Over the years I’ve noticed that pigeon poo has been piling up at Sunshine station thanks to a poorly designed building – but a decade after the station was completed, Metro has come back to address it.
Some history
For years Sunshine station only had a crappy timber shelter on the citybound platform, accessed via a dank pedestrian underpass.
But in 2009 the ‘Regional Rail Link’ project was given the go ahead, rebuilding the station.
Meet the idiots who feed birds
Unfortunately the designers of the new Sunshine station didn’t count on the idiots who like to feed birds.
Attracting pigeons who use the roof structure as a perch.
As well as the steel beams beneath the concourse.
Their poo falling down onto the walls below.
The steps up to the station.
The station platforms.
But luckily not this seat.
Time to fix it
Last week a crew turned up with a boom lift, ready to access the underside of the station concourse.
Along with scaffolding the access the roof.
Mopping up the years of accumulated bird crap.
Installing bird spikes beneath the concourse structure.
And on top of exposed surfaces.
The result – the pigeons now have to fly elsewhere.
Perched on bits of the station where hopefully the falling poo won’t make such a mess.
But unfortunately the work hasn’t addressed the root cause of the problem – I found pigeons eating fresh bird seed on the concrete right around the corner.
Footnote: Sunshine isn’t the only troublesome station
Footscray station was also rebuilt as part of the Regional Rail Link project, and the concourse there also has a pigeon perch – but the poo there just falls onto the tracks.
But no such luck at West Footscray station – there the poo lands right in the middle of the station entrance.
A few fines issued for a second offence where it clearly says to not feed birds should work.
One small problem with that is, and that is if someone gets a fine for feeding birds, the media (most notably the Herald Sun and tabloid shows like A “Current Affair”) and politicians would be the ones complaining, calling the Government of the day “money hungry” and issuing fines willy nilly, even if there is a sign saying do not feed the birds.
In the permaculture world they would say you don’t have a snail problem, you have a lack of ducks problem.
As you rightly allude to this isn’t a pigeon problem, it’s an architectural one. We regularly build infrastructure that allows or encourages these results, just like we also build unfriendly infrastructure (poor weather cover, poor layout, poor accessibility) to avoid human elements. People / environment first design should be the goal.
There was one section under the concourse that had conduits running over the tracks with bird poop all over them.
Did they do anything about that?