Resident from infested town: 'I'm smelling dead rat everywhere I go'

November 28, 2023

“It’s just gross. Because it has been weeks it has just stayed with me, I’m smelling dead rat everywhere I go.” (Source: Breakfast)

Locals from a picturesque Australian fishing town are battling an ongoing plague of cannibal rats.

Thousands of rodents – dead and alive – have swept up on the beaches of Karumba, Queensland, overwhelming residents.

A putrid smell is also beginning to sweep the area as the rats are dying in large numbers.

Karumba resident Jon Jensen told Breakfast the rats first started appearing in the small town about two weeks ago.

“I think they’ve come up from down south where there’s been a bumper crop of wheat.

“We’re talking thousands and thousands of kilometres; from what I understand it’s obviously been a big [wet winter season] down south and there’s been a bumper crop in other areas, there’s been great breeding conditions for them.”

Jensen said from what he understands, the gestation period for the rats is about 23-26 days, where they can have up to 18 pups per litter, “then they’re good to go again”.

“You just can’t compete with those sorts of numbers. It’s just gross. Because it has been weeks it has just stayed with me, I’m smelling dead rat everywhere I go.”

Jensen added the rats “eat everything” and have caused “absolute havoc”, swimming in large groups, even gnawing into boats.

“It’s crazy, it is a boat moored out in the middle of a crocodile infested river. They climb up the anchor chain and latch onto buoys and fenders and just take over. You can’t compete with them.”

Jensen suggested a “pied piper of Karumba” needed to make his way to the city to save locals.

“Maybe it’s my calling I’m not sure… but I can’t hold a tune.”

The rats, according to Jensen, don’t run around during the day, and do most of their damage at night.

“Put it this way, you wouldn’t want to be passed out drunk on your way home lying in the park. I reckon there wouldn’t be much left of you.”

Carpentaria Shire Mayor Jack Bawden said the problem is “quite unpleasant” and a “quirk of nature”.

“Normally in the gulf we’re quite lucky in the fact plagues usually run out, they don’t make it this far," said Bawden.

“But in western New South Wales and in central Queensland it’s not uncommon. It’s something that happens every five, six years.

“They come in and out with the tide and the bodies of them… I guess the sharks and that can only eat so much before they probably get hairballs like everything else.

“Everyone was crossing their fingers hoping they weren’t going to make it, but good seasons at the start of the year has allowed them to get this far.

“I think the last time they got here was about 10 years ago according to the old timers.”

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