Rosalind Park is one of Greater Bendigo’s premier parklands. There are enormous challenges managing the park. It is home to a large number of heritage trees and other attractions such as the Poppet head viewing deck, the Conservatory, the Cascades and the fernery. It is also home to a colony of native protected Grey-headed Flying Fox and Australian White Ibis.

The Rosalind Park Precinct is located on the immediate northern fringe of Bendigo’s City Centre with a high-profile address to the City’s main thoroughfare - Pall Mall. The Park is integral to the identity, character and experience of Bendigo.

The Park hosts a number of significant event such as the Easter festival. The Park Precinct combines a wide variety of spaces and functions, including historic parkland, sporting facilities and clubs, institutions including Bendigo Senior Secondary College, Camp Hill Primary School, and the new Ulumbarra Theatre.

While the City has a masterplan that guides the future development of the park this plan is about meeting the day-to-day management requirements of the park and ensuring we are fulfilling our statutory obligations including (but not limited to) the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act for the protected species that live in the park.

Grey-headed Flying Foxes (Pteropus poliocephalus) first arrived in Bendigo in March 2010 seeking alternate food sources, after heavy rains in New South Wales and Queensland destroyed their food sources.

Yes. The camp since establishment, has become permanent and is considered nationally important. Flying-foxes primarily roost in the fernery.

Since arriving in 2010 they have taken up permanent residence in Rosalind Park and their population has fluctuated from the 100’s up to over 30,000 depending on the time of the year and the food that is available to them.

It’s thought the flying-foxes are taking advantage of the North Central Victorian plants flowering seasons. The flowering season began with the Grey Box flowering, which lead to the Iron Bark flowering and now the Yellow Gum is flowering.

The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) and the City of Greater Bendigo work together to monitor the flying-fox population.

The Grey Headed Flying Foxes are a threatened species under the Federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Therefore, it is illegal to scare, harm or disturb the flying-foxes.

Preliminary information from an arborist report commissioned by the City of Greater Bendigo shows that no long-term damage has been caused by the flying-foxes to the trees in Rosalind Park. The City continues to monitor any impact the flying-foxes are having on the park and surrounds.

It’s important to remember that flying-foxes are wild animals and should only be admired from a distance. Any native animal can be host to disease or cause injury if not treated appropriately. Flying-foxes are natural hosts to some rare but serious diseases that are transmissible to humans. However, there are simple steps you can take to avoid risk.

Learn more at Flying-foxes and your health (wildlife.vic.gov.au)

While these native animals have evolved to deal with temperatures in excess of 40 degrees for short periods, they are not equipped to deal with prolonged periods of high temperature especially when the heat is accompanied by low humidity and hot, drying winds.

Heat stressed flying-foxes may flap their wings when stationary, pant, dip their bellies into water sources, move to vegetation that provides more shade, drop to the ground to find cooler areas or move lower in the vegetation.

Visitors to Rosalind Park are asked to avoid any physical contact with heat-stressed or injured flying-foxes.

DEECA is monitoring the impact of the heat on the animals and have closed the gates to the fernery to limit human contact with them. Surrounding pathways may also be closed, depending how the flying-foxes cope with the continued heat.

If any flying-foxes do come down from their roosting spots to the ground, it is important that people don’t touch them.

To find a wildlife rescuer near you, call 136 186 or use DEECA’s online Help for injured wildlife tool.

Trained and experienced carers will remove heat-stressed and injured flying-foxes which will then be placed with trained wildlife rehabilitators.

If necessary, we will also remove and dispose of any dead flying-foxes.