved in like they did two years ago,” she said.

Ms Stuart said she was awaiting with interest the details on just what measures the state government will allow councils to employ in dispersing bats.