Destructive birds could end up costing Katherine Town Council more than $150,000 to replace lights at the sportsgrounds.
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The sport fields have been a favourite haunt for hundreds of corellas over the past few months.
They have chewed through the fixtures of the expensive LED lights, leaving oval two in complete darkness, and it is just a matter of time before oval one sees the same fate.
The loss of the lights has come at the peak of dry season sports competition for soccer, rugby, athletics and other sports.
Katherine Junior Rugby League treasurer Annette Schefe said as well as damage to the lights, the birds had dug holes in the playing surfaces large enough to roll an ankle.
The junior rugby league club has cancelled this week's game, played on Friday nights, and will have to consider cancelling future games if the lights are not fixed in time for the start of the next round of matches, a mere five weeks away.
"We have been lucky for the past three weeks since the lights have been broken that athletics hasn't been on, otherwise we would have had to cancel our games," Mrs Schefe said.
"Before each game we're filling up all the holes with dirt and sand. It is quite terrible the birds have done so much damage to a facility so many kids are using and are unable to use right now."
Council was briefed on the damage at Tuesday's meeting, 'and was told replacement "special" lights will be ordered from the Netherlands costing $131,000.
An additional $30,000 would be needed to install the lights.
KTC has made an insurance claim, but it is unclear if they will receive a full refund.
Travelling a distance of about 14,000 kilometres from Europe, the lights are not expected to arrive for another six to seven weeks.
The change over could see clubs unable to use the fields at night during Katherine's peak sporting period.
Katherine Athletics Club registrar, Kelly Rosas, said the broken lights on oval two have added unneeded stress to the overused oval one.
With meets also on Friday nights they will have to contend with junior rugby league.
"We dread putting in tokens for the lights on Fridays, because once those lights on oval one break there will be nowhere for the kids to play," Mrs Rosas said.
Like junior rugby league, the club breaks for school holidays next week, but with championships coming up in August they are concerned the lights will not be fixed in time.
"These birds just came out of nowhere, I don't think anyone expected this," Mrs Rosas said.
"Moving forward, these assets are something that need to be protected, as we don't know if the birds will continue to chew the wires."
She said oval one, which was already under strain due to years of constant use, has taken a "hammering", dotted with holes the size of golf balls.
It is not the first time the sportsground lights have been subject to controversy since they were installed in February, 2017.
Costing almost half a million dollars, the delicate LED lights shattered during transport from the manufacturer, entangling KTC in another insurance case.
The lights were not operational for about three months.
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