"On a side note, an Aussie friend of mine (not the deli guy) shoots Rose Breasted Cockatoos there. I find that so sad, but understand the damage they do to the houses. They are chewing machines. In the US, they sell upwards of $1500 because they are so beautiful."
I thought all Aussie birds were protected everywhere now, but when I did some digging, I found that Galahs (aka Rose-Breasted Cockatoo in the US) are not protected everywhere, they are permitted to be culled in some areas. They are sometimes in plague proportions and that's not a pretty sight. I remember when I was about 15 and travelled with my parents to visit my brother, who lived out west (on the edge of what some people call "the outback"). On the way we drove through large wheat harvests, with piles of grain in the paddocks (it's done differently now). Large trucks were being loaded form the heaps of grain but often some would spill from the trucks. The mounds of grain were often covered with huge flocks of galahs. Any spilled grain on the road was also covered with galahs. Sometimes the road would be completely covered, for half a mile or more. The flock would try to take off as trucks drove along but there were too many birds for them to all take off at once. There were dead birds everywhere, but they were only a fraction of the huge numbers. We drove through, going slowly so as to not hit birds, but it was unavoidable.
With galahs, they don't damage the houses like sulphur-crested do. But there are easy ways to deal with the house-eaters - don't put food out for them. Galahs are harder to deal with - any grain, either growing or spilled, brings them in. They mostly live outback, but the drought has brought a lot of them to the coast. Here they are harmless, they eat grass seed.
I'd hate to have to shoot these birds. They ARE pretty, but in Australia, calling someone a galah is an insult, it's like calling them an idiot. Or a drongo.
Marg