Hungry emus running down the main street

This past week hungry and thirsty emus have been running amok in the main street of Longreach as dry conditions drive them into the town centre.

Longreach Mayor Joe Owens said that it is not common, but understandable with the conditions.

“Normally out in the free range, they would be seed eaters which, in the dry times, are naturally gone.”

“They’re then coming into town and looking for grass, and they’re finding that people have nice green lawns, and they’re actually finding food.”

Mayor Owens said the birds were causing disruptions to traffic as drivers are forced to give way to the wildlife.

“It’s a bit of a drama as far as traffic goes because they just amble across the road in front of the cars and drivers have to pay particular attention to what’s around and slow down well and truly,” Cr Owens said.

Mayor Owens said there was no plan in place to relocate the birds because it would be “very hard to remove them” from the city centre.

“There is little you can do apart from physically driving them out of town, but then they would just turn around and come back tomorrow,” he said.

“We’re just going to have to put up with them.Hopefully people take caution around them and hope no one gets injured,” he said.

Longreach received a welcome relief with about 3mm of rain this week in a 30-minute downpour.

Deb Scott, who runs a shop in the town’s centre, said this rain was a relief for both locals and the birds.

“Yesterday morning there were seven to eight emus just outside our place, one with two chicks,” she said.

“They were waltzing up and down the street, drinking from the puddles and having a nibble in the garden beds at a council redevelopment site down the road. They were making themselves right at home,” she said.

“It’s telling of how hard and dry it must be out there for them that they were happily weaving in and out of traffic to get a feed and drink of water,” she said.

Longreach has been drought declared since 1 September this year.

Have a look at the Emu’s in action here…

Image: Twitter