Australia’s mouse plague forces evacuation of jail in New South Wales

Stench repotedly smelt throughout building because of dead animals stuck in wall cavities

(Matthew Abbott)

Australia’s mouse plague has forced the evacuation of hundreds of inmates from a prison in New South Wales.

Up to 200 staff and 420 inmates will be transferred from Wellington correctional centre after the mice chewed through ceilings and internal wiring.

A stench can be smelt throughout the building because of dead mice stuck in wall cavities, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The inmates will be transferred to other prisons in the next 10 days while cleaning and work takes place to fix the damage.

The Corrective Services NSW commissioner, Peter Severin, said: “The health, safety and wellbeing of staff and inmates is our number one priority so it’s important for us to act now to carry out the vital remediation work.

“We need to take this step now to ensure the site is thoroughly cleaned and infrastructure is repaired.”

Most staff will be redeployed to other jails in the region, while a skeleton crew will remain at Wellington to oversee and contribute to the repair work.

The assistant commissioner custodial corrections, Kevin Corcoran, said the remediation work would also investigate ways to protect the centre from future mice plagues.

“We want to do this overhaul once and we want it done properly, which means we’ll be looking at ways to mitigate the effects of similar plagues in the future,” he said.

“Relocating staff and inmates will give us the best chance of deep-cleaning the prison, reviewing site infrastructure and tackling this challenge head-on.”

In-person visits at the jail will be suspended until the remediation work is complete.

The mouse plague that has coursed through western NSW over the last nine months is estimated to have cost farmers more than AUD$1bn in damage to their crops.