The famous Narrabundah peacocks are under threat again from a new petition titled “Remove the Peacocks and Save Our Environment and Sanity” circulating online.

At the time of publication, the petition had nearly 200 signatures. 

In 2018, the ACT government made plans to capture, cull and re-home a number of wild peacocks and peafowl that have been resident to Narrabundah for the past 30 years. 

For one Narrabundah resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, the government’s retreat from managing the peacock population has been disappointing and she would like to see them removed.

“First of all they’re not native and I’m in favour very much of supporting native wildlife. They are not native and for me that’s fundamental,” she says.

“Second thing is, I often hear people jamming their brakes on, it sort of worries me when I hear that, I know the ACT government put signs up, that to me was a bit of a sign of surrender. 

“I guess the third factor for me is they make a lot of noise around the place when they’re mating. 

Timothy De Wan, member of the Save the Narrabundah Peafowl group and resident of Narrabundah disagrees with these critiques.

“The peafowl have been here for over 30 years, this is not a recent thing and they’re valued and loved by the community,” says Timothy.

“It’s a bit like moving into a suburb under a flight path and then complaining about the planes. 

“The birds have been here longer than most people who lived here. 

“Most people appreciate wildlife, whether it’s peacocks or cockatoos or even possums, but there seems to be a very small number of people who just don’t like anything around them at all.

“They’re not violent birds, they don’t attack people, they just wander around.  

“We don’t think that peacocks should be treated any differently just because they didn’t originally come from here.”

The unnamed resident said she has had to put a barrier up against her windows because the peacocks see their reflection and, because of their mating behaviour, “the result is an awful mess”.

“They’ve been up on my roof, mating on my roof, and I’ve had a roof man in because I’ve been quite worried about what they’re doing up there,” she says. 

She doesn’t want to see them killed, but relocated to somewhere where they will be a bit less disruptive.

“Arboretum, Government House, somewhere where people would appreciate them, and also so that members of the public can see them,” she says. 

“There’s a lot of them and they’re growing, that is evident now in a way that hasn’t been over the last five years. 

“I gather they are hard to catch, but, where there’s a will there’s a way. 

“But look, there will be a lot of people who I think will not be very happy with that idea.

“Desirably, if you could have fewer numbers, still have a colony here if that’s what people really really want, but not so many.

“I think there’s about 30 of them now and I quite often see groups of four or five and they’re now digging holes.

“Their behaviour is very noticeable. 

“If people felt they were properly looked after, and if there was such a strong feeling that you need to have a colony here, then manage that colony so that there’s smaller numbers and they don’t endanger themselves by going on the roads so often.”

Peta Swarbrick, another member of the Save the Narrabundah Peafowl group, says she can appreciate that some people don’t like the birds.

“I’ve got some really good friends who live down the end of the street, and they are behind a house that encourages peacocks, so they do get more than their fair share of activity, and they really don’t like them,” she says.

“I think it’s completely valid for people not to like them, but I think some people find it really frustrating that they don’t have the power to just get rid of them.” 

A spokesperson for the ACT government says there are currently no plans to remove the birds from Narrabundah.

“The present management safety for peafowl in Narrabundah revolves around managing the small population – based on extensive community consultation undertaken in the recent past,” the spokesperson says.

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