Pigeon Mess - St Kilda

Sometimes building owners are unaware of the damage that has been done high above them.  I recently took this photo while up on a high roof in St Kilda showing the property damage caused by a hidden mound of pigeon droppings.


The belvedere on a 5 storey heritage building in St Kilda

St Kilda has quite a bad pigeon problem which is mostly caused by an abundance of food sources.  Not only does it have a huge number of eateries along Fitzroy and Acland Street but some locals also feed them breadcrumbs ensuring that their numbers are always large.

St Kilda has many old apartment blocks like this one that are susceptible to pigeon problems.  Pigeon droppings are a major problem to many of the Melbourne's heritage buildings.  They can accumulate in unseen mounds and the acidic run off can wear down structures which are already vulnerable. 

In this case the droppings could be found hidden high up in a disused belvedere that was not easy to access especially due to the height and the hazard caused by pigeon droppings on the roof tiles.  Years worth of droppings form a hard encrusted mound which could attract rats, mice, other vermin and diseases. Open roof and gutter areas provide roosting places which can worsen the problem. This mound would need to be removed and may in future require to be enclosed with a wire screen to prevent the pigeons from perching and nesting otherwise the problem would eventually return because without proper control, St Kilda's pigeons aren't going anywhere soon as the City of Port Phillip does not currently have a scheme to control pigeons and it is up to individual home, body corporates and business owners to clean up the mess !


Maybe the local St Kilda council should adopt an approach similar to this sign in the Box Hill Mall which bans feeding the Pigeon. ($200 penalty)