THE life of a caravanner is usually a laid-back one, with enough creature comforts afforded.
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However, the presence a particular creature is making campers a bit uncomfortable near the Peel River.
Paradise tourist park in East Tamworth is playing host to thousands of uninvited and non-paying campers, with the recent influx of flying foxes taking a toll on business.
Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) estimates the flying fox population has doubled to an unprecedented 100,000 over the last week.
And the Paradise owners say campers have already started turning away from the affected site.
“It’s not only us losing business, the town is losing business because [the campers] will shop here and eat out,” owner Taryn Judd said.
Mrs Judd said it was very hard to know how hard the business would be hit by the roosting flying foxes.
“At the end of day, how do you know how worse it will get in the coming months,” she said.
“And how detrimental will it be to us, because they’ll say ‘it’s a winter thing and don’t go in winter.’”
While the owners say there isn’t a great a deal they can do, co-owner Mat Judd said they have managing the issue in whatever ways they can.
“With our guests, we try to minimise it by putting them in certain areas of the park that are less affected than others,” Mr Judd said.
Campers currently staying at Paradise were feeling a lot of empathy for their hosts.
Dave Williamson has been staying in his caravan at the park for the last few nights.
“I just feel sorry for the owners because they’re a young couple that are working their butts off and they’re doing a fantastic job,” Mr Williamson said.
“They’ve got a very good quality park and this is a circumstance that they have no control over.
“I see something like this come along which could destroy their business, not overnight, but over a short-term.”
TRC believes the flying foxes have moved north from Murrurundi where “the population exhausted local food supply”.
Council has now launched an education campaign online explaining how “community members can live with flying-foxes through minimising their impact by making small changes to their lifestyle” such as not leaving washing on the line overnight and keeping cars covered.
Subsidy schemes are also available for those living closest to camps.