LOCUSTS have left the once lush tourist haven of Halls Gap a barren dustbowl.
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Halls Gap Caravan Park manager Ian Black said the plague insects ate almost every bit of greenery in the town within 48 hours last week.
"They started on grass, then weeds and then shrubs and trees - they have devastated Halls Gap," Mr Black said.
"It could take a year for it to all come back."
Mr Black said the sudden lack of vegetation in town had pushed kangaroos back into the hills.
"We normally get a hundred odd kangaroos in the park in the afternoon, but most have abandoned ship because there isn't much for them to eat,'' he said.
''Some are eating people's roses because there is nothing else left to eat.
"They will be okay, the roos will just float back into the hills which isn't a bad thing.
"But it is a shame for the tourists because they are an attraction, as was the green grass and vistas - it is a real shame.
"It looks like drought instead of one of our wettest summers."
Some businesses in town were afraid to speak about the problems caused by locusts because they feared it would scare tourists away.
But Halls Gap Tourism Association chairman Don Calvert said there had been no reports of tourists leaving because of locusts.
"We are concerned about the locusts only because they are a darn nuisance but not because they are affecting tourism," Mr Calvert said.
"There have been no reports of anyone telling hosts they don't want to stay because of locusts."
He said most businesses in town were shocked and upset by the severe damage caused by the locusts.
But he said the community of Halls Gap had faced much worse circumstances in recent years.
"There is a nuisance factor at the moment but we are coping with it,'' Mr Calvert said.
''There are definitely not as many locusts here now but it is the damage they have done that is the problem, the loss of the greenery.
"We have lost all of our green lawns.
"Since 2006 we have had the Grampians fire and Black Saturday which started scaring people off coming to country Victoria, then we had flooding and now locusts ? the only things left are volcanoes and earthquakes."
Neill McIntosh is a life member of Halls Gap Cricket Club and committee member of Mount Difficult Golf Club.
Mr McIntosh said both sites were badly affected by locusts.
"We are going to be able to play the cricket ground but it will be like playing on a dustbowl and it will be very fast," Mr McIntosh said. "The greens at the golf club are brown because the locusts ate them and they fouled them as well.
"Both have had a lot of damage, but we are keeping our fingers crossed it grows back and we already have the sprinklers going."
