The Canberra White Eagles have been forced to leave their home ground, after an ironic twist of fate.
Boomanulla Oval’s ground has been deemed unplayable in recent weeks due to deep divots and patchy areas of grass.
And the source of the pitch issues is in fact a bird of a different type, as hundreds of cockatoos have savaged the ground.
The club’s last round of senior and junior games had to be moved to Hawker’s synthetic pitch due to the impact of the birds.
Their home match the week before was moved to the Greenway Oval as referees ruled the pitch unsuitable for play.
The White Eagles have now played home games at five different grounds across the season as they struggle to find a permanent home amid the pitch chaos.
Cockatoos have been ravaging the Boomanulla Oval rendering it unplayable for the Canberra White Eagles
The White Eagles have already used five different grounds as home pitches this seasons due to a plethora of issues with their home pitch
The Boomanulla Oval has been deemed unplayable by league referees
Speaking of the impact of the birds, White Eagles president Mark Stoya told The Canberra Times, ‘Boomanulla is not significantly overused like some other fields where there’s multiple codes on them.
‘Our issue is more with the way it’s maintained because there’s a pest problem there.ย
‘It’s cockatoos. For the last eight to ten weeks literally hundreds of them descend down from the gum trees that surround the oval and they attack the roots of the grass.
‘The cockatoos rip out grass from the roots, and they dig very deep, so you could be excused for thinking it was rabbits.
‘They’re in these holes and you can only see half the bird, so it’s not small divots, it’s significant destruction.
‘There’s hundreds of them and when you scare them off they come straight back.’
The club has since launched a petition aimed at having the Legislative Assembly allow them to use a dryland ACT sportground as their primary home ground.ย
‘Where our proposal differs is we’re not saying for the government to turn that field back on and make it playable.ย
‘We’re saying let us use it as our home ground and we’ll take on the cost and the responsibility for maintaining it,’ Stoya said.
‘It would not cost the government anything and we’d make that investment, but in return we need some kind of assurance that the ground won’t be reappropriated in two years’ time after we’ve upgraded the irrigation and put in lights.
‘What’s the worst that happens if we don’t maintain it to standard? It just goes back to being a drylands oval and not used.’
Stoya’s club had already had their home ground situation thrown into turmoil when they given the Boomanulla Oval.
The ground does not have approval to use floodlight meaning home NPL night fixtures already had to be moved.
And the cockatoos have now added to the frustration for those at the club, with Stoya saying the upheaval has put a huge strain on everyone involved.
‘My fear is we’ll once again prepare everything for a home game and then we’ll be told at the last moment that we can’t go ahead because of the pitch,’ Stoya said.
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